Ohio River Recap

Mediocrity, the Webster-Merriam dictionary defines it as the quality or state of being mediocre.  In other words: ordinary, so-so, or just plain average.  I believe that is the exact description of my Ohio river tournament last Saturday.  Did I catch a limit?  Did I cull out some of my smaller fish for bigger ones?  Yes on both accounts, but overall weight was the issue.  But I was not alone, in fact I feel like I did as absolutely good as I could've done, considering the number of bites I generated.  Here's what I mean: I locked out of Smithland Pool (the part of the Ohio where Golconda, IL is located) and ran up the Cumberland river almost to Barkley Dam, probably a 51-52 mile trip one way.  Much to my dismay, when I arrived, the fish in the Cumberland were not biting very well.  I thought it was just me, but after running into several other anglers who were shaking their heads at the reduced number of bites they were getting, it became evident that  the bite was definitely off.  There were approximately 26 boats that locked through to fish either the Cumberland or the Tennessee rivers.  7 boats went to the Tennessee, leaving 18 boats  to go into the Cumberland, and only two boats caught enough fish to cash a check out of those 18.  That is not a good average.  I managed a limit that weighed 8lbs 10oz good enough for 20th place.  Just short of a paycheck, but it did move me up 35 places in the points standings, and that is spectacular.  If I had it to do all over again, I'd still make the run to the Cumberland.  The number of quality fish (3lbs+) that were biting in the Cumberland far surpassed anything I could find in Smithland Pool.  To win an event, you have to put yourself in a position to do so, based on my practice I couldn't catch anything heavier than an 7or 8lb limit in Smithland so there was really only one decision to make, fuel up and run fifty plus miles to the Cumberland.  Although it didn't work out as well as I had hoped, I did have a decent finish (for which I feel very blessed to have got) and moved up a ton in the points standings.  That's the important thing to remember, winning tournaments at any level is tough, being consistent and qualifying for end of the year regional/championship is always the goal at the beginning of the year.  Considering I missed the first event of the year, I gave everyone a pretty decent head start, and right now I'm seven places out of the cut for regional qualification (even though I'm fishing pretty poorly) and that keeps me fired up for the next one.
I've posted some pics of the tackle I used in the Cumberland, and will probably use again the next time we go there.
Til next time!
God Bless,
Duke



That's a SPRO Little John in Citrus Shad(it's a warrior bait, look at the scars) on a Powell 703CB Glass rod (probably the best all-around cranking rod I've ever used) thrown on 10lb Maxima Ultragreen monofilament




Black Neon tube (a river staple) on a 4/0 Gamakatsu Heavy Cover Flippin Hook paired with a 3/8ths oz  weight on 20lb Seaguar Fluorocarbon line. That's a Powell Endurance Series 775CEF  rod, lightweight, sensitive with a lot of power.




This is a Reaction Innovations 6.95 Flirt worm in Sprayed Grass color, on a 1/8ths oz  Lunker Lure Shakee Head, 8lb Seaguar Fluorocarbon line. Thrown on a Powell 703 MEF spinning rod



Giving Back

Have you ever? Gave back? No, I'm not talking about the ugly Christmas sweater you got from your great aunt, I'm talking about reinvesting, in the future.
I'd like to tell ya I give back all of the time, truth is, I don't give back nearly as much as I should. But, I've found an avenue to do so, high school bass fishing. There is something very rewarding to watch a young angler's eyes light up when you take them to the lake and put into practice something that you've discussed with them, it's an investment, in their future.  Is it life altering?  Probably not much, but to some degree it is.   Will they get a better job, have better health, no not necessarily, but they will possess something that they too can reinvest...knowledge.  Fishing is a great sport, it knows no boundaries.  No age limitations, no size requirements, no minimum investment, it truly is an opportunity for most.  Whether you're on the bank of a farm pond, or navigating 5 foot swells on Lake Erie, you're still searching for the same thing, the pull of a fish that you convinced to bite. It doesn't matter where you are, who you are, or where you came from, fishing transcends all age groups, it touches all walks of life.
Take some time, reinvest. I chose to do so through our high school fishing team, that's just one of many ways that you too can share some fishing knowledge with the next generation.  Go ahead, speed up their learning curve, give 'em a little help and sit back and watch the smiles show up when something they've only heard or read about happens before their very eyes.  In a world where we way too often get caught up in worrying or fretting about the fine details, take step back and look at the big picture, devote a little time to giving back, you won't regret it. Until next time...
God Bless,
Duke

There is a pretty neat deal located on www.takemefishing.org it is called the anglers legacy...check it out it might just be for you.

