The Murray State News

Issue date: 3/13/08 Section: Sports

Steve Miller

Kentucky Lake has been known as a premier fishing destination for quite some time now. It's no secret, as you turn the pages of magazines and browse the web, that Kentucky and Barkley Lakes are among the best fisheries is the nation. Perhaps the biggest indicators that solidify the great fishing are the tournament trails that visit year after year.
The Lakes are the stage for some of the most prestigious events in tournament fishing. Kentucky Lake has been the site of eight previous professional level BASS events, including Elite Series and Northern Tour events in 2006.
FLW, whose headquarters are just up the road in Benton, Ky., also schedule numerous events on the lakes. The tour pros have made stops at Kentucky Lake to determine the best of the best as it pays out over $100,000 at each event.
While these tournaments certainly speak well of the fishery and provide entertainment, they can also be great learning tools. It is an opportunity for you to see how the best anglers in the world locate and catch fish on an unfamiliar body of water.
Spectators are allowed to follow the anglers during competition and observe from a distance. You can learn so much from watching and doing what the pro does as he tries to make a living. The obvious factors will be the location, lures and techniques as you view from a distance, but a closer examination will reveal slight differences in techniques that can make all the difference in the world.
For example, Kevin Van Dam may fish a point you have fished a hundred times. You figure he will have the same mediocre results as you have had in the spot. But he starts throwing a crankbait and has his limit in ten minutes. You wonder how he can have more success than you in the same location, using the same lures and techniques.
I assure you it has nothing to do with luck. It is the slight nuances he utilizes that turn a good fisherman in to a great one. For example, stopping the retrieve of a crankbait after it deflects off structure, letting your jig rest on the bottom a little longer in between strokes, or intentionally getting your rattle trap hung up in the grass and ripping it free to provoke a strike.
If you get the opportunity to see the pros in action this year, analyze the little things they do that set them apart from the rest of the pack. You can visit the Web sites of FLW and BASS to see when they will visit the Kentucky Lake area.

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