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Summer 2018
A 6-pounder ate a Livingston Lures Howeller Plus in Guntersville Craw color in practice for Grand Lake
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The family enjoyed Cedar Lodge where they raced go-karts with the famous “Dude Perfect” guys, bowled at the indoor
bowling alley and finished with a seminar on the sate at
the Springfield Bass Pro Shops.
ON TO KENTUCKY LAKE - DEALING WITH A DAY YOU WISH YOU COULD DO-OVER
We drove eight hours from Grand Lake straight to Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tenn.
This was another challenging week. It seems like its been that way every where that I’ve been lately. It’s been a lot of work to catch a limit and I am ready to go somewhere that is going to be fun. The first day of the event, I did okay. I was just out of the cut with 14-pounds.
Then the bad luck hit, and I didn’t get a limit. I had two good ones and a chance to make the top-50 cut; but I just didn’t get it done. I couldn’t catch my 5th fish and I fell out.
It frustrates me more than anything not to catch a limit; because I know how important five fish are every day.
It doesn’t give me an excuse or make me feel any better; but it lets me know everyone is human. It happened to me on the 2nd day and it happened to VanDam the same day. He came off of a win. He is the greatest of all time and it happened to him. Then, it happened to Ehrler the next day and several guys had three and some had two. It just shows you we are all human and we all have eight hours to make good or bad decisions.
I know my fault was trying to make something happen in the wrong water. There is a lot of water on Kentucky Lake and it can be dead water, without a lot of fish in it. But, we don’t always know where that is.
The first day I got 20 keepers; so, I couldn’t even figure out how I couldn’t get five the next day.
To make it worse, I thought I had a limit and went to big fish presentations to really boost myself up; but when I went to check in I measured my smallest one on a Bassmaster board and it was so close that I was too nervous to take it up and get the one-pound penalty if it didn’t measure. I ended up throwing it back before I went up to weigh, giving myself only four fish. I was disappointed; but, that’s how fishing goes.
I wish I could do the whole day over; but I don’t let it get to me. I’ve just got to move on and like I teach in my seminars, I just keep thinking the “power of five”. Five fish every day is going to average out.
You see it all the time. Like Jason Christie this year at the Classic, needing just one more little fish to win.