Getting ready at Kentucky Lake

The final swing of the 2016 FLW Tour is coming up over the next few weeks, so it’s back on the road for me.
The fifth stop takes place this week at Kentucky Lake on the Tennessee-Kentucky border, one of the larger bodies of water in the U.S. and one of the best bass fisheries in the country.
Then after Kentucky, we have a week off before the final event of the season at Lake Champlain in New York.
I left home this past weekend and will be logging some serious miles in my truck over the next few weeks!
I have to take some sponsor people fishing next Monday and Tuesday following the tournament this weekend, then I’m driving up to New York to stay with my uncle for a couple of days before making my way up to Lake Champlain.
So far this year, the season has gone really well for me—by far my best-ever since I started fishing these pro bass tournaments four years ago. Through four tournaments, I’m sitting in third place in the Angler-of-the-Year race so these next couple of tournaments are the biggest of my career, for sure.
Winning the AOY title is a big deal in this sport and brings with it a $100,000 prize, so I’m going to work hard to try and make a run at it.
After a couple of days of practice at Kentucky, I’m feeling pretty good going into the tournament, which starts tomorrow (June 9). My Dad was along to pre-fish with me for this event and we’ve had a great time over the past few days.
He caught his new personal best bass on our first day on the water, a six-pound-plus largemouth, so that was pretty cool. Hopefully, I can find that fish again this weekend!
I fished a tournament at Kentucky Lake back in 2014 and had a decent finish, so I have some experience here. Things are a little bit different this year, which is pretty normal, but one of my best spots from two years ago has some nice fish on it again.
So we have been exploring a lot of new water and have been finding a few good schools each day.
It is hot down here, with temperatures around 30 degrees C each day. And the water is approaching 80 degrees F, so most of the bass are offshore in deep water around main lake humps and river ledges.
Kentucky Lake is a reservoir that was formed from an old river system, so there is a main river channel that runs through the lake and many of the fish are hanging out around the ledges on the channel.
Since we are fishing mainly offshore, it actually is a lot more like walleye fishing at home than bass fishing. We have spent a lot of time driving around looking for fish on our sonar units, so it’s boring at times. But when we find a big school, it’s all worth it.
This tournament will feature the best overall catches of the season in terms of fish weight. This place has a bunch of big ones in it so it should be exciting.
You can follow the tournament live starting at 3 p.m. tomorrow at flwoutdoors.com