5 To Watch at Kentucky Lake
Only hours left to finalize your Fantasy Fishing team
With the season drawing near its close, the 2016 Walmart FLW Tour heads to Kentucky Lake for the fifth stop of the season, which is presented by Mercury and hosted by the Kentucky Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau. Aside from trying to win the $125,000 top prize, many anglers will be concerned with earning valuable points to help them qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup on Wheeler Lake Aug. 4-7.
June on Kentucky Lake means one thing: ledge fishing. It’s unanimous that any FLW tournament this time of year, whether it be a Tour event or BFL, on the massive 160,000-acre pond will be won offshore.
Normally, Lake Barkley offers anglers a chance to contend for the top 10 by fishing shallow. Anglers such as Scott Canterbury and Jay Yelas have pulled off top 10s from there, in fact, but they generally fished the southern end of Barkley. This time, the Tour anglers can only fish the far northern end of Barkley because the BFL All-American is taking place there this week. Some fish are still hanging around up shallow on Kentucky, but it’s questionable that there’ll be enough for a high finish. With temperatures approaching the upper 90s by the weekend it seems as though the ledges will be the place to be.
Like the Tour competitors, FLW Fantasy Fishing players have a shot at cashing in on some great prizes this week too. At each Tour event – six regular-season tournaments and the Forrest Wood Cup – more than $7,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded to the top 50 Fantasy Fishing players. There will also be cash prizes awarded to the top 10 teams at the end of the season based on cumulative point totals, including a $10,000 top prize.
To help you finalize your Fantasy Fishing team for the Kentucky Lake event, which starts Thursday, here are five pros to consider.
Head on over to FantasyFishing.com to finalize your team now.
1. Tom Redington
Over the last few years this Texas pro has proved that Kentucky Lake is like a second home. Redington locked up a top-10 finish back in June 2014 during the last Tour visit and then backed it up with a Costa FLW Series victory in May 2015, proving that he is no joke on this lake when the fish move offshore. It has been a rough year for Redington thus far on Tour. He’s in 126th place in the standings, but now he has the chance to finally fish something in his wheelhouse, and you can be sure he won’t let this opportunity slip by. His years of guiding on Lake Fork in Texas have taught him how to locate and trigger offshore fish, which is good because oftentimes these Kentucky Lake bass can require a little convincing once the weekend rolls around due to all of the fishing pressure. This is the event for Redington to right ship and finish the season strong.
Fantasy Verdict: At only $31 you can pick up a fantastic ledge fisherman and save a few bucks to add some other midlevel sticks to your roster. Seems like the perfect buy.
2. Stetson Blaylock
Blaylock has quietly started to assert himself as an offshore master over the course of the last few seasons, which he ultimately showed last year in his runner-up finish on Lake Chickamauga. His history on Kentucky Lake is pretty dang fair as well. He has had a few finishes inside the top 30 along with a 50th-place showing. Blaylock has continued to evolve more and more with each year and is to the point now where he is trusting his instincts and cashing more checks because of it. He currently sits seventh in the Angler of the Year race and is fresh off a top 20 on Pickwick. He has some solid momentum coming into this tournament.
Fantasy Verdict: Blaylock is a great upper-level pick at $33, especially considering the season he is having. Play the hot hand and add this Arkansas pro to your team.
3. Andrew Upshaw
Upshaw is another guy who loves to fish offshore, which may surprise some considering he lives in Oklahoma. Yet, like Redington, Upshaw boasts years of experience fishing Texas reservoirs such as Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn that are known for offshore fishing. Plus, the last time we came here he finished in the top 10. The other factor Upshaw has going for him is that if the bite is tough due to lack of current or fishing pressure he has no issue downsizing and going finesse to get bit. In 43rd place in the standings, Upshaw needs a good showing on Kentucky Lake this week to set him up to qualify for the Cup.
Fantasy Verdict: Upshaw is the perfect angler to fill in at the midlevel price range for your team. At $24 his experience and skills are more than enough to justify the buy.
4. Brandon Hunter
Kentucky’s Brandon Hunter is about as local as they come in this event, and his resume on Kentucky Lake over the last several years in Costa FLW Series events is more than impressive with two top 10s and a 22nd. He also took 21st in the Tour event back in 2014 – his first year as a pro. Hunter has all of the knowledge a guy needs on a lake of this magnitude – and then some. He understands where the fish stage up after spawning and knows areas off the beaten path that can hold big schools of bass. It’s only a matter of time before he nets his first top 10 as a pro on Tour, and Kentucky Lake is as likely a place as any.
Fantasy Verdict: Considering you get all of the skill and know-how of a Jason Lambert, Mark Rose or Randy Haynes with a much lower price tag, it would be dumb to pass on Hunter for $25.
5. Todd Hollowell
One of the best value buys in Fantasy Fishing is Todd Hollowell. He’s spent a ton of time on Kentucky Lake despite residing in Indiana, and his resume shows that. From local events to the Costa FLW Series, Hollowell has cashed plenty of checks on this reservoir. In fact, in his first year as a Tour pro in 2012 he made the top 10 on Kentucky Lake. Hollowell has had a decent season thus far and is just starting to pick up some steam. He is back on familiar waters and will be able to showcase just how in tune with this lake he can be.
Fantasy Verdict: For just $14 you can pick up a guy with years of experience and accolades from fishing this famed Tennessee River impoundment.