Take me to the river!

The Ohio river that is.  Saturday July 14th will be the third event of the FLW Outdoors Bass Fishing League (BFL) Illini Division.  We will launch from Golconda, IL on the Ohio river and are allowed to travel as far as we wish in search of the ever elusive largemouth bass.  Actually, an angler can lock down one pool and travel up the Cumberland river or the Tennessee river and catch smallmouth bass, largemouth bass and spotted bass.  This event has quickly become one of my favorites, with so many options available an angler can often times find an out of the way area and have it to themselves. If you do decide to lock down to the Tennessee or the Cumberland, it can get a little crowded down there, but otherwise this is a wide open event.  I spent yesterday and today on the river and found a few things that I would say I liked, Lord willing it'll hold together for next week's derby.  I'll post the results.
God Bless,
Duke

The Lake Shelbyville BFL is in the Books

It's all over but the cryin'! Well...more like whining, and yes I'd love some cheese with my whine!  Good ole Lake Shelbyville has once again proven to me that it's her world and I'm just living in it.  After what I would call a very successful practice, I managed to produce yet another mid-pack finish.  I may be king of those, if not king, definitely royalty.  I finished 48th out of 92 anglers, by weighing in three keepers for a meager 4lbs 6oz.  This is the third straight event where I have had the fish dialed in, and come derby day, it evaporates, missing without a trace.  I would love to put my finger on the reason, and I'm as lost as last year's Easter egg as to the why my patterns are disintegrating like that.  I do know that the law of averages will kick in sooner or later and things will hold together for me.  I'd like to really fuss and complain, but in all honesty I was blessed to have what I caught.  The fish I had located were off-shore, holding on channel swing points positioned in 14-17 feet of water. I was catching them throwing a 10.5" Zoom Ole Monster worm and a Carolina rigged lizard, and apparently the deep fish did not cooperate very well today, as several anglers who are known for the deep water prowess also failed to catch them. So in that respect, I'm not alone, which does provide some consolation.  While many others who prodominently fish shallow did well.  That tells me my deep fish moved up on me, I'll remember that.  So, I'll leave you with a quote from a good friend of mine..."Work hard Honor God and let him take care of the details".    'Til next time!
God Bless,
Duke

Illini Division BFL set for this Saturday

Second Illini Division BFL to be held at Lake Shelbyville will take place this Saturday.  If there ever was a lake that seems to be my arch nemesis, it is this one.  Since the begginning of my competitive fishing career, I have been beaten like a drum by this lake.  I'm sure there's an exact number of times that I've been clobbered at the hands of Lake Shelbyville, but in my opinion, it is way too many to count. 
With that being said, I made a trip to the lake for a little prefishing, and to my surprise the fishing was good.  Based on my trip, I believe I have accurately identified how the fish are operating, where they're holding, at what depth, and several general areas that seem to have a decent fish population around them. So as of right now, I'm feeling pretty good aboput Saturday's derby.  However; these little green things (the fish) have fins and they like to swim around. But I believe I'm onto the right deal.  I'm going to spend tomorrow on the lake, and half of a day on Friday to solidify my gameplan and to look for some back-up stuff.  Lord willing I'll have good news to report on Monday.  I'll leave ya with a picture of one of the nicer ones I caught during my pre-fishing trip.
God Bless,
Duke

A nice hefty 4 pounder...five of these on Saturday would be sweet!!

