Kentucky Lake Top 5 Patterns Day 1
Staging areas, shad spawn key for prespawn and postspawn bass
The ledge bite isn’t happening yet at Kentucky Lake, but it’s coming. A few of the top pros on day one of the Costa FLW Series Central Division event presented by Lowrance say they’re in “survival mode” right now. They’re catching fish, but really they just want to make sure to be around for the weekend, when it’s quite possible the ledges will start churning out the kind of early summer limits that Kentucky Lake is known for. A few pros did idle and graph ledges this afternoon and found some early schools, but that pattern isn’t quite right yet. Most of the fish are being caught from areas too shallow to scan.
Local pro Sam Lashlee has the early lead with 21 pounds. He’s hole-hopping and targeting specific pieces of wood cover. The rest of the top five pros are more dialed in on schools of fish. Here’s how they got it done on day one.
2. Mark Rose – West Memphis, Ark. – 18-02 (5)
Walmart pro Mark Rose is playing the waiting game, and he’s playing it very, very well. Rose landed 18 pounds, 2 ounces today and has his eye on the weekend, with hopes that the ledges will load up.
Three of his keepers today were broad-shouldered smallmouths.
He says he’s fishing shallower than normal on top of a few places because the fish aren’t quite where he wants them. They’re relating to a shad spawn.
“If I can catch a decent bag tomorrow I feel like they’re just days away from being out [on ledges],” Rose says. “I spent the afternoon looking out and found one place. It’s not loaded. We need a couple of good warm nights. I need them to swim away from the beds tonight.”
3. Jeremy Ethridge – Murfreesboro, Tenn. – 17-14 (5)
Kentucky Lake is home away from home for Murfreesboro, Tenn., pro Jeremy Ethridge, but he looked like an old salt on the lake today. Ethridge caught 17 pounds, 14 ounces to slide into the third-place slot.
“I was just taking advantage of an early morning bite. It’s kind of a shad spawn deal,” he says.
Though the bite was good and it produced one of Ethridge’s kickers, it didn’t give him a limit. He had to hunt and peck to get five. In fact, he only landed five keepers today.
“The fish are kind of spread out,” he adds. “It’s a tough deal.”
Ethridge’s key tactic was throwing a reaction bait. His fish are postspawn, and today’s limit included a couple of stud smallmouths. One weighed more than 6 pounds. He’s not entirely sure if they’ll replenish tomorrow though.
4. Daniel Kweekul – Bryant, Ark. – 17-12 (5)
Arkansas pro Daniel Kweekul is in a good spot to earn his second consecutive top-five finish in the Central Division. He finished runner-up at Dardanelle a few weeks ago and started the Kentucky Lake event with a 17-pound, 12-ounce limit.
“I culled about five fish but never got a really big bite. All my fish were the same size,” Kweekul says.
Kweekul spent two solid days of practice looking for spawners to sight-fish but never really found the quality he thought he needed. Now he’s on a solid prespawn pattern and has a handful of areas where he’s applying it. Today he only made one quick stop on each in hopes of preserving some fish, though that might not be an issue. Kweekul says his spots had only 2-pound bucks on them in practice. Today, larger females showed up in their place. That suggests the fish are moving to him.
“I’m using a slow bait but fishing it fast,” he says. “I hop it two or three times. If they’re there, they eat.”
5. Randy Haynes – Counce, Tenn. – 17-10 (5)
In typical fashion, Randy Haynes downplayed his day-one success. Granted, Haynes has very high standards when it comes to Kentucky Lake fishing, but his 17-pound, 10-ounce limit is nothing to sneeze at. He just knows how good it could be out there in just a few days, and his biggest concern is making it into the top 10.
“There are not many out yet,” he says. “I got lucky and found a couple schools. I looked for three hours this afternoon.”
In the morning, Haynes ran to a few areas where he found some in practice and covered a lot of water. He got his limit, and once the sun got high he transitioned to the looking game. He says the evenings are the best time to find offshore fish right now, but today he had an early boat number and suffered a short day. It’ll flip-flop tomorrow, which is in Haynes’ favor.
“They’re sitting there in places just waiting. They’re really spread out. They’re not eating the bait, just hitting it,” says Haynes, who threw a Profound Outdoors Z-Boss crankbait most of the day.
“When they commit [to moving out], they’re gone,” he adds. “But it’s still April. They shouldn’t even be out there. I just got lucky and got a couple big bites today.”
Top 10 Pros
1. Sam Lashlee – Camden, Tenn. – 21-00 (5)
2. Mark Rose – West Memphis, Ark. – 18-02 (5)
3. Jeremy Ethridge – Murfreesboro, Tenn. – 17-14 (5)
4. Daniel Kweekul – Bryant, Ark. – 17-12 (5)
5. Randy Haynes – Counce, Tenn. – 17-10 (5)
6. Cody Harrison – Florence, Ala. – 17-05 (5)
7. Richard Ison – North Vernon, Ind. – 17-03 (5)
8. Chris Miranda – Russellville, Ark. – 17-01 (5)
9. Todd Schmitz – Goshen, Ind. – 16-10 (5)
10. Steve Floyd – Leesburg, Ohio – 16-08 (5)
Details
Competition continues Friday at 6:30 a.m. CT from Paris Landing State Park. The entire field fishes again, and the top 10 pros and co-anglers based on two-day cumulative weight advance to Saturday’s final round. Watch the day-two weigh-in via FLW Live at 2:30 p.m. CT.