Ups and Downs at the Cup
JT Kenney’s wild ride on Wheeler Lake
(The writer's opinions and observations expressed here are his own, and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views, policies or positions of FLW.)
To say I had an up-and-down Forrest Wood Cup would be a serious understatement. It was very exciting for the fans and pretty stressful for me, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Let’s face it, what would a Cup be without some stress and drama, right?
As we all know, John Cox took home the Cup by plying a backwater creek of Wheeler Lake for all four days of the event. That in itself is a feat. Everyone, including myself, assumed that since it was a Tennessee River event in summer, it would be won in deep water on main-river ledges. I spent four and a half days of pre-fishing in June and the three days of practice just prior to the event committed to the offshore game, only straying to the shallows on a few occasions. Why wouldn't I stay deep? It’s my favorite way to fish, and it’s the Tennessee River in summer … It's what you do. Well, weren't we all wrong.
So, here's where my head is driving to the ramp on day one. I have spent seven and a half days in the last month scouting every inch of every deep-water ledge in this lake with nothing to show for it except one good fish here and one good fish there. What do I do? That's right, straight to a ledge where I caught one good one in practice. Like it’s miraculously gonna get better. Guess what? It didn't.
I catch one keeper fish pretty quick and lose two more in about the first two hours of the day. That's pretty much it. Throughout the day I try several different spots and even fish shallow for an hour at the end of the day. One fish. At the Forrest Wood Cup. One fish. On a lake I've finished second at twice. One fish. Sitting 48th out of 50. Wow.
I don’t want to speak to anyone. Head straight back to the hotel, open a cold beer and stare at my tackle. Time to change. Completely. I decide I'm going shallow.
Changing it up
I had watched a few videos on FLWFishing.com that night of the coverage from the day. One of the videos was of the leader, John Cox, in a creek that looked eerily similar to one of the two creeks I had gotten bites in on my limited shallow forays during practice. Not wanting to mess him up, I found him the next morning and asked him if it was the same creek. It was. Well, that makes my decision where I’m gonna fish easy. Not the creek that Cox is in, that's for sure. I have way too much respect for him and the sport to do that. I'm gonna go work on the other creek. I tie on some shallow confidence stuff – a Nichols Pulsator spinnerbait, a Nichols Reflex Buzzbait, a 6th Sense MVT 80X crankbait and a Gambler Flipp’n Tube with a 5/16-ounce Reins weight. If there's a fish shallow it will bite one of those.
I was finally right. Bite it they did. The second day I got to my creek, put my trolling motor in the water and said I'm going ’til I can't get any farther. About 15 minutes into my journey I was rudely interrupted by a 4-pound largemouth that inhaled my spinnerbait at the end of a log. From that moment on the next four hours or so would have been pretty magical on any lake, much less Wheeler Lake in August during the Forrest Wood Cup.
I caught two more good ones on the spinnerbait. Then caught my biggest one on the tube in a brushy little laydown right on the bank. The final big one fell prey to the crankbait on the same laydown I caught one off earlier on the spinnerbait. Did that just happen? Yep, it did.
Word got out that I was whacking on them. When I got back to weigh-in I got a lot of questions. Once they were weighed the scales settled at 19-2. Heaviest bag of the entire event. I went from 48th to 18th and into the cut to fish again on Saturday.
Well, I started day three in the same creek where the magic happened on Friday. I caught four keepers in there, but nothing to big. I followed the same pattern around that general area of the lake the rest of the day. I caught lots of keepers, but just couldn't compile the weight that I did the day before. Ended Saturday with 8-8 and stayed right where I started the day in 18th. It was an up-and-down tournament for me but one I won’t soon forget. There’s never a dull moment at the Cup, and I already can't wait for next year.