2012 BFL All-American

A couple of weeks ago I competed in the 2012 BFL All-American.  For those who may not know, this is the pinnacle of tournaments for the weekend angler.  Even though I normally compete in professional level tournaments, I still like to compete in FLW Outdoors BFL series, which is a Saturday only tournament circuit. Which if an angler is fortunate enough, can ultimately qualify for the All-American.  To put the All-American into perspective, after qualifying for the event, I had several friends who also fish professionally call me and congratulate me on qualifying.  The All-American is commonly referred to as one of the most difficult tournaments to qualify for.
This year the tournament was held on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.  Initially I was pretty excited about going to the Potomac, it's full of grass and also has an incredible fish population.I later learned that we would be limited to fishing only the upper portion of the river, starting from the Woodrow Wilson bridge and heading upstream (basically the entire downtown portion of Washington, D.C.).  This area is absolutely devoid of vegetation, but ultimately someone is going to win, so it was an even playing field for everyone.  An angler is allowed one official practice day, so having not went and pre-practiced prior to the off-limits period, I knew I had a lot of ground to cover in a very short amount of time.

Practice
Practice went surprisingly well, although we didn't try to catch many fish (when practicing for a tournament the day before competition, hooking fish can be detrimental), we shook quite a few off and caught several nice ones when we did decide to set the hook. Overall, I was pleased with what we had found. On a side note, the D.C. area has a bit of history on every corner.  With this being my first trip to the area, I snapped a few pics during practice...here they are:

The Washington Monument

The Pentagon

Reagan International




As you leave the Pentagon Lagoon, you go under a bridge out into the Potomac, and directly across the river is the Washington Monument.  Just down river a few miles is Reagan International, the pictures do not due the experience any justice.  The jets at Reagan International passed overhead by maybe 200 feet.  It was loud! They arrived at the rate of one about every 5-7 minutes, at times you could see as many as three jets in a row staging to come land.  Pretty wild stuff.

Day 1
Prior to take-off, David Brown, the man responsible for FLW's media coverage stopped by and chatted, here's what we talked about Day One Morning story .  On day one of the event we were boat 45 out of 49, so most of the promising areas we had found the day before were covered up with boats.  We ended up starting in an are where we had caught a couple of nice keepers and shook several others off.  I caught several fish right after arriving, but only two were keepers.  The fish were positioned down in the middle of a series of laydowns, through the course of the day, I lost a few fish, before I could get them out of the center of the laydowns.  But that's fishing, when dealing with heavy cover, you're going to lose a few.  Total weight for Day 1 was four fish weighing 8lbs 6oz.

Prior to take-off Day 1 -photo courtesy of David Brown FLW Outdoors

Day 2

Knowing I needed to make up some ground, rather than moving around as much as I had on day one, I decided to stay put in one area and try to grind out a solid limit. Due to the angling pressure the area I had chosen was receiving, I dropped down to a Lunker Lure Shakee head with a green pumpkin Zoom trick worm.  I generated enough bites to have done well again on day two, but execution was my downfall.  I failed to boat two nice keepers that I had hooked and up to the boat.  Ultimately they would not have propelled me into the top ten cut, but would've put me into the next higher check range. I ended the day with three keepers that weighed 7lbs 15oz. 



Conversing with fellow angler Duane Snyder prior to take off on day 2 - photo courtesy of David Brown FLW Outdoors



I finished the event in 24th place overall.  I learned a lot about tidal water, which was a new experience for me, so should I run into that situation again, at least I have an idea about how to deal with it. I was blessed to have qualified for the event. many anglers go their whole fishing careers and never have the opportunity to fish the All-American.  So in that respect I'm thankful for the chance to have competed, Lord willing it won't be my last.  Before I go, I failed to mention that at no other event have I seen the anglers catered to as this event. From golf cart rides to and from the dock, to the meals that were provided, it was an awesome experience to say the least.

