October 19, 2013 Kentucky Lake

October 19, 2013 New Johnsonville Classic

First a postlude to the last trip. If you remember I hit rocks with my boat at Percy Priest. Here are the results: the prop was bent on all 4 blades but not too severely, the skeg was knocked off and the prop shaft was bent and there are numerous gouges on the bottom of the hull. Insurance covered the $1600 repair bill for first three items. A rough estimate to glass repairs is $1500-2000. That is still to be done.

Now the prelude to our club's classic tournament on Saturday. My 3 bank on board charger appears to be malfunctioning. While examining that issue I discovered some unattached wires in the bilge. After several hours repairing the wiring to the main bus, I still had the charger issue...so I called Jack, my partner for the tournament, to go in his boat, which he had already offered. 

Jack picked me up 4:00 am and thoughtfully brought me a sausage biscuit. What a fishing partner. Made the trip to New Johnsonville in an hour and 35 minutes.  With 5 boats gathered in the river we blasted off at safe light. We headed downriver and stopped at the point we called the factory. We fished down the bank toward a couple of gravel points. I was throwing a buzz bait when I had a terrific blowup. I got a good hook set and hung on. Jack jumped down from the front deck and netted this nice fish. It was 20" long, weighed 4 lbs 11 ounces and turned out to be big fish for the tournament.

Unfortunately when Jack laid his rod down, the trolling motor was running and wrapped his line. He had to remove the prop and unwind the line. We moved into the next creek down but couldn't get anything going. We moved out into the channel working the grass line but the wind was just too much for us.  Jack caught a really nice 5-6 lb drum. He is the drum king. Did I mention that the rain shower commenced. It was supposed to be a short shower with sun coming out. The rain lasted a couple of hours and the sun came out on the way home. Wet, cold and windy.  We decided to move into Trace Creek to get some wind protection. As we fished down the bank, I caught a nice 17" bass on a baby rattlesnake bait.  

From here we made our way to a grass bed in front of Birdsong Creek. Jack caught a short and then got a 13.5 keeper. I lost a 2 lb on a worm. We motored up into Birdsong into a slough that has produced in the past. I caught my third and last keeper, about 2 lbs., on a Speed Worm. Jack a couple of more fish including a White bass. We headed back to the ramp for the weigh in. I finished with 9+ lbs for the win as a non boater and big fish winner. It was a miserable weather day but satisfying with the results.