Small victory at Lake Cumberland

After a very tough three-day practice last week prior to the Lake Cumberland FLW Tour bass tournament down in Kentucky, my expectations were not that great heading into the event.
However, I was confident I would be able to put something together in the tournament and find a way to have a good finish if I just put my head down and worked hard.
Unfortunately, on the first day of the tournament last Thursday, things went about as bad as they could have gone and I ended up with a small five-fish limit weighing 6.12 pounds, landing me in 156th place in the 180-boat field.
It definitely was not the way I wanted to start the tournament. I ran all over the lake, trying different areas in an attempt to find some quality bass, but it just didn’t happen.
I’m able to monitor the gas consumption of my boat through the gauges with my motor, and I think I may have burned the most gas I ever have on a tournament day before. I had to get gas halfway through the day and ended up burning more than 52 gallons (200 litres). I certainly tried!
After Day 1 was finished, I really had no idea what to do the next day. Obviously, doing the same thing was not the answer, so I went to an area where I had caught a few fish in practice and had sampled quickly the first day and literally just put my trolling motor in the water and went fishing.
Well, I probably caught more fish that day than I had all week combined and ended up with a decent limit weighing 13.7 pounds, bumping me up to a 125th-place finish. It was a small victory.
Heading into this event, I was in 10th place in our points standings and I figured I would drop way off after my tough finish. But when it was all said and done, I only dropped to 20th place.
The goal is to stay in the top 40 to qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup tournament in August. So I’m still okay in the points race with three tournaments to go between now and the end June thanks to the past couple of tournaments where I posted top 10 finishes.
The season resumes next week at Lewis Smith Lake in Alabama, a lake I’ve been to twice in the past for tournaments. It’s actually one of my favourite lakes that I have visited since I started fishing these tournaments in the U.S. in 2012 so I’m looking forward to it (it has a good population of fish and it’s very scenic).
Since winter has yet to release its grip on Sunset Country, I’ve decided to stay down south this week and am meeting some friends in Nashville to kill a few days. It is my favourite city and a place I try to visit for at least a few days every year while I’m down here in the U.S.
There are several lakes within a couple of hours of Nashville that we frequently visit for tournaments, so I’m often passing through the “Music City.” It’s a fun place to hang out for a few days to enjoy all the great live music and shows.
It looks like some better weather finally is on its way later this week, so I’m sure everyone at home will welcome that. It has turned into a long winter, that’s for sure.
The good news is the days are getting longer and the sun is starting to kick out some heat, so hopefully all of the snow and ice will melt quickly and we’ll be able to get the boats in the water at some point in May!