God Bless,

D

PAA Event on Old Hickory

The PAA Tour (Professional Anglers Association) held their first Pro-Am event of 2012 earlier this month on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, TN.  I was looking forward to this event, having spent a couple of days on the lake in early April, it looked to be a promising event. 
Practice
Day one of practice turned out to be quite the opposite of what I expected.  I struggled to generate very many bites at all, much less bites from fish long enough to meet the 14" minimum length requirement.  There were several interesting things taking place on the lake at the time we visited. One, there was a massive shad spawn going on, one of the best I've ever seen.  But I found very few fish relating to them.  This was very puzzling to me, I couldn't understand why the fish weren't wholly committed to the shad spawn.  Secondly, due to the warmer than average spring weather that most of the country has had, the fish had moved off-shore quicker than expected (this would be the beginning of my demise).
On practice day two, I stopped and took a phone call from the outdoors writer from my local newspaper. It was during this phone call that I made a discovery that I ultimately felt would make this event change from a tough one, to a great one.  I'll explain, as I spoke on the phone, I drifted into a cove and up to bank.  When I had finished talking, I got up to start fishing again, and as I did, I saw numerous bluegill beds.  A great summertime pattern can be targeting bass around these beds.  So, I stopped tied on a bait notorious for being successful in this situation, and in minutes began catching quality keeper fish.  Over the next few hours, with my hooks removed from the bait, I generated quality bite after quality bite.  It was mind boggling the number of quality fish that would attack my bait.  Problem solved...this tournament is going to be awesome!  Day three of practice saw much of the same success that day two held, so I left the water at 11 am and headed back to the house to prepare my tackle. 
The Tournament
Other than a change in the weather, conditions for this event stayed about the same as practice.  A cold front came through and dropped morning temps pretty significantly during the competition days, but that seemed to be the only big change.
Day One: Started very slow, so much so that I had to abandon my bedding bluegill pattern, dig out my flipping stick and scrounge up a limit. I tried later in the day to revive the bluegill pattern from practice, but to no avail.  I ended the day in 35th place with 9.14lbs
Day Two: Began much slower than day one, I didn't think that was possible.  I had started in a different area, came up empty, moved further upriver and continued to struggle.  I switched over to fishing a Lunker Lure Shakee Head on 8lb line and managed to generate a couple of keeper bites by the end of the day.  total weight for day two was 4lbs and change.
I finished the event in 50th or 52nd place, obviously not what I expected, nor what I had hoped for, especially after getting dialed in on them so well during the last half pf practice.  But as one my good friends continues to tell me: Work hard, honor God and let him take care of the details.  So, I'll leave this finish and all of my others in God's hands and keep digging!
God Bless,
D

PAA Tour kicks off next week in Nashville, TN

Next Thursday will mark the start of the 2012 PAA Tour on Old Hickory Lake in Nashville, TN.  It looks to be another great year on the PAA Tour.  After the first stop at Old Hickory, the tour will once again swing through Gadsden, AL to stop at Neely Henry Lake, stopping for the last event on the Arkansas River in Muskogee, OK.  I believe it is going to be an exceptional year.  Lord willing, it will be a successful year.  Check back, as next week approaches, I'll keep updating with how practice is going.  you can also follow the action on Twitter, just look for me under the name @Duke_Jenkel .  Stay tuned!
God Bless,
Duke

Something other than fishing

Well, It's not fishing, but I have to admit, it's every bit as exciting as fishing...What is it you ask?  Turkey hunting, yup, I went turkey hunting and I had a blast!  It's only the second time I've ever been turkey hunting in my life. I successfully harvested a mature gobbler on the second morning of my hunt.  I'm afraid I might have found a new addiction, without a doubt it was exciting.  I'd like to say thanks to Derby City Calls out of Louisville, KY for making a great slate call that absolutely had this gobbler running to meet his new "girlfriend".  Thanks fellas!
God Bless,
D


22lbs 6oz  10" beard and 1' spurs




That's the Derby City Calls "Spur" model call lying on the bird



Way behind...sorta embarrassed...

My apologies...I failed to realize how neglected my blog was...Oops, sorry.  I'll try to make up for it in a hurry, so here goes:
I coach the local high school bass fishing team, and have been fairly busy with that, we managed to squeeze in a couple of practice days for our sectional tournament.  We had built a fairly solid pattern and were anticipating a good finish.  However, that was not the case.  Although both of our teams that competed weighed in a limit, we both failed to connect with any good solid fish (3lbs and up), which left us mired in the middle of the pack.  We will be graduating 5 seniors this year, with only one underclassman returning, and a whole new crop of freshman and sophomores, it looks like its going to a "building" year for the PCHS Fishing Team.  But that's ok, if the new crop of anglers stay with us for their whole high school career, we'll be back in the hunt for a state title in no time. 
That's it for now, I promise I'll not neglect y'all like this again..
God Bless,
Duke