Kerrlicious: Hartwell, Lanier and Old Friends

I just finished up fishing Lake Hartwell for the FLW Tour and Lake Lanier for the PAA back to back. The two lakes fished pretty similar. They are both red clay lakes with a lot of blue back herring.

At Hartwell, I caught a few on beds, and during practice all I did was look for beds and areas. I probably should have ‘fished’ a little more. I didn’t have as much going as I thought I should have. On the first day I weighed in around 11 pounds. That really hurt because I didn’t have enough just fishing wise.

I ended up catching most of them on crankbaits, I think I did end up catching a total of 3 bed fish during the tournament. The crankbait the was most effective was the Evergreen Wild Hunch. The site fish came on the Roboworm 6-inch straight in Kerrlicious color.

The second day of the event I sat on a 6-pounder for while. I did catch the male before I had to leave for weigh in, but the female wouldn’t go. The male was a 3.75-pounder. I could have made the cut with the female and the improvement in the standings would have been valuable in reference to season standing points.

I spent about 45 minutes. The two fish were split up, but close together. I thought maybe they had 2 beds going. I kept pitching at the female and then I moved away and just blind casted up to her. The line swam away and I though I had her, it was the male. The female followed the male right to the boat. While I was fighting the male I told my co-angler, “I wanted the other one.”

He yelled at me, “I’d worry about the fish you got on the line right now, get it in the net.”

I just wanted the big one, but I still needed that fish.

As for Lanier, it fished exactly the same as Hartwell. The cool part about Lanier was I got to hang out with Aaron Martens and his family. Aaron has been a friend for a long time. Ever since he moved back to Alabama I just don’t get to see him much. It seems like everytime I see him his kids have grown a foot each. Aaron taught me a lot about fishing and competing.

As for the fishing, I found myself fishing right near Aaron and he was stroking them and I struggled. That was a little disheartening, but its great to see a good friend do well. I believe Aaron ended up in the top 5 overall for the event.

The Lanier event will be my only PAA event for the year. They do a great job with the event and I’ll fish some more in the future.

Now it’s off to Lake Chickamauga where I hope to move up in the AOY standings from my current 34th place status.