Kentucky Lake Midday Update – Day 1

Big weights coming to the scale

Anglers got off to a good start on day one of the Costa FLW Series Central Division event presented by Lowrance on Kentucky and Barkley lakes, with several well on their way to solid limits within the first hour of competition. We expected to find anglers bunched on a handful of offshore spots, but we surveyed the lake from the Kentucky Dam to the bridge at Paris Landing and mostly found boats scattered or loosely grouped in twos and threes.

FLW Tour pro and Kentucky Lake hammer Jason Lambert had caught a 4- and a 3-pounder when we rolled up on him around 7:10. Shortly thereafter, he and co-angler Bryan Rupe nabbed a double-header of keepers.

Tour pro Tom Redington had a good morning with an estimated 18 pounds by about 10:30. Fred Roumbanis was also eyeballing 18 by late morning, and local pro Austin Brown was also in that range.

We didn’t see as much cranking as expected, but the anglers have been throwing a mix of swimbaits, Scrounger Heads, hair jigs and magnum spoons, along with slower presentations such as jigs, big worms and drop-shots.

With most boats working offshore, this tournament sets up well for co-anglers to enjoy plenty of opportunity. Texas co-angler Mark Howard boxed two keepers in front of the camera, while Louis Scornavacco had four keepers within the first hour and a half.

Notably, some had to wait patiently for their schools to start biting. We talked with Joey Cifuentes around 8:30 and asked why he already had a drop-shot in his hand. He said that when the fish are lethargic in the early morning, he can often pick off a limit with the finesse rig and then go looking for big bites.

The majority of boats were working deep offshore structure, but a few tested main-lake points and shallow flats. Wells Kaiser suffered an engine failure, and with his mobility severely limited, he worked around the riprap of the Hwy 68/80 Bridge.

Weigh-in starts at 2:30 p.m. CT, and we’re expecting to see several bags of 20-plus pounds.