Jason Lambert Wins FLW Elite at Tour Kentucky Lake

Knowing that he'd already secured victory at the Kentucky Lake FLW Tour and that his total weight for the event would exceed 100 pounds, Jason Lambert spent Sunday afternoon lounging on the deck of his boat at the launch, eating pizza and interacting with fans. As it turned out, he could've done that starting at sunrise and still collected the same six-figure paycheck without ever making a cast on day 4 of the tournament. The only difference is he would've missed out on the 100-pound thing and the fun of catching yet another massive sack of ledge-dwelling bass. Pickwick is Lambert's home lake, but his name is becoming synonymous with Kentucky. He captured his first Tour win there in 2016, won an FLW Series derby last year to offset a horrible Tour campaign and made it three in a row over the weekend in record-setting fashion. Randy Haynes held a slight edge over him after both days 1 and 2, but Haynes withdrew from the tournament early on day 3 after a dispute with Lambert over the rights to fish a ledge that both had utilized over the first 2 days. Any notion that someone other than Lambert might claim the trophy was put to rest as soon as Haynes left the water. Lambert went on to catch a Tour lake record 30-08 stringer that day to push his 3-day total to 74-06. That would've been enough to win - runner-up Scott Martin finished with 73-09 over 4 days - but he badly wanted to become the 11th angler in Tour history to amass s triple-digit total. He achieved that on day 4, finishing with 101-09. His 28-pound victory margin was easily the largest in the 23-year history of the circuit.

Practice:

Lambert did a considerable amount of boat-driving and almost no casting during the 3 days of official practice. He said he put 32 hours on his Evinrude motor during that period. "I approached it like any other ledge tournament at Kentucky Lake even though I knew the fish weren't as far along as they should be (due to a delayed spring warm-up)," he said. "I just drove around graphing ledges. "I saw groups of fish in maybe 12 places that I was pretty sure were bass (and not the now-overabundant Asian carp). There are a couple different things you can do to clarify what you're looking at, but I'd really rather not discuss those - we're going to be dealing with this issue for a long time."

Competition:

Lambert started the tournament on the spot that would be the site of his dispute with Haynes 48 hours later. Throwing a Castaic Jerky J swimbait, he boxed well over 20 pounds in less than 45 minutes and then pulled out (Haynes arrived shortly thereafter and caught a day-best 26-03). He said the locale, a "community hole" in the northern portion of the lake actually wasn't his favorite among the dozen waypoints he'd logged. "I was boat (No.) 51 that day, and the only reason I started there on Thursday because it was the first place I came to that I knew bass were on that nobody else was on," he said. "It was lights-out when I got there - I caught one that was 2 1/2 or 3 pounds on my first cast and it only took a few more to get the big ones ready to bite." He made one cull with a 4 3/4-pounder later in the day from the school he'd originally pegged as his No. 1 option. His opening-round effort left him trailing Haynes by 1-13. With the boat order flip-flopped for day 2, Haynes beat him to the northern locale, so he hole-hopped his way back toward Paris landing. He didn't have a fish at 10 o'clock, so he opted to run to an obscure spot on the southern end where he'd made one cast and caught a 5-pounder on the final day of practice. It's a ditch that runs through a small bar that's covered by about 7 feet of water.

"It's a place that very seldom gets fished even by any of the locals. It's kind of a hidden deal off the main river channel and you can't scan it - you just have to go fish. "It's been a traditional hole for me for a long time now. I know of two or three local guys who fish it, but that's about it." It took him 45 minutes to collect 19 1/2 pounds with a Gene Larew TattleTail worm. Haynes bag that day was 7 ounces heavier, leaving them 2-04 apart and far ahead of the rest of the field headed into the weekend. Lambert and Haynes staged a 20-mile-plus boat race to the northern location on the morning of day 3, with Lambert arriving several seconds earlier. Shortly thereafter, they were lined up virtually shoulder to shoulder for the precise cast that the spot demands.

