Tournament Standings
		Pl.		Team Lucky Craft
		15		Kelly Jordon
		25		Gerald Swindle
		29		Skeet Reese
		76		Casey Ashley
		85		Takahiro Omori

GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. (June 19, 2008) - Kentucky Lake, the largest artificial lake in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River, hosted the Bluegrass Brawl this past weekend. The world’s best anglers converged on the 160,309-acre lake with one obvious goal in mind; catch the biggest fish they could find.

Jordon’s main technique was cranking a Lucky Craft Flat CB D-20 in Chartreuse Light Blue on deep ledges, but he went shallow a few times with a buzzbait and a Lucky Craft Gunfish.

"I’d crank the D-20 down to the bottom and bang the structure," Jordon explained. "You can throw that bait a mile because of it’s weight transfer system, and it dives deep quickly, too. I was cranking it down in about 17 to 18 feet of water even when I was casting a long way. That was really important. It’s hard to find any other crankbait that will hit that depth with such a long cast."

Jordon’s first day made it difficult for him to rebound and make the top 12. He brought in five fish weighing 12 pounds, 14 ounces, which left him scratching his head.

"I don’t know what happened on day one," Jordon admitted. "I ran a bunch of places, but that first day cost me big time, especially after bringing in 21 pounds on day two, and 17 [pounds] on day three. I guess I should have stayed on a few of my areas a bit longer and let the fish figure things out instead of running around and trying to force it."

The next Elite Series tournament, the River Rumble, was originally scheduled for the Iowa River. Due to conditions in Iowa, the tournament has been moved to Nashville, Tenn., and Jordon, along with the rest of the Elite anglers, will fish Old Hickory Lake.

"I think Old Hickory will fish like this one [Kentucky Lake]," Jordon said. "The fishing won’t be as good though, and we’ll have smaller weights. I think it will fish deep, and the I think the Flat CB D-20 will do really well there, too."

"I never fished the bank," Swindle began. "I didn’t catch as many as I would have liked to, but when you’re practicing, you never truly know how many fish are in a particular area. You go to a spot, catch two or three fish and then move on."

On day one, Swindle never could get a big bite, but didn’t lose any fish either, which makes a big difference when weigh-in rolls around. After catching an 8-pounder in one of his areas in practice, he knew he was in the right spots. He just never got the big bite he was hoping for. Weighing in 16 pounds, 4 ounces put Swindle in decent position going into day two.

"It was the same game on Friday," Swindle said. "I fished the same areas and caught a lot of fish, but the biggest fish I had all day was a 4-pounder, and it came off. I weighed in almost the same exact weight I had on day one, just a few ounces more [16 pounds, 9 ounces]."

Swindle was throwing the Flat CB D-20 in Table Rock Shad and a 1/2-ounce Picasso Shakedown with a zoom speed craw. He’d start off with the Shakedown, getting the fish moving and then switch to the crankbait. Swindle threw the D-20 on a 7 foot, medium action rod with 10-pound fluorocarbon and a 5-to-1 reel.

Fishing in areas where the lake narrowed down, Swindle would throw the crankbait on shell beds, gravel and rock in 6 to 10 feet of water.

"I caught more than 100 fish yesterday [Friday], and I caught three sets of doubles," Swindle said. "I was catching two fish at a time with that crankbait. One time yesterday, I had a 2 3/4-pounder and a 3-pounder on at the same time."

Swindle was pleased with fishing a clean tournament, and admits it just didn’t happen for him this time around. With Old Hickory next on his radar, Swindle is excited to go back to "his kind of fishing."

"I’ll have a little topwater bite there and be able to swim a jig," Swindle said. "I like it. I’m ready to get to a couple tough tournaments, and I think Old Hickory is going to be one of them. In a tournament like the one we just had on Kentucky Lake, it’s a slaughter-fest. Once you get behind, you’re behind; there’s no catching up. On Old Hickory, you can be in 80th the first day, go out and catch 14 pounds the next day and move into the cut."

"I would catch one fish here and another one there," Reese said. "I had one spot I thought I could catch them well on, but it never materialized. After having nothing to go on from practice, I had to pretty much start over when the tournament began."

On day one, it turned out well for Reese despite his obstacles, as he weighed in 19 pounds, 3 ounces. He found two schools of fish and was able to catch more than he anticipated after having such a tough practice.

"I was fishing secondary breaks close to the main river channel with the Flat CB D-20 [on a 7 1/2-foot fiberglass rod with 10-pound fluorocarbon]," Reese said. "I was fishing offshore quite a bit and in addition to the D-20 [Chartreuse Light Blue], I was throwing a 3/4-ounce football jig and a 10-inch power worm. I rotated between those three baits all week."

Reese decided to stick with the spots that served him well on day one, but Friday didn’t go as planned for the California resident.

"I had boat trouble and lost three hours of fishing," Reese explained. "I lost those three hours at the time when the fish really started biting, too. I was able to get a back-up boat, and once I got back out on the water, I only had about 20 minutes left to fish. I was able to cull out three fish, which was nice, but knowing I could have done much better made me upset."

