Curt McGuire bested some of the best ledge fishermen in the country this week on Kentucky Lake, with a 3-day total of 15 bass weighing 70 pounds, 3 ounces. He won by more than 7 pounds in what was a pretty good tournament by any standards of bass fishing.
Curt McGuire has been here before. In the winners circle in an Everstart Series bass fishing tournament on Kentucky Lake. Truth be told, folks around here sort of expect it. At least when it’s June and the fish are just getting to the ledges on Kentucky Lake. This week was “that week”. The week when the schools first group up in large numbers after the spawn and start getting competitive about feeding on shad on hard spots along the river and creek channels.
Anymore, finding schools of bass is not that difficult on Tennessee River fisheries in the late spring and early summer in the age of Lowrance Structure Scan and Humminbird Side Imaging. Just finding schools of fish is not enough to win these days. And it wasn’t this week. You had to have a plan, a strategy of how to fish for bass that you knew others had found too. You had to have a variety of options, time the locations, use different techniques and presentations, save spots for the finale, and more. All of those things came together for McGuire.
McGuire used 5 different crankbaits, swimbaits, spoons, jigs, big worms, carolina rigs, and probably a few other baits he didn’t mention.
“This means more to me than you know, having my father here on Father’s Day weekend. He really gave me the bug for fishing. So having him be here means a lot.
“I had 13-15 rods on my deck this week. I had a spot I really wanted to get to the first morning and was able to get on it and catch a couple big ones early. Then from there I just had a lot of stuff that I worked to find or check for 5 or 6 days leading up to the tournament. And I saved a spot for today and luckily it paid off.”
Here is how the rest of the top 10 shook out today on Kentucky Lake:
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- Curt McGuire 70-3
- David Gnewikow 62-13
- Mark Rose 62-7
- Kevin Snider 60-1
- Sam Morrow 59-13
- Clent Davis 59-3
- Randy Haynes 58-1
- Jason Lambert 56-6
- Ray Barga 47-8
- Mickey Beck 43-10