Busy weekend...

I covered a few miles this weekend, on Saturday I fished a small tournament at Lake of Egypt with a good friend of mine. Ryan Wachter.  We had a pretty good day, we managed to catch a limit that weighed 15.75lbs.  That ended up being good enough for second place.  Not too bad, considering neither one of us had any practice prior to the event.  Early in the morning, we were fortunate enough to figure out a few things about how the fish were located and how they were positioned in these locations.  This allowed us to move around a good bit and expand on what we had found.  All in all I think we boated 10 or twelve keepers throughout the day, most on a Spro Bronzeye frog,  which is definitely a lot of fun. 

After the Lake of Egypt tournament, I hopped in my truck and drove to Paris, TN to fish another derby with my good friend Mike Walker from Phoenix Boats.  I had not been on Kentucky Lake in about two months and Mike had spent one day prior to the tournament looking around.  At take-off we decided to spend a few hours shallow flipping flooded bushes.  Mike had caught several good fish the day he spent on the lake, so we thought a quick limit flipping would be the way to start.  Then we would  move out onto the secondary ledges and try to find a school of fish that might give up a big one for us.  There's a saying that goes something like this: "The best laid plans go to waste" that may not be a word for word quote, but you get the idea.  That describes our day perfectly.  We did manage to catch a limit flipping, but bites of any size (big fish) were non-existent, ay least for us.  We caught no less than three limits, but size was an issue.  We ended the day with a limit of 13.46 lbs.  It took a 21 lbs and change to win the event and I believe 13 something got a check, I don't think we did (Mike needed to get home so we left right after weigh-in).   I'm not 100% sure on the check weight, but I do think we just missed one.  Either way, it was a good day on the water, we caught an increduble number of fish.  That in itself is a blessing.

God Bless,
Duke

Shot a new video...

I recently shot a new video for Bass Factory (http://www.bassfactory.com/), I believe it turned out pretty well.  Te video can be viewed at my website http://www.dukejenkel.com/ or at Bass Factory (http://www.bassfactory.com/) it's posted on their home page.  Check it out, let me know what you think.
God Bless,
Duke

Home for a while...

I've got a few weeks off, actually about six weeks.  I'm not sure what thats going to be like, but I'm ready.  My next event is the PAA Tour event at Tale Rock Lake in mid-June, so other than jackpotting a few local derbies, I'm gonna kick back, relax do some fun fishing and do my best to light up my Big Green Egg on a daily basis.  I'm sure I'll have a post or two about what I'm up to, I'm sure there are going to be some food pictures involved, so check back often.
God Bless,
Duke

A few pictures from the road...

I've been fortunate enough to have some good friends around during the last few events who took the time to snap a few photos during weigh-in or while I've been on the water...Here are a few of 'em...I hope you enjoy them. 
God Bless,
Duke

BFL Win on Kentucky Lake March 26th

Day Two Take-Off Lake Lanier PAA Tour

Day Two Weigh-in Lake Lanier PAA Tour



Day One PAA All-Star Event...Hooked Up with a Big One!




Day One PAA All-Star Event ...The fight is on!



Got Her!

In the boat!   What a way to start day one!

Day Two PAA All-Star Event..Pluggin' Away

PAA All-Star Event Day Two Weigh-In



Talkting to Lurch during the Day Two Weigh-in



Don't cry over spilled milk!

The title phrase may say it all.  I had some excellent opportunities on day one to have a pretty big bag of fish.  I just failed to get them in the boat.  Don't get me wrong, it's not like I made some bad decisions, or made some major mistakes, I had some things happen that I hadn't experienced in quite a while.  On day one I had several big fish pull off of my crankbait after I had them hooked and out in open water.  No clue why this happened.  Brand new needle sharp hooks, I wasn't putting a lot of pressure on them, and just like that, gone!   In another instance of odd happenings, I hooked a pretty large fish on a senko, as the fish headed out to deep water I was unable to get her turned towards the boat, and again in open water around no obstructions, my line breaks.  That was pretty much how day one went, unfortunately I ended the day with three fish for 9.51 pounds, well short of what I should of had.  Day two was a total reversal, I had a limit by 7:35 am, and culled at 7:40.  I ended the day with a five fish limit weighing 11.18 lbs.  Not a real good weight, but had I executed better on day one, an 11lb limit would have given me enough weight to get paid, and be real close to making the cut.  Regardless, I feel blessed to have made the adjustments on day two to boat a limit.  The next event will be the PAA Tour on Table Rock Lake in Missouri, that should be a good one.
God Bless,
Duke

