American Fishing Series

    The BFL for May 8th was canceled due to high water and dangerous current and running conditions. The US Coast Guard closed the Lakes, Kentucky and Barkley, to all pleasure boat traffic. Most of the Lakes had been re-opened by that date, but FLW Outdoors had already rescheduled the tourney for June 19th.
     So, I did get down to the Lakes to practice for the American Fishing Series that was held on May 13-15. With the water really dirty and the water levels dropping over a foot a day and practice didn't go to bad. I practiced with my buddy Joel who was fishing the AFS as a boater. We saw plenty of keepers in practice and the hopes a a good tournament looked promising.
     I drew boat number 134 and boater partner Ryan Chandler from Indiana, who I have fished with before, and great guy to fish behind. The keeper bites just were not there on the first day. I weighed in 1 fish for 2lbs and Ryan had 3 keepers. I caught 15-20 bass all day and the water was really dirty in the area we fished in. We fished mostly south of the Highway 68 bridge. I was in 115th place out of 150 after Day 1. All the bites I had were caught flippin' trees and bushes in the backs of the coves.
     On Day 2, since the boat numbers flip from Day 1, I was boat number 16 and drew boater Ladd Shannon from Arkansas. Ladd was a another great guy to fish with. We flipped trees and bushes in Jonathan Creek area all day. I weighed 4 fish in for a weight of 11lbs 2 oz and had a dead fish for a 8oz penalty, which gave me 10lbs 10oz.  So, I had a 2 day total of 12 lb 10 oz and the check cut-off was around 15.5 lbs. Ladd had 5 fish for 16.5lbs. I did have the chance 3 times for my limit bass but broke off 1 real good fish in a bush and lost 2 other keepers on the way to the boat. You can't cash checks that way. Overall had a great time this week and the weights were unbelievable with the conditions the lakes have been in. I caught my keepers this tournament flipping a Net Bait Mad Paca in a Black/Blue or Bama Bug Red color. I used a Powell Rods 766 heavy Flippin and Punching Rod and 25lb line, probably should have kept the braid on.