They bumped boats a few times and a few words were exchanged, but not many and they weren't overly heated. FLW Live cameras recorded Lambert's offer to share the spot after making it clear that he wasn't leaving (Lambert already had a couple of decent fish in his livewell at that point). Shortly thereafter, Haynes strapped down his rod and trolling-motored away from the spot before starting his big engine, declaring that he had work to do at home in Ripley, Miss. "It was probably the most stressful situation I've ever been in while fishing a tournament," Lambert said. "I'm glad it worked out for my part." He caught about 19 pounds there in less than an hour, then moved to a ledge just a few miles away where he'd found some fish the previous day. He made three upgrades with a pair of 5-pounders and a 9-02 behemoth that was easily the largest fish caught in the event and his personal record for the lake. "I knew as soon as I set up on that big one that it was a serious fish," he said. "It gave me a big run right at the boat, but it wasn't anything too crazy." With Haynes no longer in the picture, he had a 19-pound lead heading into the final day. He went back to the place where he'd finished day 2 and caught two 3-pounders and a 5 on his first three throws of the Jerky J to put himself far out of reach of the remaining competitors. He amassed close to 25 pounds there, then went back to the other northern stop and made a cull with a 6 3/4-pounder. He idled over some other places for a while after that and headed for the ramp at about 11:45. "That time (back at the launch) was actually pretty anxious," he said. "I knew I'd won and I knew I had 100 pounds and I just wanted to get it all over with."

Winning Pattern:

The Jerky J is the same bait he'd used for his previous two Kentucky Lake wins - he employed both the 5- and 7-inch versions in this event. "It's just a real subtle swimbait and it's something those fish don't see all day, every day," he said. "I thought more people would start throwing it after 2016, but I still don't see hardly any of them. "I change sizes if I get a lull in the action. I weighed fish on both of them, but I tend to catch my bigger fish on the 7-inch."

He attaches it to a 1-ounce jighead that he orders components for and constructs himself. He's been doing that for a couple years since he ran out of the original Scrounger heads. "That's another thing that I don't want to talk too much about."

There's nothing tricky about his presentation. "It's like any other swimbait - I throw it as far as I can and then use a good, steady retrieve. It needs to stay pretty close to the bottom because that's where those fish are feeding."

Winning Gear:

Swimbait gear: 7'11" heavy-action Duckett Fishing White Ice II swimbait rod, Duckett Fishing 360RW casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), 18-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, homemade 1-ounce Scrounger-style swimbait head, 5" or 7" Castaic Jerky J (green shad).

Worm gear: 7'6" heavy-action Duckett Fishing Micro Magic rod, same reel and line, homemade 5/8-ounce jighead, Gene Larew TattleTail worm (plum).

Main factor: "It was a ledge tournament and I was going to stay out there until I found them, basically. I knew they were coming and it was getting better every day. I made a good decision to use those shallow fish on Friday and finding that other ledge spot that day ended up being a key deal."

Performance edge: "It was definitely my Garmin electronics."

FLW Elite Tour Kentucky Lake Winning Pattern BassFan 5/22/18 (John Johnson)

While Lambert's winning fish were on the northern end of the lake, Martin rode two schools of recent ledge arrivals to a runner-up finish that moved him to 2nd in the Angler of the Year race with only next month's event at Lake St. Clair remaining on the regular-season schedule. He'll start that derby trailing Rose by 64 points, so he'll need the leader to falter in order to have a shot at his second career points title. The closest of his two locales was about a 70-mile run from the launch in Gilbertsville, Ky. "I knew there was a good population of fish there and I felt like more and more were coming every day," he said. "They kept reloading. I eventually got the cast down perfectly and the line-up where I need to sit and I managed them the best I could. "I did run around and look for new stuff each day, but I never came up with anything. I felt I could do well if I just managed those spots right. I'd gotten onto a little bit of a shallow bite in practice, but I never used it in the tournament."

His offerings included a crankbait, a big worm, a hair jig and a Carolina rig. "The key was really (on day 3) at about 1 o'clock when I found some rusty swivels in my boat and tied on a Carolina rig for the first time in many years. I finished my limit with it, then I lost a 5-pounder and caught a 5. "(On day 4) I caught my second-biggest fish on it and several others that were over 3 pounds." The tops of the ledges at that end of the lake are much shallower - just 6 to 8 feet compared to 20-plus in the northern end.