In addition to the boat trouble, Reese lost two big fish on day two, admitting it was a bad day overall. Still, Reese weighed in 15 pounds, 2 ounces and was tied for 14th with teammate Kelly Jordon going into day three. He was pleasantly surprised after walking across the weigh-in stage.

Day three was a different story and Reese left disappointed and frustrated after only being able to weigh-in four fish for a total of 13 pounds, 2 ounces.

"I didn’t catch my first fish until around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday," Reese said. "I had a fish come off, and he probably weighed 4 pounds or so. I was only able to bring in four fish and that alone really disappoints me. My number one goal, and my job, is to catch five fish every day to weigh-in."

After three days of fishing, Reese weighed in 47 pounds, 7 ounces. Ready to move on to the next tournament, Reese knows Old Hickory will be a tough fishery.

"I haven’t been there in nine or 10 years," Reese said. "It is heavily fished, and I know it will be tough. I think it will fish similar to Kentucky Lake, and I’ll most likely fish the crankbait, jig and worm again on ledges."

Lucky Craft’s Casey Ashley finished tied for 76th with a total two-day weight of 25 pounds, 3 ounces. According to the South Carolina native, practice didn’t pan out the way he’d hoped.

"Coming into this tournament, everyone told me ledges were key," Ashley said. "I did that for two and a half days in practice and never found anything. I had to go to the bank. I went to the bank for two hour on day one and figured I could catch five. Never found any big ones though and that was the problem."

Ashley fished shallow bays off the main lake Thursday and Friday and was swimming a jig mostly, but he was able to catch a few on a frog.

"I caught 40 fish yesterday [Friday], just no big ones," Ashley said. "I wasn’t around the big fish. I’d fish shallow first thing each day and then go back out deep to see what I could find. I kept looking for good ledges but never found anything."

According to Ashley, he’ll have some help if he comes to Kentucky Lake again next year.

"This is a big place, and you can’t cover it in two days [of practice]," Ashley said. "I’ll have to come back next time and get someone to show me some things. I had never seen this lake and didn’t know what to expect. Hard lessons learned are the best ones, I guess."

After the learning experience on Kentucky Lake, Ashley heads to Old Hickory where he feels the competition may be a little more even.

"No one has really had a chance to ask around about how to fish Old Hickory," Ashley added. "I am sure some guys have been there, but I think it’ll be a little more even on that lake. I hear it’s another ledge lake, because it is on the same river as Lake Barkley. I do think it has a lot of docks too, so I’m excited about that. I love dock fishing."

"It was tough for me out there," Omori said. "This place is hard, because I had to rely on deep fish. That’s not my strong point."

Omori was throwing the Lucky Craft Flat CB D-20 in Ghost Tennessee Shad on deep humps in 15 to 20 feet of water. He was jumping from ledge to ledge trying to find different ones that held the big fish.

"I was looking at a map to find the key ledges, trying to cover all the ledges I could," Omori said. "When I found some ledges that looked good, there were usually a lot of fisherman already on the spot when I got there. All the key spots were taken, and that made it even tougher for me."

Omori weighed in 10 pounds, 11 ounces on day one and 13 pounds, 15 ounces on day two, improving as the days went on but not catching enough to make the top 50. Omori ended his tournament in 85th with a two-day total of 24 pounds, 10 ounces.

"My biggest issue was not being able to find the key spots," Omori said. "For some reason, I had a problem fishing the deep ledges. This week I had no shallow-water fishing options, so I forced myself to fish deep. It just didn’t work out for me. I’m just trying to do as well as I can in these summertime tournaments to survive and get points for the Classic."

When asked about Old Hickory, Omori knew it would be another tough tournament, much like Kentucky Lake.

"I’ve fished a lot of tournaments there, but Old Hickory will be in a summer pattern, too," Omori said. "It will fish deep, and I’ll have to find some offshore structure. I’ll have to throw the same things I did here on Kentucky Lake - the Flat CB D-20 and a Carolina Rig. I might have some boat docks to fish, so that might help me."

Bass Pro Shops angler Rick Clunn had a successful week on Kentucky Lake fishing ledges with the RC 3.5 DD in White Shad. He was sitting in second going into the final day of competition.

"I fished ledges, but I may have been a little shallower than others," Clunn said. "I fished in 8 to 11 feet of water on the main river channel. Ninety percent of my fish came on the RC 3.5 DD. I would catch a few fish on a jig when they’d slow down, but if I could get them going with the jig, I’d switch back to the crankbait. I could catch bigger fish with the crank."

According to Clunn, it was all about finding the right angle with the Lucky Craft RC 3.5 DD.

"I had to find the sweet spot on the structure," Clunn explained. "Once you get the fish going, you don’t have to be as precise. To get them going first thing, you usually have to hit that key, trigger area."

Clunn finished 9th with a four-day total of 72 pounds, 4 ounces.