KY Lake 9-19 Our first tournament
The local tourism commission and FLW Outdoors decided to put on "The South's Great Lake Fish Festival" on Saturday 9-19. It included a multi-species fishing tournament. The classes included bass, crappie, panfish, hybrid/stripe/white bass, and rough fish. My wife had asked me some time back if we could enter in the crappie division since she works close with the tourism board at her job as UK County Extension Agent. We paid our entry fees a couple of weeks ago. As it got closer, I was carefully watching the weather for the 19th since Vicki is extremely fearful of storms and rough waters. The forecast looked OK for storms but iffy for rain and rough water. We bought her a new set of Frogg Toggs rainwear since she has worn hand-me-down rain gear in the past. Got to look good you know.
We got to the pre-tournament meetng and I was disappointed with the turn-out even though folks could register for a couple more hours. We took off at 7 AM. Since the start was several miles north of the area I typically launch, we had a bunch of miles to run to get to our starting spot to fish. The lake was in decent shape since the wind was light from the southwest.
We got our baits out and started trolling about 7:45. Within 1/2 mile we had two keepers in the boat and the skunk was off. We would be going to the stage to weigh in. This was Vicki's first fish.
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As she normally does, she had a couple more in the livewell before I got into the keeper column.
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As the morning progressed, so did the weather. The SW wind turned to west then NW. We both had our phones out , watching the radar. It looked like the worst of the 1st line of rain was going to go north of us. My plan, if it got really bad, was to tuck into a small cove, cover up with a tarp and sit it out. Luckily we didn't have to. We had a short rain shower that gave Vicki a chance to try out her new Frogg Toggs. We kept on fishing.
By 10:30, we had 7 keepers in the boat and I was feeling pretty good about things. During one of our earlier conversations I had mentioned that I hadn't had one of those times this season where I had multiple fish (more than 2) on at one time. We came across a point that lit the 2D sonar up with baitfish and crappie. I told her we have to catch something here. About that time she grabbed one of her rods and started reeling a good fish toward the boat. At the same time, 2 of my rods bent down with fish, then one of my dropper rods. I got her fish netted, a big black crappie that is unusual when trolling deep channels. My 1st fish was an 11 incher but the 2nd was the biggest of the day, a 16+ incher white. While all this was going on, the fish on the dropper thought better of it's situation and headed for parts unknown. 3 fish for 4 hooked wasn't bad since the lake was starting to get really choppy. While all this was going on, we didn't have time to take pictures, just get the flopping fish out of the floor and into the box. LIMIT!! We could only weigh 10.
We kept at it for a while longer with 3 more keepers but only one that would let us cull a smaller fish.
The weather broke for a while then socked back in and the wind got around to the north. You don't want to be a long way from the trailer when a north wind blows on KY Lake. The chop turned to whitecaps quickly. I told her we should run north toward the weigh-in to a bay that we have caught some really good fish in this year so we stored the gear, got out rain gear back on, and headed north as the rain started pelting us. I decided from the looks of the rollers and white-caps, our best move would be to head on toward the weigh-in area at KY Dam State Park. We were allowed to weigh in any time after 10AM. We got to the dock about 12:30 and took our bag of fish to the scales. The PA announcer was a long-time friend who asked what we caught the fish on. That meant a trip back to the boat to retrieve one of my custom c55s in blue over pink with blue belly. Vicki had caught all her keepers on c55s with most on the blue/pink. The big fish came on a solid black c55.
Our total 10 fish weighed 11 pounds even. I wish we could have stopped in the bay I mentioned to cull some of the 11 inchers but at least we were safe and sound as the lake got rougher. They told us we were leading but several teams were yet to weigh in. We tried walking around the vendor area of the festival and visit with some friends but both our minds were on what was being weighed it. We gave up on visiting and headed back the 200 yards to the scales. Team after team came in with little or nothing to show for their efforts. Even the bass guys were weighing in much less weight than would normally be needed to win on KY/Barkley (a 1st cousin of rnvinc and I won the bass class along with his 5 year old grandson).
We sat on the bleachers while all the weights were counted up. In the end, our weight was good enough to take 1st place. We won really nice plaques and some other items. A check would have been nice but that wasn't part of the deal. I did learn the next biggest bag was 3 keepers. Several folks approached us asking about what we were doing to catch them. I had my Crappie.com shirt and cap on and told some who asked to check out the site for info on any method they choose to catch crappie.
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In the end, it was a great day for both of us. My wife had over 100 comments to her post and pictures within a couple of hours. Another wonderful day with my wife and fishing buddy of over 40 years. I don't know if other tournaments are in our future. You never know what tomorrow will bring.
Vicki was winner of a drawing for a full day pontoon rental from Moor's Resort. I wonder of they will let me cover the rails up with HiTek rod holders so the whole family can troll cranks?
