Bluegrass Yakmasters Classic 2-Day Tourney on Cumberland lake Oct 8th
Best three bass from each day with longest total taking first.
Top 10 cash pay out
Another new to me tournament and more new to me water. The tournament venue was Lake Cumberland. She’s deep, clear and massive, like 65,000 acres, with 1,200 miles of shore line massive! From high above, the lake almost looks like an octopus, with huge ‘tentacles’ that curve and twist until they meet at the head, also known as the Cumberland River. So where do I even start!? Fortunately, I was able to get to the lake a few days early and pre-fish the lake with my buddy Bert. Having good company, sitting around and sharing a meal, or talking fishing with good friends is often more rewarding than the tourney itself.
For practice, we initially decided to pre-fish one of the major fingers and some boat docks nearby, but only ended up with a few dinks each day. The lake really was showing how hard she can be with near vertical shoreline which went from 1ft to 100ft almost instantly. Fishing boat docks in 100’ of water is not what I’m used to, I was out of my element and off my game. A jerkbait thrown parallel along the docks would bring out schools of dinks, but they would just look at it and follow. BITE dammit, Bite! I knew the best thing for me was to stop fishing and put an end to the frustration…I needed Bobbi.
Since I decided ended my pre-fishing a little early, I had time to make a trip to the corner store for some ice…and hopefully an encounter with Bobbi. Now Bobbi isn’t your normal fisherman. He is what you would call a bobber with a sharpie marked face, but don’t let his simple drawn-on face deceive you, this dude knows his fishing. Bobbi was also my prop for the weekend to get people to laugh as the fishing was not inspiring, Bobbi knows. Enter the Tacy Gang, and the Strictly Sail party has officially started. We all gathered around Bobbi, waiting for his nugget of knowledge. He told us to check out a small backwater finger that had tons of rock and some really nice points. We are now a day before the tourney and our last day of practice, and following the advice of a bobber named Bobbi…this should end well. Well, it did! I caught two dinks off the first point, then a 17” and a 15” off the next point. I was finally putting together a pattern that was working for me and was also a pattern I was familiar with. Fish any rocky point I come across; the bigger the rock, the better! For the first time, I was able to drive back to camp with my mind at ease. I had a plan and a pattern, all thanks to Bobbi.
Being a two day tourney, if you want to give yourself a chance of winning, you absolutely must catch 3 quality fish 2 days in a row, which is no easy task. It’s challenging enough just finding a bite! At the end of day 2, the angler with the longest 6 bass (measured in inches) is the winner.
On day 1 of the tourney, I landed 35 fish! My three biggest gave me 38.25”. One of the fish, just a little 12.75”, flipped my tournament identifier in the air and a wind gust blew it away from my kayak. All I could do was watch it sink. Not knowing what to do at that point, I once again turned to Bobbi for advice. Call AJ, the tournament director. Aj tells me the only thing I can do is ask to borrow another angler’s tourney identifier. I had 3 good fish already, but it was only 11am and I still had time to cull out a smaller fish. Luckily, the Tacy Gang were not far away and I was able to replace my sunken identifier. At the end of day 1, I squeezed into 9th, with 38.25”. The leaders really showed how good the KY anglers are. Brian Slone was in 1st with 49.75”, and 2nd AJ McWhorter 49.25”. Two huge bags blowing everyone else away.
What a difference a day makes! On day 2, the bite had come to a complete stop. I struggled to get my limit of 3 fish, with the smallest being a 9.5” dink, which just ain’t gonna cut it. With a hour to go, I see a guy on a motor boat paddling back to the dock. Then I remembered a post from AJ, telling the story of how he used his Hobie Pro angler to tow a boat that had broken down. The Hobie Pro Angler is the most amazing fishing kayak! A kayak that can tow a full size motor boat is impressive! After towing the disabled boat back to the ramp, the gentleman offered to pay me. I tell him to just pass it on when someone else needs help. I know have about 15 minutes left to fish when Bert shows up. As we’re sitting there bullsh*tting, I get an itch to hit some trees right by the ramp and on the first cast I pull out a nice 15.5”! I know it’s not the biggest, but for me it’s huge. I can cull my little 9.5”! Karma is real! This fish pushed me up the ladder and having a consistent bag each day helped me big time. The top 10 changed day one. Some of those who had been right up there bombed out, and some who had a bad first day had a good second day. Getting 4th with a total 78.75” made my day and AJ won the event with a mind bending total 96 inches even. BGYM put on some great events well worth a trip to check out any of the quality events.
If you like reading these articles please share and like and as always a massive thanks to my sponsors Strictly Sail and Hobie.
www.strictlysailinc.com
www.hobie.com
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