Way to go Steve ! Glad to hear that Horny Toad bite is still on !

"Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers.com" wrote in message
...
I've been posting reports on OutdoorFrontiers.com for Kentucky Lake for
the past several weeks, and AlwaysFishKing has posted on his experiences
down here and LilMule has chimed in as well. I had an ulterior motive for
fishing down in the Camden area so much recently.

You see, LilMule (an OF member and friend) asked me to fish an open team
tournament being held out of Birdsong Creek with him. After seeing all the
lily pads and our results based on the recent trips, we thought we'd at
least not embarrass ourselves. But, I hadn't fished down there since
AlwaysFishKing was here, as I didn't want to burn out the spot through
overfishing.

Awake at 2:30 a.m., and out the door before 4, I was nervous as a long
tailed cat in a room full of rockers! It didn't get any better after we
were signed in and the boat in the water. I was talking with some of the
guys in the tourney and from the sounds they were making, LilMule and I
were facing some stiff competition, and most of them locals!

We were the 17th boat out of 33 to blast-off, and it was with relief that
the previous 16 boats all headed in the direction of the main lake. I got
up on plane and did a 180, heading for our spot, less than a mile from the
marina.

Still at WOT across a shallow flat, I dodged a few crappie stake beds, a
few stumps and in the pre-dawn gloom, dropped off plane, trimming the
motor up to avoid grounding the prop, we were fishing that shallow! And
actually, it was even shallower than my last trip as the Tennessee Valley
Authority dam system had dropped the lake level close to two feet! We we
were fishing in 18 to 24 inches. When I say shallow, I mean shallow!

With a Horny Toad already tied on, I began casting the edges of the pads.
Along about the third or fourth cast, LilMule and I almost peed ourselves
when the tranquility was shattered. BOOM! BANG! BOOMBOOMBOOM, KaPOW,
BANGBANGBANG! I had totally forgotten about duck season being open and as
we could see further into the huge expanses of lily pads, we realized that
we were almost surrounded by duck hunters! So now, LilMule and I really
started to wonder about our "winning pattern." I mean, we were expecting
"some activity" and we really didn't expect to have the area to ourselves,
and we knew the water would be lower, but we certainly didn't expect the
water to be almost half gone and we certainly didn't expect to share the
pads with heavily armed rednecks!

But it didn't seem to bother the bass as the first strike was from a legal
largemouth! Only 15.5 inches, but into the livewell it went, less than
five minutes into the fishing day. It was followed by another bass, a
little over 16 inches, two in the box! With gun fire continuing to ring
out, I continued to put fish in the boat. LilMule was getting bit on some
other frog styles, but on one, his reel's drag failed and a good bass got
wrapped around some pad stems and pulled off. He had several other good
strikes, but the largemouth were shortstriking or getting off!

While birdshot was raining down around us a three, a four and a five
pounder (not necessarily in that order) were added to the boat. We had a
limit at 7:10 By 7:15 we were culling, but only by ounces, not the larger
weights we had been getting on previous trips. When I unhooked the 4
pounder, I didn't think the fish would survive as it was hooked right in
the tongue. Sometimes the fish will survive such a hook wound, and other
times, when the hook is removed, the blood absolutely gushes. Guess which
one I had? Around 11:30 LilMule was able to cull out a 2lb, 11 oz. fish
with a 2lb, 12 oz. fish that took a 7" Magnum Super Fluke!

The bite continued right up until it was time to weigh in, and we were
catching legal fish, but catching fish weighing 2lb, 6 oz. or 2lb, 8 oz.
didn't help.

All this time, I was positive that the guys fishing the main lake ledges
and weedbeds were really hammering the fish, so while I figured we'd be in
the middle of the pack of 33 boats, I was still nervous.

I started feeling a little better talking to some of the other contestants
milling around the weigh-in. Some skunked, some had a few fish, not too
many it seemed had limits. No one I talked to had culled!

When I got the fish from the livewell, I lost some confidence again as I
found that not only the 4 pounder was dead, but also the five! I don't
know what happened there, but with a 1/2 pound per fish dead penalty, I
didn't think we stood a chance. I was assured that the two dead fish were
going to go home with one of the anglers, so at least they weren't wasted.

From my seat, I could hear the scoreperson tallying the weights. The
winning team had 17.01 pounds. I started feeling a bit better. After the
dead fish penalty, "Team Transplant" had 16.45 pounds! We had finished in
FIFTH PLACE! Not too shabby for a couple recent transplants to Tennessee
who'd never fished a tournament together, and until recently had not
fished the Birdsong Creek area!

Then on the way home, it dawned on me. If those two fish wouldn't have
died, we would have won it!!!