The fifth FLW Tour qualifier doesn’t begin until June 11, but BASS, the other major tournament circuit, will hit Kentucky and Barkley lakes in just a few days. The BASS event will launch on the south end of Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tenn., beginning June 3.
And while none of the Bassmaster pros will be fishing the FLW qualifier, keen Fantasy Fishing players will want to pay attention to where the top pros fished and what patterns emerged. Simply put, what is working next week will likely work the following week when the FLW Tour is in town.
Most notably, it will be interesting to see if the fish have completely moved offshore to the ledges or if a few can be caught shallow flipping bushes. When the FLW Tour schedule was announced last August, it was basically a slam dunk that this tournament would be won deep with either a crankbait or a big jig. But after a cool and unusually wet spring, shallow water could play a bigger role than initially expected.
At the Stren Series event held three weeks ago, pro winner Mike Ward flipped buck bushes with a soft plastic creature bait. Second-place pro David Young (Young also fishes the FLW Tour) targeted the first postspawn wave by working ledges with cranks. Kentucky Lake guru Terry Bolton thinks the event will be won structure fishing.
“You may see some good stringers caught shallow, but over the course of four days that stuff probably won’t hold up,” he said.
Bolton is currently second on the Fantasy Trend, behind only David Dudley, the FLW Outdoors all-time money winner. Although he now lives in Arkansas, Bolton knows Kentucky Lake like the back of his hand. He’s optimistic about his chances but is concerned with amount of pressure the two lakes are receiving.
“There is a Triton Owners team event that starts tomorrow. It is supposed to have over 300 boats and then the BASS guys come in after that. There will be no shortage of boats out there.”
Ironically, the first official day of practice for the FLW Tour takes place Saturday, June 6. That’s also the final day of BASS competition – meaning the 150 FLW Tour pros will have the opportunity to witness the 12 BASS finalists in action.
“Seeing where the top-12 guys are almost gives you an idea of where not to fish because they’ve been beating that area up for four days. There is no doubt the pressure will affect those fish by the time we start. It’s just a matter of determining how exactly the pressure affects them.”