It really is called "Buggs" Island for a reason!!

I got to Henderson the Thursday afternoon before the NC BASS Federation Eastern Qualifier in time for 2-3 hours of looking around. Only caught one keeper in Nutbush so I decided to make the run to Clarksville, VA. (a place I have the most fall experience on Kerr) the first day. It went well, after a couple of stops on the way up we went into Smith Creek and found some fish holding on shallow docks. I quickly had a limit skipping a 9/16 oz TrueSouth Fat Head jig in Dyer Special under floats & pontoon boats using a ALX Dragger flippin stick. You often hear Kerr fish don't use the docks, but I've found you can always catch fish around the ones with 4-8' of water on them. Maybe Kerr fisherman ignore skipping as a viable pattern? Either way I like it, ended the day in top ten less than a pound out of the boater cut. The second day was forecast to be a lot more overcast but I still thought the dock fish pattern would hold so we planned on heading back up to VA.

Funny how the most seemingly insignificant decisions often play the biggest part in the outcome of a tournament....The water was down a bit and if you've ever run up out the top of Nutbush Creek towards the river you have to either go around the big island or cut across the shoal. Blasting us off early on a misty morning I did something I rarely do on a long run. I didn't put glasses or my face shield on. I knew by the time we got to the shoal where you have to stay close to a small willow bush to run it safely the mist would make it hard to see through lenses. We made it easily over the shoal continued up the river to the Goat Island short cut where my day went terribly awry. Running 69+ we passed  through some sort of bug hatch when one hit me in the left eye tearing my contact lens and caused the eye to swell closed. Not sure if it was from the impact or guts, but my eye looked like I took a Tyson right-cross. Concentrating on skipping docks with a swollen, watering eye was all but impossible till it eased up around noon. I got on them the last hour, but when your pressing so hard you make mistakes. I lost two good fish that would have got me to Eufala rushing them along....oh'well.

So no matter how far you are running, what time of day it is, the weather condition, temperature, amount of light you better wear eye protection. I was lucky my sight cleared up and I only lost a chance to go to Alabama, I could have lost something far more precious. You can be sure you'll see me wearing eye protection from now on as I'm blasting down a lake.