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
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
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
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
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| A nice hefty 4 pounder...five of these on Saturday would be sweet!! |
Monday, June 11, 2012
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:
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.
Day 2
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:
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| The Washington Monument |
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| The Pentagon |
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| 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.
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| Prior to take-off Day 1 -photo courtesy of David Brown FLW Outdoors |
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.
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| 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
Friday, May 25, 2012
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
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
Thursday, May 3, 2012
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
God Bless,
Duke
Thursday, April 26, 2012
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
God Bless,
D
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| 22lbs 6oz 10" beard and 1' spurs |
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| That's the Derby City Calls "Spur" model call lying on the bird |
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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
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
Sunday, March 18, 2012
First Derby of the Year...
I finally got to compete in my first tournament of the year. Thanks to an ill-fated retreive on a duck hunt New Year's eve weekend, I've been sidelined with a pretty severe knee injury. But that is all in the past, I've knocked the dust off of the equipment and fished my first derby. I spent the last three days on Kentucky Lake, practicing fo and competing in the FLW Outdoors' first BFL tournament of the year for the LBL division. I'm glad to report all was a success. I managed a limit that weighed 18lbs-15oz and finished fifth. It's not a win, but it's a solid finish considering there nearly 170 anglers competing in the event. Regardless of the finish, I fished all day without the use of any seats in the boat, and my leg held up just fine! That's what I call a win-win situation. I'll post pattern and baits information later this week. Thanks for stopping by.
God Bless,
Duke
God Bless,
Duke
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Things are heating up!
The title of the post sums up just about everything I'm going to talk about, it accurately describes the water temps, the air temps and of course the fishing here in Southern IL. I spent the day on the lake yesterday, trying to get myself conditioned for the upcoming tournament season. Thanks to some great work with the physical therapist I believe I can go all day and not feel too wiped out. With that being said, there are some times that your main purpose for the trip actually becomes secondary, like yesterday, when warming water temps and hungry bass lined up perfectly. After a somewhat rough start to the day, we managed to locate and catch several really nice fish. Water temps were running in the low to mid-fifties, which has some of the bass in my local lake pulling up and staging on what I like to call early pre-spawn locations. We hit a stretch in the afternoon, where you could call your shot. I've posted a few pics of yesterday's trip. I caught all of my fish on an Excalibur Xr50 in Rayburn Red, using 12lb Maxima ultragreen monofilament on a Powell Rods 703CB Glass. All I can say is we had a blast! Hope you enjoy the pictures.
God Bless,
Duke
God Bless,
Duke
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| First one of the day |
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| Best of the day...pushed 6.5 lbs |
.jpg) |
| Last good one of the trip...great way to end it! |
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Tinkering with tackle...
Tournament season is underway in a lot of areas, and my season is about to start, so I've been getting my ducks in a row. Tinkering with some tackle that is. I'm blessed to work with some great companies, and I'm as excited as ever about using some of their products this year. Powell Rods has developed some new models, as well as a brand new entire line of fishing rods that have an excellent price point. I'm definitely excited about their new Endurance model crankbait rods the 724 CB glass is sure to be a great one. Lunker Lure has introduced a new series of jigs called the Limit Series. It comes in two different head styles both equipped with a Gamakatsu hook round bend hook. I had a chance to use some of these jigs last fall, and I was nothing but impressed! Stay tuned, as it looks like, Lord willing I'll head down to Kentucky Lake next week for a BFL event.
God Bless,
Duke
God Bless,
Duke
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