ON TOUR
T-H MARINE FLW BASS FISHING LEAGUE
BFL WILD CARD | KENTUCKY LAKE
GILBERTSVILLE, KY
By Jody White photoS by Jody WhIte
WINNING ANGLER
Kevin Powers unicoi, tenn.
Winning Weight: 32-09( 10 fish)
details: nov. 10-11, 2017
hosted by Kentucky Lake Convention & visitors bureau
In the BFL Wild Card on Kentucky Lake, which was held just a week after the brutally tough Costa FLW Series Championship on the same fishery, Kevin Powers went a little off the beaten track and headed over to the north end of Lake Barkley to punch his ticket to the All-American. Barkley offered much dirtier water and less pressure than Kentucky Lake, and by focusing his efforts there Powers was able to be one of only two anglers to catch a limit both days.“ I looked for deeper banks on the main channel that had some laydowns on them,” says Powers.“ With the water being down [ at winter pool ] and me not knowing the lake, I was just looking for the same things we’ d fish back home in east Tennessee.”
Powers caught keepers on several banks, but one magic tree at the end of a bluff produced an amazing 12 keepers for him over the two days of fishing. The end of his magic tree was in about 13 feet of water, which was the typical maximum depth he fished. Powers kept his
ALL-AMERICAN qUALIFIERS
boaterS
1. Kevin Powers Unicoi, Tenn.
2. Steve Ruff St. Charles, Mo.
3. Freddy Palmer Estill Springs, Tenn.
4. Danny Holloway Corinth, Miss.
5. Billy Schroeder Paducah, Ky.
6. Justin Royal Vidor, Texas baits close to the bottom and fished slowly with a homemade 5 / 8-ounce spinnerbait( chartreuse and white) and a Lunker Lure Original Rattleback Jig( green pumpkin) matched with a Zoom Big Salty Chunk.
Co-angLerS
1. Scott Stallings Glencoe, Okla.
2. Dave Roverts Indianapolis, Ind.
3. Robert Pillow Campbellsville, Ky.
4. Cory Miller Blanchard, Okla.
5. Andrew Nickeson Valdosta, Ga.
6. Carl Lingle Dongola, Ill.
WINNING CO-ANGLER
scott stallings glencoe, okla.
Winning Weight: 11-12( 4 fish)
Winning Program:
Scott Stallings caught one keeper on day one with a Yamamoto Senko, but he jumped up the leaderboard on day two by catching a trio of keepers with a Carolina-rigged 8-inch Zoom Lizard( watermelon with the tail dyed chartreuse).
80 flWfIshIng. com I january 2018