This is week two of a four-week stretch fishing Bassmaster tournaments for me. Things started off great last week as I finished sixth at Grand Lake. I do video recaps of all my events if you all want to check them out on Facebook. On Day 2 of that event I really got into them and caught the biggest bag of my life with 26-3.
Here on Kentucky Lake the fish are around much different cover than they were on Grand Lake. There it was all about rock transitions and this week its more old school flipping and pitching. The water level has fluctuated a lot so that’s going to be a key factor. I love flipping tournaments like this and am excited to get out there. In the past the Elites have gotten here later in the year, and the fish were farther along in the spawn. It will be interesting to see how many different ways guys catch them.
This lake has a lot of quality fish in it, and I expect the weights to rival last week. It sure would be nice to catch a 26-pound bag that way. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if someone brought in a bag like that. A lot of the fish haven’t spawned here yet so they’ll be nice and fat.
My flipping and pitching setup this week starts with an MHX-EPS90HF for my rod. This rod is 7-foot, 6-inch heavy power with plenty of backbone to get fish out of heavy cover. I build it with Winn split grips on it. I pair it up with a high-speed reel (fitted with Winn Reel Sleeves) spooled up with 20-pound Vicious original fluorocarbon, a 1/4- to 1/2-ounce weight, and a 4/0 Mustad Grip Pin Max flipping hook and I’m ready to go. The new X Zone Adrenaline Bug in either black and blue or some form of green pumpkin will be my bait of choice. In my experience location is much more important than color. If I can present the bait to the fish on their head they will bite it.