A switch of venues...just for a few days anyway

I just loaded my truck and I am headed for Paducah, KY for the Kentucky early waterfowl season.  A good friend of mine and Kentucky Lake fishing guide Dan Dolack invited me down to help guide some clients of his during the early waterfowl season.  I'm pretty stoked.  We'll hunt Honkers in the morning and evening, and squeeze in a dove hunt or two in the process, as well as doin' a little cooking on the Big Green Egg.  What's not to be excited about.  I still have some photos to upload from the Neely Henry PAA tournament, so check back, I'll have the patterns and baits report for ya soon.
God Bless,
D

Broken Hearts and shattered dreams revisited...

Well, sort of...I got home a few days ago from Neely Henry Lake in Gadsden, AL, what nice lake, in a super nice area of Alabama.  You may remeber I finished 2nd in the PAA tour event held there in 2009, and as I practiced for last week's event, I ran through a couple of areas where I caught them really well in '09.  As I rounded the corner of one particular slough, I saw the sight in the picture below, there it was, the old dock, make that all that remained of the old dock that reached out and swiped $25,000 out of my pocket!  How did that happen you say?  On the final day of the '09 PAA Tour tournament, I hooked a 5 or 6lb bass near these dock posts and when I set the hook, I could do nothing with her, she ran on the backside of the posts and I could do nothing but hang on.  As I worked the fish back around the posts, it wrapped around the very last post between her and the awiating dip net.  Before I could get the fish loose, she twisted off of the hook, gone for ever.  I got beat by 1lb in that tournament, had I caught that fish, I would have been able to cull a smaller one from my livewell and gain about four pounds of total weight.  More than enough to win the event, and that is how the old dock posts whacked me for $25k.  Ouch, that hurt.  I will go on to say that, I truly was blessed to finish 2nd in that tourney and I truly have no complaints, it was neat to see where some of the areas where I fished in '09 and relive a good tournament finish.
God Bless,
Duke


There it is...the dirty rotten thief!!



Lunker Lure Freebies?

Yes, Lunker Lure is giving away a prize pack valued at $25 to all of those who like their page and leave a comment about their favorite Lunker Lure Product.  Got to www.facebook.com/lunkerlure like the page and leave a comment to qualify to win.  It's that easy!  Go ahead check it out.
God Bless,
Duke

A little face time with Pete...

Pete Robbins is an outdoor writer...that is after he does his daily gig, which involves some sort of law degree/working in Washington/I really don't know the details, but sometihng like that.  He's actually a darn good writer (he fishes too), which brings me to my point, Pete writes a blog, it's the Pete Weighs-In  blog, and if he accomplishes nothing else, the blog snaps the ordinary reader out of their spoon fed "how to catch a biggun" coma that we often fall into while reading every available piece of bass fishing literature.  He also has a pet project, it's the PWI patch, yup, the "Pete Weighs-in" Patch, for the angler who is sponsored by everyone, even Pete.  Here's a link to a familiar face that just so happens to be part of the PWI Team...go ahead, take a look...Duking it out in Alabama  Hope you enjoy, I say bookmark the site, it's well worth it.
God Bless,
Duke

Another shot at Neely Henry...

I'm currently at Neely Henry lake in Alabama fishing the last event of the PAA tour.  As you may know I finished 2nd here in 2009.  Based on my practice I was hoping to have a decent event.  Practice went ok, not great, not terrible.  O managed a limit that weighed only 8.17 on day one, landing me in 32nd place.  Today I caught a limit that weighed 10.09 and moved up 13 places to 19th place.  Landing me as the last man in the cut.  So tomorrow I'll go out with one more shot at Neely Henry and her famous Coosa Spotted bass. I was blessed to make the cut, Lord willing I'll move a little further up the leader board.
God Bless,
Duke

Lure comapnies and their social media

Do you know of any lure companies actively blogging?  How about Facebook or Twitter?  I've found one doing all three...Lunker Lure  You can see them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lunkerlure and their blog can be read at http://www.lunkerlure.com/ They definitely have been putting out some neat stuff. Check 'em out. 
God Bless,
Duke

