Got my last BFL in the crosshairs...

Lord willing I'll be leaving for Shelbyville Lake in the morning.  It's the site of the last Illini Division BFL.  I'm pretty excited about hitting the lake, I have a fairly well chronicled love/hate relationship with this lake.  I'll admit, it's mostly hate...well, a strong dislike anyway.  I've got a couple of days to beat around the pond, so come Saturday afternoon, we'll know what I was able to muster up.  Lord willing it'll be a good report.  I believe the recent turn of the weather should have 'em biting.  We will see, Check back Monday.
God Bless,
Duke

Neely Henry Baits and Patterns

Neely henry is a lake that I'm beginning to really like.  It just seems to be one of those bodies of water that you feel comfortable with, despite the fact that I have spent a grand total of eleven days fishing there.  My last trip as you know was the final stop on the 2011 Bass Pro Shops PAA Tour.  I was fortunate to make the final day cut, a blessing indeed.  So let's dig in to the patterns and baits I used in route to a 17th place finish.

Practice:

I actually discovered the main pattern that I fished on the first day of practice at 5pm.  I had been on the water since daylight and had concentrated on areas near the main river, mostly on wood and grass and had failed miserably in figuring anything out.  What I initially thought was act of desperation turned out to be one of the best moves I could make all week.  I was in a major creek arm and noticed a long stretch of rip-rap at the back-end of the creek.  Out of frustration I ran to the back of the creek to make a pass down the rip-rap.  I hadn't been to the backs of any of the creeks, and I hadn't fished any rocks as of yet, but when I arrived I realized how many bait fish had migrated to the back of this creek.  In my intitial pass, I caught 3 keepers, two were what I would call "good ole big-uns" a 19"er and a 20"er.  I truly believe the 20 inch fish was pushing 5lbs.  With only an hour or so of daylight left I got out my map and looked for similar situations, found several and the first one I fished, within three casts I caught a nice 2.5lber.  I immediately stopped and felt confident this was a pattern I could run all over the lake.  Day two of practive I spent up the river above Gadsden, AL I managed a pretty decent limit, but no big fish, but I also was able to establish a pretty decent pattern for those fish upriver.  Day three I spent back down lake looking for more stretches of rip-rap that had all the right ingredients.  I found several more areas.  I quit at noon to work on tackle and get ready for the tournament.

The Derby...
I started the tournament downriver towards the dam, by 10:30 I had cobbled together a pretty small limit.  Fearing, I had made a bad decision, I ran 40 miles from where I was to the areas upriver where I had caught them on day two of practice.  I managed to cull four or five times, but never had a quality bite. My day one total was 8.17
On day two of the tournament I ran back downstream in hopes of catching those bigger spots I had found.  I decided that I would spend all of my time on the lower end, slowing down to see if I could locate and catch these fish.  I knew I needed a pretty decent limit to make the cut, I felt like the lower end had the ptoential to produce bigger bites for me.  Day two ended, I had a limit that went 10.09lbs, landing me as the last man in the cut...Halelujah!...Payday!
Day three was pretty uneventful.  The fishing got tough, I managed another limit, and moved up two more places to finsish 17th.  Overall it was a great tournament, I never did connect with any of the big fish I had found in practice. Undoubtedly, I was in the right areas to do well, I just never got a big bite. I'm thankful for what I did catch.  Below are some pictures of the baits I used during the tournament. Until the next tournament,
God Bless,
Duke




I initially found the fish on the rip-rap with this Original Little John crankbait in Citrus Shad color. 
I used a Powell 703cb glass rod and 10lb maxima monofilament with this bait.





This is a Lunker Lure Shakee Head in 1/8th ounce. I used a Zoom trick worm in Red Bug Color on 8lb Seaguar fluorocarbon and a Powell 733 mef spinning rod.



In the tournament, the fish seemed to shy away from my Lunker Lure Buzzbait, but it helped me locate several areas holding fish.  This is a 3/8 oz white on white buzzer, I fished it on a Powell 704 cef rod with 20lb Maxima monofilament line

Twitter....Do ya Tweet?

If you are a 'Tweeter" (is that a word?)  or should I say if you use twitter, look me up, I just set up an account.  I'm thinking it's a better way to be up to the minute, with your group of friends/followers.  I believe it will be pretty neat.  Who knows, maybe it won't, guess we'll find out.  At any rate it seems worth trying, so if you're on Twitter, look for Duke_Jenkel and click on the follow button.  It should be an interesting ride.
God Bless,
Duke

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.