Friday, September 21, 2012

Shelbyville, Oh Shelbyville...

The regular season for the Illini division of the BFL is over, it almost ended with a bang!  I pulled off a very respectable 3rd place finish.  Which moved me up another 15 places in the points race and qualified me for the BFL regional on Lake Cherokee the first week of October.  Despite having what I considered a very poor practice, I was fortunate enough to put together a pattern that at best I thought had "some potential".  As it turns out, the more I fished on day one of the tournament  and expanded on what I had found, I realized that I was definitely on to a little bit of something.  I managed to catch four keepers on day one that weighed 6lbs 7ozs, good enough for 8th place.  The top ten finishers from day 1 qualified to fish again on day two.  I expanded further on my little pattern on day 2 and managed four more keepers that weighed 7lbs 3ozs.  I jumped an amazing five places on day 2 to finish the event in 3rd place.  That's a great finish for me on Lake Shelbyville, I've always said it's my arch nemesis of lakes.  Looks like I won this round! Hallelujah!  lol. 
Here are few pics form the event. I'd like to show you more pictures of the baits I used to catch them, but I had one rod in my hand for this whole event, minus a few failed attempts to get a bite on other baits. So, here is a pic of the one and only I bait I caught them on:

Yep, you guessed it, the ol' Shakee head, a 1/8ths oz fished on 8lb Seaguar
fluorocarbon using a Powell spinning rod model 703 MEF

Hardware!!
 Always remember, in a tough tournament (low weight or tough bite) a finesse approach is hard to beat, it may not be the way to win a tournament, but it will definitely generate bites!

God Bless,
Duke

Monday, September 3, 2012

The Final Round...

I spent the first part of Labor Day weekend on Lake Shelbyville, preparing for my final BFL regular season event.  I'm spending the last part of the weekend preparing tackle, getting items ready and loading my truck for not only this event but also for the final PAA event of the season on the Arkansas River in Oklahoma.  When I leave Shelbyville, on Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon (depending on whether I make the final day cut in the BFL tourney) I will make a mad dash to Muskogee, OK.  Practice for the PAA event in Muskogee starts on Monday morning, so it's looking like I might be getting a pretty heavy dose of windshield time.  I'm not sure how long the trip is from Shelbyville, IL to Muskogee, OK but I'm sure it's in the 8-10 hour range...that does not excite me at all, especially knowing I'll make that drive right after I load my boat from the BFL tourney.  Regardless, I'm excited.  It's been a tough year, from several standpoints, but I've been blessed to say the least.  So, I'll head into these last two events, fired up, ready to make the end of the year a good one!  Keepin' the attitudes positive, 'cause ya never know the outcome 'til it's over.  To quote the great Yogi Berra "It ain't over 'til it's over!", Lord willing we'll end it on a high note.
God Bless,
Duke