Rollin' on the River

Well, the BFL at the Ohio river is over, and for all practical purposes it was a decent event for me.  I finished tenth in the event with a limit that weighed 11lbs and 11oz.  The weights for this event were tight, there were only 7 oz separating 5th place through 10th place, with ties at 5th, 7th and tenth places.  A few more ounces could've really improved my finish, but I'm happy with tenth, blessed to have had a good finish.  Regardless of the tournament, anytime you can finish in the top ten, you've done well. 
As you know in my previous posts I had mentioned spending sometime on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, these rivers can be accessed from the marina we launched from by running down river and locking through to the next pool.  It takes a lot of time from your fishing day to do this, but it seemed that this was the only place I could catch any quality fish.  So on tournament day, I locked through to the next pool of the Ohio and ran to the Cumberland river, then up the Cumberland to nearly the Barkley Lake Dam.  Counting the time it took to lock, it took an hour and 20 minutes to get to my starting spot, roughly a 51 mile run.  I started fishing around 7:25 and left to comeback at 11:35, so I only got about 4 hours to fish, but it turned out well and I thank the Lord for a safe trip and a good limit of fish.

I did get to practice a couple of days in the pool we launched from and man were the fish biting.  We caught approximately 20 keepers a day out on the main river, but managed only one fish better than 2lbs.  So the decision to lock was a no-brainer.  I've added a few pictures of my practice, hope you enjoy them.  I'll post more information about my patterns and what I used to catch these fish.  Here's a hint: If you're on a river system, especially one that has decent current flow, never forget about the Lunker Lure buzzbait, even in the hottest part of the summer, it will still catch them.
God Bless,
Duke

Here's a nice Cumberland River keeper on a SPRO Little John Crankbait

Here's a nice keeper largemouth on the Ohio river
that fell victim to a Lunker Lure buzzbait.

Gearing up for another tournament, headed to another river...

It's the second river system I've been on this month, of course the last was the mighty Mississippi, this time it was the Tennessee.  I'm getting ready for another tournament that takes place the first part of August, it launches upstream of the Tennessee river, on the Ohio.  To get to the Tenn. river, I'll have to lock one time, not too bad, but locking always introduces the chance of not being able to return to weigh-in on time if the locks are busy with commercial boat traffic (barges to be exact).  The commercial boats get priority over pleasure boats, so it can be gamble.  I got to spend an entire day on the Tennessee a few days ago and it turned out to be ok, not great, not terrible, just ok.  I managed to catch quite a few keepers, but couldn't really catch anything of any size.  So my next scouting trip will be to the Cumberland river, you see, when you lock down one time from Golconda, IL (that's where the tournament is taking off from), you enter the pool of the Ohio where Paducah, KY is located, this too is the area where the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers dump into the Ohio.  So as an angler you have a choice to run up either the Tennessee or the Cumberland, both can offer some excellent fishing.  Normally I don't practice this far in advance of a tournament, but I haven't been on the Tennessee or Cumberland in several years, so I wanted to give myself an opportunity to get re-familiarized with the rivers, before I make a judgement about where I am going to fish on tournament day.  The good thing is it is summer, and fish habits shouldn't change a whole lot between now and the tournament, so most of what I find in these early trips should remain as a viable option come tourney day.
Stay tuned, I'll continue to post how its going.  I will say it's been fun just getting back to some of the waters I fished early in my career, Lord willing I'll get to experience some of the same great results.
God Bless,
Duke

All the latest gadgets and goodies...

ICAST, it's the fishing worlds biggest new product showcase in existence.  I've never been, want to, just haven't, but the good folks at Wired2Fish go every year, and they always deliver, in a big way.  take a minute and check 'em out, then you can see what we all would like to have seen in person...ICAST, I definitely gotta get there one of these days.
God Bless,
Duke

Lunker Lure fires up it's blog

Check out the blog at one of my sponsors  http://www.lunkerlure.com/ .  They have got their blog going, and from what I understand they will be providing tips, product reviews and some comments from their pro-staff, swing by and check it out.

God Bless,
Duke