The trend from the first day of the National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship on Kentucky Lake was speed … that’s high speed. Most of the anglers we saw while covering the tournament in the Chevy On the Water Update boat were covering a lot of water with crankbaits, spinnerbaits and other power-fishing lures. I watched competitors burn their lures so fast that, literally, they had to hunch over their reels to get enough leverage to maintain their speed.
Honestly, we didn’t see a lot of fish caught, but after seeing some of the late updates, it seems like the power-fishing techniques were putting plenty of fish in the boat by day’s end.
The speed tactics seem to fit right now on Kentucky Lake, not so much because of the aggressiveness of the fish, but because of the change in lake conditions from the pre-practice period. Most of the teams that made it to western Kentucky prior to the off-limits period spent their time knocking around flooded shallow cover. Kentucky Lake was several feet above summer pool then, but now it’s back down a few feet below summer pool. The brush that was flooded is now 15 yards onto dry land. Teams have had to revise their patterns and more or less just go searching.
My guess is that some of the teams will have dialed in a pattern today and will be all over them tomorrow. The weather is supposed to change, but if they found the right areas to get bit today, they can work out the details of the pattern and grind out another good bag tomorrow.
Stay tuned to the Chevy On the Water Updates tomorrow via @CollegeFishing, the College Fishing Twitter feed, to see how it plays out to make the finals.