Gear:

Carolina rig gear: 7'6" heavy-action Okuma TCS Scott Martin Signature Series rod, Okuma TCS casting reel (8:1 ratio), 20-pound P-Line Tactical fluorocarbon line, 1-ounce tungsten weight, 4/0 Trokar EWG hook, Googan Baits Bandito creature bait (green-pumpkin).

Jig gear: 7'11" medium-heavy Okuma TCS Scott Martin Signature Series Power Crank rod, same reel, 15-pound P-Line Tactical Fluorocarbon, 1/2-ounce hand-tied hair jig (white).

Worm gear: 7'3" heavy-action Okuma TCS Scott Martin Signature Series rod, same reel, 15-pound P-Line Tactical fluorocarbon, generic 3/8-ounce jighead, 5" Googan Baits worm (green-pumpkin).

Cranking gear: 7'6" Okuma TCS Scott Martin Signature Series rod, same reel, 15-pound P-Line Tactical fluorocarbon, 6" LiveTarget Blueback Herring swimbait.

Main factor: "There weren't very many boats down there where I was, even on the first 2 days. In my mind, that stuff wasn't getting messed with."

Performance edge: "My Garmin Panoptix allowed me to find the highest spots on those bars, which was very key, and the Spot-Lock (on his Minn Kota trolling motor) allowed me to make very precise casts in there. The last thing was that I could program my route back to the launch on my Garmin and it would give me the navigation and a precise ETA. I could manage my time and I wasn't stressed out about what time I should leave."

FLW Tour Kentucky Lake Patterns 2-5 BassFan 5/24/18 (John Johnson)

Douglas stayed on one ledge near Paris landing that kept replenishing day by day. He said that the tails were still bleeding on at least 65 percent of the fish he caught, meaning they'd just come from the spawning grounds. "When the Elites came here (a couple of weeks earlier), I didn't pay attention," he said. "I didn't want to know what they were doing because I knew this would be different." He spent about 2 hours flipping bushes during practice and quickly deduced that the program would not carry him to a high finish. "I just had to make sure I wasn't missing something," he said.

The native Minnesotan calls Mille Lacs his home lake and he's an expert at reading electronics Ð he even teaches classes on it to his fellow Northerners. He also spent a significant period of time living at Lake Chickamauga, where he learned the Tennessee River offshore game. "I love to use my Lowrance units to look for fish and the Navionics map showed the ledges and road beds really well. The spot I ended up fishing, I only got three bites there in practice, but they were three decent fish. "I milked it hard every day of the tournament and every day I got some good bites." His best fish for the event were a 7-pound largemouth and a 6-pound smallmouth. He caught fish from the tops of the ledges in 20 feet of water or so all the way down to 35 or 40 feet. A dropshot rig produced about half of his weigh-in fish, with the others coming on a mix of two different swimbaits and a Carolina rig.

Gear:

Dropshot gear: 7'3" medium-action G. Loomis NRX rod, Shimano Exsence 4000 spinning reel, 10-pound PowerPro Super 8 Slick braided line (main line), 10-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon (20' leader), 3/8-ounce Woo! Tungsten cylindrical dropshot weight, 2/0 Roboworm Rebarb hook, 7" Roboworm Straight Tail worm (margarita mutilator).

Swimbait gear: 7'7" heavy-action Shimano Expride rod, Shimano Curado K casting reel (7:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 1-ounce prototype Outkast Tackle Golden Eye swimbat head, 5.7" Strike King Shadalicious swimbait (gizzard shad).

His other swimbait, which he threw on the same gear, was a 3:16 Lure Company Rising Son. It produced his biggest fish on days 1 and 4.

Carolina rig gear: Older-model 7'6" G. Loomis GLX rod, same reel as swimbait, 20-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon, 1-ounce Woo! Tungsten weight, plastic bead (green), barrel swivel, 4/0 Gamakatsu Round Bend worm hook, unnamed plastic craw bait (green-pumpkin/purple flake).

Main factor: "Hunkering down in that hole that kept producing."

Performance edge: "The Lowrance units and the Navionics map, as well as my Phoenix/Evinrude. The boat and motor were flawless on the long ride to Paris and back."

