TUG VALLEY BASS ANGLERS

Tug Valley Bass Anglers Paintsville Lake Tournament

Presented by HUTCH

On March 19th the Tug Valley Bass Anglers held its first tournament of the 2017 season on

Paintsville Lake. There was a great turn out with 32 anglers competing in the event.

Paintsville Lake was full pool and in good shape with the water being clear on most of the lake, stained on the upper end and a temperature around 45.

Weather for the tournament was good. The day started out with a temperature of 40 degrees and topped out at about 55 with mostly cloudy skies and moderate winds.

The fishing for this first tournament was very poor, the worst Paintsville has fished in years. The water temperature had dropped about 10 degrees in the week prior to the tournament and that had a devastating effect on the fishing.

The fish were in early prespawn type locations and the catchable fish were closer to the bank

relating to steep main lake areas and wood cover.

The main pattern for this tournament was to fish crankbaits and jigs on the areas the fish were

coming up to feed on. The active fish were fairly shallow, 6 foot or less.

The top finishers are as follows.

1st --Joe Collins --- (2 fish) 6.36 lbs. Big Bass 4.37 lbs

2nd -- Kevin Runyon --- (1 fish) 3.20 lbs.

3rd--Steve Cullop --- (2 fish) 2.83 lbs.

4th --Don Newman --- (1 fish) 2.28 lbs.

5th --Don Taylor --- (4 fish) 1.91 lbs.

6th--Mike Cullop --- (3 fish) 1.72 lbs.

7th-- Johnny Webb --- (2 fish) 1.19 lbs.