The
alarm went off at 2:00 Sunday morning to go fishing. The plan was to hit Barren
River Lake in Kentucky for the SMACK (Sunday Morning Anglers of Central
Kentucky) Tournament Series tournament. After a 2 hour drive and getting
everything rigged up I was ready for the 6:00 launch.
I started out fishing some rip rap throwing crank baits and
swim baits. After about an hour of no bites I moved spots and started throwing creature
bait. I hooked a nice bass but was not prepared with my net. I have a fold up
net that was not unfolded. I tried to lip him but he spit my lure back at me. A
couple of years ago I went fishing with Blake and Deanna from NuCanoe. I left
my net in the car and lost the biggest bass of my life because I could not get
him in the boat. I vowed to never leave me net again. Well I didn’t leave it
but it did me no good folded up in the back of my Frontier.
It
wasn’t until 10:00 that I caught my first bass. It was a little 10 inch bass
but I removed the skunk. The tournament ended a 1:00 so I had three hours left
to catch two more fish for my 3 fish limit. I fished my third spot for a while
before moving on. At this point I was thinking please just let me catch a
couple of fish.
After paddling around a while I paddled to the back of a
cove. When I got back there I noticed three kayaks already there on one bank
and one kayak leaving. I figured I’d fish the opposite bank and come up behind
the other yaks. After a couple of cast I hooked into a nice 16 inch bass.
Alright 11:00 and two fish for 26 inches. I fished for another hour with
nothing before moving back close to the boat ramp for weight in.
At
this point I figured I’ll throw a shakey head and try to catch one more small
fish. I got lucky and caught a 12 inch bass for 38 inches total. I had about 45
minutes left and figured I am going to fish hard to try and get rid of that 10
incher.
While daydreaming and thinking about the one that got away I
threw towards a log with a lot of debris around it. I got a massive hit and set
the hook. At this point I am thinking this bass has to be bigger than 10
inches. Well it was and I ended up pulling in a bass almost 17 inches. This put
me at 44.75 inches with only 30 minutes left. At this point I got greedy and
thought I need to catch one bigger than 12 inches. I ended up catching one more
but he was only 11 inches
Come
weight in time my 44.75 inches was good enough for second place. I missed first
place by .75 inches. The tournament started with me hoping not to get skunked
and ended with me winning some YakAttack gear donated by Luther from YakAttack.
First place got a rod and reel and some YakAttack gear. The SMACK tournaments
have all proceeds going to Heroes on the Water so all prizes are donated. Now I
am hooked and hope to make it to more of the SMACK tournaments and qualify for
the Classic in October.
This tournament was one of lessons. My first lesson was that
the Frontier can carry more rods than you will ever need. I carried 8 rod and
reels with me but may have used 4. The Frontier was great for storing all the
rods but I may have taken it to the extreme. My second lesson was a net folded
up in the bottom of your kayak will do you know good. This will now be one of
the first things I do to unfold my net. The third lesson is don’t give up. I
caught 4 of my five fish in the last 2 hours and 3 of them in the last 45
minutes. 
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