Excerpt form FLW Outdoors article: Hodges goes wire to wire to claim Kentucky Lake title
by Jennifer Simmons - 05.May.2007

McGuire again settles for second - Curt McGuire caught the day's heaviest stringer, a limit weighing 21 pounds, 5 ounces, but ultimately wound up second for the second time. Two years ago, Curt McGuire of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., finished second at this very tournament on Kentucky Lake, and he's in second again despite catching the heaviest limit of day four. His 21-pound, 5-ounce stringer brought his four-day total to 75 pounds, 11 ounces, good for $10,000.

McGuire is a seasoned Kentucky Lake pro, and he fished what he knew best - ledges -  to land his bass this week.

"I always fish ledges, and I always fish deep," he said of his Kentucky Lake strategy. "I fished anywhere from 8 to 15 feet, mostly on hard bottom and gravel patches. I live or die out there. I haven't made a cast at the bank here in three years."

It was an observation McGuire made several weeks ago that ultimately determined how he was going to fish the tournament this week.  "I knew at home a big wave (of spawning fish) had come up three weeks ago, and I knew they were done," he said. "They had to go somewhere. I knew some of them had to be postspawn."

The fish that comprised his hefty day-four sack were actually located Tuesday in practice but wouldn't bite for him until today.  "I checked on them on day two - not a bite," he said. "Today, it was on."

Indeed, McGuire's co-angler partner, Stephen Smith, took home the co-angler trophy, making him the third co-angler that McGuire has guided to a win in three years.  "He netted my 4-pounder with his 4-pounder still in the net," McGuire said of Smith, who caught 18 pounds today.    McGuire's primary bait was a Booyah football-head jig.