The Funky Middle.
That is how Carson Newman University’s Ben Cully described the state of Pickwick Lake ahead of the Strike King Bassmaster National Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops.
Cully and teammate Hayden Gaddis are one of 131 teams set to take on the historic Tennessee River reservoir during a time of year that is largely unknown to much of the field. So far, the Carson-Newman duo has discovered that the bass are starting to transition from summer patterns to early fall patterns.
“This place is fishing pretty tough to be completely honest,” Gaddis said. “We have caught two bass since we’ve been here and haven’t caught a keeper in three days. But there are people catching fish and people catching big fish.”
Talking to several teams during the pre-tournament festivities, the general consensus seems to be that the bass are scattered between the shallows and the ledges. A boat could come in with 20 pounds just as easily as they could come in with one keeper.
“This place is fishing really strange right now,” University of Montevallo angler Nick Dumke said. “There are a lot of fish out deep and a lot of fish shallow. (Partner Easton Fothergill and I) have been practicing separately this week and have been finding stuff that is weird. Off the wall.”
Giant bags are always possible on Pickwick, but consistency will be incredibly important if a duo wants to make the final day cut.
“I think 20-plus will lead after Day 1, but I don’t know if they will be able to do it on Day 2,” Gaddis said. “A two-day total for the leader will probably be right around 34 pounds.”
These are the themes to keep an eye on over the course of the three tournament days.
Dumke, Fothergill looking to prove themselves in Natty
The last couple seasons, the Team of the Year recipient has not fared particularly well in the National Championship. Dumke and Fothergill are hoping to change that trend.
With a spot in the College Classic Bracket secure, some of the pressure is off the Montevallo duo, but Fothergill said he hopes they can put up a strong showing at Pickwick.
“Because it is the National Championship, we are gunning for the win. There are no points involved,” Fothergill said. “Being Team of the Year, that kind of adds to it. We have to back up what we did this season and show what we are about, more for us than anyone else.”
Ledges will play
With summertime temperatures very much present over southern Tennessee, many of the teams competing this week are expecting the ledges to come into play, including King University’s Hunter McClaskey and Landon Lawson.
McClaskey said they made maybe 100 casts over the course of the practice period.
“We haven’t casted a whole lot, so we have a lot to look forward to,” McClasky said. “The schools are random when you find one. We have covered a lot of the lake. We’ve idled for 22 hours and found seven schools.”
Fothergill said he and Dumke had a similar practice. They would idle for hours before finding a school and then go another couple hours before finding another.
“That’s just how it goes this time of year,” he said.
Seth Slanker and Jackson Swisher of Florida Gateway College, the 2022 National Championship runner-ups, have also been exploring the ledges and found a couple promising areas.
“We’ve been getting a few bites here and there,” Slanker from Florida Gateway College said. “We’ve spent all of our time offshore looking for big schools. We have a few areas we can hopefully get on in the morning. If not, we will go to the bank and do what we do best.”
They anticipate if things go to plan, they can wrangle around 18 pounds. Lawson’s best case scenario is even more promising.
Smallmouth likely won’t
McClaskey has made several trips to Pickwick in the summer and enjoyed catching 5 or 6 smallmouth a day out of offshore schools. This week, that has not been the case.
“We haven’t seen them this week. We have caught one so far and it was by accident today,” he said.
That’s not to say some smallmouth won’t be caught, but with the event launching on the far western side of the lake in Counce, the opposite end of the tailrace and where smallmouth often are concentrated, it’s unlikely teams made a game plan that involves consistent brown fish.
The grass is back, but is it the right ingredient?
There is more hydrilla, milfoil and eelgrass in Pickwick Lake right now than many of the competitors with history on the lake have ever seen. Much of it is already topped out, even. For many anglers, including Dumke and Fothergill, it just isn’t what they hoped.
“Up past Natchez Trace, it is topped out almost everywhere and there are giant mats,” Fothergill said. “I couldn’t find a canopy anywhere. It is just solid from top to bottom, which for me I never have luck in anything like that. I found one place that I flipped and frogged and didn’t get bit.”
Swisher and Slanker’s secondary plan is to fish a mix of hydrilla and eelgrass. Being from Florida, one might think the duo would be comfortable in the grass, but Swisher said it isn’t set up to his liking.
“It is either going to help us or hurt us. I don’t know yet,” he said. “The way it sets up is not how I like it. It’s set up more like the old Harris Chain. It is taller than what I like and thicker than what I like.”
McClasky and Lawson made only a couple casts with a frog before moving on.
“I just don’t think the grass will be as big of a player as people think it is going to be,” McClasky said.
Although it isn’t set up how some anglers would like, Gaddis thinks it may be the X-factor.
“I think it will be won out of the grass,” he predicted.
Stormy start to the week
Anglers have been dodging downpours and thunderstorms all week on Pickwick, with some of the strongest storms coming on Wednesday. Tornado warnings were issued at one point as the teams made their way to safety.
“We haven’t had one day of practice yet where we haven’t had to get off the lake or take shelter,” Cully said.
Unfortunately, Day 1 is forecasted to start on a stormy note as a strong system is expected to move through overnight and linger into the early morning hours. That includes a chance of very heavy rain and stronger winds embedded in the storms.
A break in the storms is expected on Friday before rain chances ramp up again on Championship Saturday.
What that means for fishing is unclear. Generally, a little weather seems to help the bite but current generated by the dam is the biggest key. While the TVA is pulling some water, it hasn’t been enough to really get the ledge bass feeding heavily.
“It picks up about 9 o’clock every day,” Gaddis said. “It hasn’t been wide open by any means. It’s not great. Every little bit helps though.”
Dumke said, “If it is flat and calm, we have noticed that there is a lot of fish that are really spread out. There are areas that have tons of fish, but they are so spread out that it is impossible to get them to bite. If it rains like crazy and we get some water movement, I can see the weights being really good.”
