Ehrler was well aware that the hot bite on Kentucky Lake had been coming from the extreme south end around New Johnsonville, yet he opted to fish mostly north of the KenLake Bridge because he knows that area better. He was a little concerned about the risks of a 70-mile run each day.

"Leading the points, I figured the safer play was to fish closer for the sure thing," Ehrler said. "I knew that going way south had produced some mid-20 pound bags in other tournaments, but I figured I could catch 15 to 16 pounds a day close and hold my lead in the points. Plus, I knew south had been hammered over the last few weeks and I felt North was actually a little more unpressured."

Ehrler's plan worked almost perfectly, except for a lost 4-pounder on day one when he weighed just four fish for 13-3.

"I only got five keeper bites that first day," Ehrler said. "And I lost my fifth keeper right at the boat or I'd been right on target for 16 pounds. I kind of hit the panic button after losing that fish; I started running around like a mad man trying to hit different spots and they all had boats on them. I'm not one who can pull up on a spot where someone else is fishing and fish it. So by the afternoon of that first day, I was pretty spun out just trying to find a place to fish."

Day two, however, was much better for Ehrler. Not only did he discover how the fish had repositioned on his best spots, he hunkered down on those places and got in a little better groove, culling through 15 keepers on the day for 16-6.

"They were not running much current in the tournament compared to the practice and what I eventually found out was a lot of my fish had suspended off the sides of the ledges," Ehrler explained. "During practice those fish were up on the tops of the ledges in the current and I could catch them on a crankbait pretty well. But when the current slacked up they kind of suspended way out off the break and that's where I ended up catching them the second day. I had one fish bite my crankbait right under the boat and that was the sign I needed."

From there, Ehrler backed his boat off into 22 feet of water and started fishing for bass that were out off the break.

"Once I moved out, I started jacking them up and on a Carolina rig and a heavy jig – I had to stroke the jig to get them to react on it," he said.

Ehrler's key lures during the week included a Lucky Craft D-20 crankbait in Table Rock Shad and Gun Metal Shad; a 10-inch Berkley Power Worm, Texas-rigged and Carolina-rigged; and a Picasso Ken Cook jig with a Berkley 4-inch Chigger Craw.

He fished all lures on Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon: 10-pound test for the crankbait and 17-pound test for the worms and jigs.

His rods were Lucky Craft rods, including the brand new Deep Strike D-20 rod, which is a 7-foot, 6-inch heavy-action cranking rod made especially for the D-20.

Ehrler now heads to Champlain as the FLW Tour Angler of the Year leader, with a thin 3-point margin.

"I've got no excuses or no sob stories," Bolivar said. "I had a bad practice and a bad tournament, simple as that. I never found any really good fish on those ledges. I found a couple of schools of keeper-sized fish around the Paris area and that's what I caught: keeper-sized fish."

"Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun because I was catching fish like crazy all week," he said. "I used a Berkley 5-inch Power Mullet swimbait the whole time and caught an absolute pile of fish on that thing, but they were all 2- to 3-pounders."

Bolivar fished the Power Mullet on 17-pound test Berkley 100 percent Trilene fluorocarbon on Lucky Craft's new Swimbait Rod.

With his recent finish, Bolivar now clings to the 35th place spot in the FLW Tour point standings, just inside the top-40 Forrest Wood Cup cut-off mark.

Thomas made the long run well south of Paris both days. His primary spot was a shallow ledge in 5 to 6 feet that featured fresh, green milfoil with shell beds mixed in. He cranked the ledge with a Lucky Craft Flat CB D-12 crankbait.

"My best place was a secondary ledge back off the river channel," Thomas said. "It had milfoil mixed with intermittent shell beds on top. My boat was sitting in 9 to 11 feet and I was casting up on to about 5 or 6 feet. When I got there that first morning, the place was on fire. I caught most of what I weighed in that day by about 10 o' clock."

Day two, however, took a turn for the worst.

"I have no idea what happened," Thomas said. "I fully expected to make the top 10 off that spot. But when I got there the next morning, it was like I ghost town. Those fish completely deserted me. And the worst part was I got hung up in the memory of my day-one catch and kind of died with that spot. In retrospect, I should have moved around a lot more that second day to make something happen."

Thomas fished the Flat CB D-12 on 12-pound test 100 percent Trilene fluorocarbon line and used one of Lucky Craft's new Deep Strike 7-foot cranking rods for his crankbait pattern.

He now sits in 71st place in the 2009 FLW Tour points standing.

Keep in mind, Gagliardi loves offshore fishing in the summer time. In fact, he has won an FLW Tour event on Kentucky Lake before.

But somehow Gagliardi just completely missed the boat at Kentucky this time around, boating a single keeper on day one and then two keepers on day two for a total of 8-6 for the event, finishing 147th.

"I can't explain it," Gagliardi said candidly. "I have no clue what happened."

"I did not have a good practice, but I at least I caught enough fish in practice to make me think I had found some decent places," he said. "I had found some large schools of fish and when I went to them in the tournament all I could catch was non-keeper after non-keeper. I'd sit there for an hour and catch fish after fish and not catch a keeper. I had about three places where I did that and it just baffles me that I could go through that many fish and not catch a keeper – like I said, I have no idea what happened."

Fortunately, Gagliardi's finish did not cause him to free fall completely out of a Forrest Wood Cup qualification. He caught and grabbed the 32nd place spot in the overall point standings heading to Champlain.