FLW Tour Kentucky Lake Patterns 2-5 BassFan 5/24/18 (John Johnson)

Neal was an extreme longshot to end up in the top 5 after day 1, when he weighed a four-fish sack that just barely reached double-digits. The trip to the stage was especially painful considering he'd lost a 4 1/2-pound bite - every ounce of which would've aided his cause. "I fished too conservatively the first day," he said. "I didn't go out deep enough - I fished where I knew there was a few from practice. That bit me in the butt. Practice was terrible; I had one school that I'd actually found and they were just little ones. I had six keeper bites in 3 days.

"I scrapped everything on day 2 and went to an area around Paris that I know holds a ton of fish, and just went fishing. It was obvious stuff - ditch mouths and turns in bars in the 6- to 9-foot range." He started day 3 in that same place and caught three good ones, then found a much deeper school (20 to 22 feet) about a mile away that gave him two more weigh-in fish. He pounded that locale on day 4 and caught a bag that was topped only by Lambert's 27-03 haul. A Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog on a swing-head jig was his primary offering and he also connected with a swimbait. A deep-running crankbait gave him a single fish that he took to the scale.

Gear:

Jig gear: 7'4" heavy-action Denali Lithium Worm/Jig rod, Daiwa Tatula CT Type R casting reel (8:1 ratio), 20-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 3/4-ounce unnamed swing-head jig, 4" Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog (tilapia).

Swimbait gear: 7'6" heavy-action Denali Liithium Swimbait rod, Daiwa Tatula SV casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 20-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon, 1-ounce Ledgehead Lures swimbait head, 7" Big Bite Baits Suicide Shad (blue gizzard).

Main factor: "Keeping an open mind and not being 100-percent locked in on what I'd been doing in practice. Very few times have I just rolled the dice and gone practicing during the tournament, and I did that every day after the first day and it worked out."

Performance edge: "I have zero sponsorship with them, but it would be my Minn Kota Ultrex. There's no way I could've done what I did without it. I could sit on one spot while I culled, re-tied, re-rigged, whatever I needed to do. It saved me hours of time over the course of the week."

FLW Tour Kentucky Lake Patterns 2-5 BassFan 5/24/18 (John Johnson)

Rose, who's one decent finish away from his first AOY title, had a similar hang-up to the one that Neal experienced on day 1, and then he made the same type of climb up the standings sheet. "On the first day of practice I got intimidated by all of the (Asian) carp and I let them keep me from going out deep on the next 2 days," he said. "That was a poor decision on my part. I guess I thought every fish in Kentucky Lake was never going to go out offshore again. "After day 1 (of the tournament), I was behind and I knew I couldn't catch up doing what I was doing. I had to go out, so I started running old places. There was a lot of carp, but then I ran into a school of bass. "I had two schools that carried me on days 2, 3 and 4," he continued, "and I caught some single fish off a few shallow areas."

He lost what was perhaps his biggest bite on the final day, but that didn't cause him much consternation. "I had one on a swimbait that I locked up on and had on for a couple seconds and it felt like a sack of 'taters. It pulled off, but I also landed three 6-pounders that stayed buttoned up. You're not going to hear me complain." He threw a deep-diving crankbait and a jig and mixed in a variety of swimbaits.

Gear:

Jig gear: 7'1" heavy-action Team Lew's Mark Rose Ledge Series Jig/Worm rod, Team Lew's HyperMag Speed Spool casting reel (7.5:1 ratio), 17-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, unnamed 3/4-ounce swing-head jig, Strike King Rage Bug (blue craw).

Cranking gear: 7'11" heavy-action Team Lew's Mark Rose Ledge Series Mag Crankbait rod, Lew's BB1 Pro Speed Spool casting reel (5:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon, Strike King 10XD (sexy herring).

Main factor: "Forcing myself to go back to my strengths and the ways I've had success on the Tennessee River."

Performance edge: "Without a doubt, my Garmin electronics Ð they're my eyes under the water on the Tennessee River. My Mercury motor and the Lew's Ledge lineup were important, too."

FLW Tour Kentucky Lake Patterns 2-5 BassFan 5/24/18 (John Johnson)