It’s deep-divers by a bill

Deep-water bite victorious, but not dominant, at Kentucky Lake FLW

Bets wagered on whether the Kentucky Lake FLW Tour event would be won shallow or deep are now settled.

The deep bite prevailed – by a crankbait bill.

Anthony Gagliardi of Prosperity, S.C., won the tournament by fishing a deep-diving crankbait on offshore ledges in 10 to 12 feet of water, but by no means was the deep pattern dominant over the shallow pattern.

In terms of a contest between the deep-water crankers/draggers and the shallow-water pitcher/flippers, the Kentucky Lake Wal-Mart FLW Tour event ended up being the kind of horse race one might find at Churchill Downs.

In the beginning, it looked like the deep-water bite would certainly dominate, especially since low water levels on Kentucky Lake left many of the prime flipping bushes on bare bank.

On day one, crankbait king David Fritts of Lexington, N.C., set the pace with 20 pounds, 12 ounces caught from Kentucky Lake’s deep ledges.

In addition, Terry Segraves brought in 18 pounds, 14 ounces caught on a Carolina rig.

But nipping at their heels was shallow-water power angler Greg Hackney from Gonzales, La., who reeled in 18 pounds, 8 ounces from shallow bushes 60 miles away on Barkley Lake.

On day two, deep-water anglers began to pull away from the pack.

Fritts protected his lead with a 13-pound, 13-ounce limit of bass.

Shinichi Fukae of Osaka, Japan, brought in 20 pounds, 1 ounce caught on a Carolina rig and a crankbait to move into second place.

And Gagliardi proved his deep bite was consistent with another solid 15-pound, 13-ounce catch that moved him into third.

However, Yamaha pro Alton Jones of Waco, Texas showed that the shallow bite was somewhat reliable by adding 16 pounds, 7 ounces to his total to move into fourth.

Castrol pro David Dudley of Lynchburg, Va., also rallied with a shallow bite by galloping into the top 10 from 75th place with 20 pounds, 9 ounces, the biggest stringer of the day caught on a top-water chugger.

If the race had ended there, the deep-water guys would have probably received the nod for being on the more productive pattern.

But with the qualifying round over, the real race was just beginning.

About the time weights were zeroed out for the top 10 on the morn of day three, the conditions began to favor the shallow-water camp. Dark clouds, rain and rising water levels tilted the odds in their favor.

At the day-three weigh-in, Fritts once again grabbed the lead with 16 pounds, 8 ounces.

Dudley answered Fritts’ challenge with a limit weighing 16 pounds even, but revealed his shallow bite had begun to waver, calling it a “dying pattern.”

Behind them, both types of anglers were neck and neck with just 1 pound separating third through seventh. Indeed, it would come down to the wire on day four.

When the final weigh-in kicked off, all eyes were on Fritts, the deep-water strong horse. He weighed out early with 10 pounds, 6 ounces slipping to fourth, citing lost fish as a reason for his stumble.

Then Dudley came to the stage with 11 pounds, 15 ounces and finished third.

In the end, the pattern race came down to two anglers from opposite ends of the water column: Hackney and Gagliardi.

Gagliardi won with a two-day total of 29 pounds, 8 ounces and Hackney finished second with 29 pounds, 3 ounces. However, Hackney, who was 6 ounces short of victory, had been penalized 8 ounces for a dead fish on day three.

So which was the dominant pattern?

“However you wanted to fish,” answered local favorite Dan Morehead of Paducah, Ky., who fished deep and missed the top-10 cut by 1 ounce.

“We hit this tournament dead in the middle of the transition between spawn and postspawn patterns,” he said at the final weigh-in. “A week before the tournament, the shallow-water bite was better; a week from now the deep-water bite will be on. But during this tournament it was a 50-50 split in terms of which pattern was stronger.”

Conditions likely played a role in the even split as well. The tournament started sunny and balmy. On day two clouds moved in. Days three and four were overcast with wind and rain all day – a detriment to the deep-water bite.

“If it had been sunny, hot and slick, I would have done a lot better,” said Fritts. “I got the complete opposite of what I needed.”

Obviously, both patterns worked at Kentucky Lake during the middle of May so here is a look at the patterns of Hackney and Gagliardi.

Shallow with Hackney

It seems that the lower the water is on Kentucky and Barkley lakes, the farther an angler has to run south to find something in the water to fish, and that’s exactly what Greg Hackney did during the four-day event.

Hackney was running nearly 60 miles south on Barkley to find pockets with flooded bushes and trees.

“Five of the fish I weighed in this week came from a chugger-style top-water bait, and the rest I caught flipping a jig,” he said.

His jig was a brown 3/8-ounce Triple Rattle Back with a green pumpkin trailer tied to 65-pound-test Spider Wire Stealth braided line.

“I was fishing short pockets off the main river,” Hackney said. “I rarely fished the backs of the pockets, just the sides with steeper banks – the first hundred yards or so on each side. I caught some fish off bushes, but most came off isolated trees – gums or sycamores that were flooded.”

Hackney estimates that most of his fish were in some stage of the spawn.

“I couldn’t actually see the fish, but I figure most were spawning or guarding fry,” he said.

Deep with Gagliardi

In contrast, Gagliardi fished exclusively in Kentucky Lake on 10- to 12-foot ledges located above and below the Kenlake (Highway 68) Bridge.

“Most of the ledges were 10 to 12 feet deep on top and fell off into about 18 feet of water,” Gagliardi said. “I was concentrating on irregularities along the ledges – tiny points, bends, corners and jogs. That’s where the fish tend to congregate, and that’s where most of the locals sink brush.”

Gagliardi used a Lucky Craft Flat CB D-20 crankbait with chartreuse sides and a blue back tied to 8-pound-test line.

“The Flat CB has a smaller profile and a wider wobble for a deep-running crankbait,” he said.

When the tournament started, Gagliardi had roughly a dozen places in Kentucky Lake that were producing fish. By the final day, one particular ledge north of the bridge became his primary spot.

Gagliardi noted that the ledges in creek mouths were better during practice, but the ledges out on the main lake were better during the tournament.

“The place where I won the tournament was out on the main lake, and I only caught one keeper on it the first two days,” he said. “But day three it really turned on, and I just camped on it the last day.”