PAA All-Star Event on Lake Ray Hubbard

The first day of the PAA All-Star tournament starts tomorrow morning.  Practice has been ok, not great, not terrible.  I'm on absolutely no pattern at all.  I've figured out a few things, but am lacking a few key ingredients to completely get dialed in on what these fish are doing.  This lake has quite a few big fish in it, so I won't be surprised to see a 25 pound bag.  I will be surprised if it is me though!  Hopefully the wind will lay down a little bit the next three days, it has been brutally windy, gusting up to 40mph on Monday.  In turn, that has made getting around the lake a little bit difficult.  But, I'm excited to be here, and look forward to a good day on the water tomorrow.  Lord willing, I'll whack a big bag full of 'em and start this tournament off on the right foot.
God Bless,
Duke

PAA All-Star Event

Rolled into Garland, TX last night. Practice for the PAA All-Star event starts in the morning.  Lord willing we'll figure 'em out!   I'll keep you posted.
God Bless,
Duke

Got to hang out with some friends...

One of the neatest things about fishing professionally is the great people you get to meet, I have to say that probably tops the list.  So last week at the PAA event at Lake Lanier I got to run into a couple of my good friends Shinichi Fukae and his wife Miyu.  Shin and Miyu are two fantastic folks, Shin thinks I'm crazy...well, he might be on to something, personally I think it's a close race between us as to which one is the craziest.  lol.  All said, it's been a pleasure to get to know both of them, as well as getting to learn a little bit of the Japanese language.   Here's a pictue of Shin and I at the final day weigh-in, we had to take the picture twice, Miyu didn't approve of the first one.  Like I said, I think Shin might be the crazy one!
God Bless,
Duke

New video from Lanier PAA posted on my website...

Swing over to my website http://www.dukejenkel.com/ and click on the video tab.  Check it out!

Narrowly avoided the crash and burn...

The PAA event at Lake Lanier last week definitely falls into the category of a "learning experience".  In other words that usually means you figured something out, but a little too late to do you any good.  Case in point, I managed to have one decent day of practice throwing a jerkbait and a shakey head on the lower end of the lake.  I caught just enough fish to make me think I could expand on it the first day of the tournament and probably have a good bag of fish.   That didn't happen, I caught one keeper and had one other fish that felt pretty good pull off and that was it for the entire first day.  Terrible!  Too add insult to injury, most of the anglers fishing the upper end of the lake, the area up river with flooded bushes and trees, caught a bunch of fish, fishing the very way I like to fish.  Shallow dirty water with a flipping stick.  So on day two I headed up river with my flipping stick, chatterbait and a square-billed crankbait in hand.  I avoided the main river, as most of the top competitors were fishing up there and I didn't want to intrude on their areas.  When it was all said and done, I had caught a limit of fish that weighed a little over 11 lbs.  That is where the term "learning experience" comes in. 
I tried to force the jerkbait bite into working for me, and it didn't.  I did not practice up river at all (2nd mistake), had I, it is quite possible I would have fished up there on day one and had a lot better finish.  The lesson I learned?  You can not work too hard, you can't look at too much stuff during practice, and you can not make fish do what you want.  An angler needs to fish to their strengths, and never completely ignore that.  You have to keep an open mind and not over complicate things. 
With all of that said, I was very blessed to have caught an 11lb limit on day two, it saved my year in terms of the points race and for that I am very thankful.  I'll be posting some pictures and video from the event here and on my website, so stay tuned.
God Bless,
Duke