I am sure most Bassmaster fans and anglers were excited to see Chickamauga Lake on the 2022 schedule in early April and had dreams of 100-pound bags dancing in their heads. The truth is, Chickamauga has been in funk when looking at local tournaments this spring. Water temps have been lingering in the upper 50s to right around 60 and water levels have been fluctuating up and down.
There is a fair amount of tournament data to review if you are interested, but be aware that most of those tournaments happened later in April to June which tend to be a bit more offshore focused than the bite that I would expect this week.
Looking at the weather forecast, it looks to be relatively stable. There are moderate temperatures rolling into the event that I think will help hold these fish in a prespawn mode where anglers will be able to capitalize on these big females when they are at their heaviest and hungriest.
In my mind, the smart play is to build your Rapala Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing roster around anglers that excel at prespawn fishing and that will mix it up between power fishing and finesse. If you are high in the standings, don’t take too many low-percentage risks, look for smaller calculated risks to move up the standings.
Quick PSA: If your fantasy team is off to a solid start, it would be a wise decision to sign up for Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing text alerts on the Fantasy home page. You would hate to throw away your blistering start by not getting a roster in on time.
BUCKET A: COX
It was super hard to pick between John Cox and Buddy Gross for Bucket A in this event. Based on the timing I decided John Cox was the better fit for early April on Chickamauga. If it was earlier in prespawn or more postspawn mode, I would’ve probably gone with Gross. If you are not familiar with Cox’s history on Lake Chickamauga, he has numerous Top 10s and wins. Couple that with him leading the Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings, and it is hard to not to roster him up again this week.
Scoping bed fish
There is a decent chance that there will be some quality bed fish that won’t be visible due to rising water. There is also a good chance that anglers with certain skill sets may be able to sight fish them with front facing sonar and not their eyes. If that is the case, Patrick Walters could be a sneaky strong play, and he has relatively low ownership percentage in Bucket A.
BUCKET B: POWROZNIK
I feel like Jacob Powroznik has not quite lived up to my expectation based on the number of times I have put him on my fantasy roster so far in 2022. It was also hard to pick him over my guy Luke Palmer who has been so strong for me in back-to-back events. In the end, he was the angler that jumped off the list, and it just feels right.
If he can put four days together
Chris Zaldain will almost certainly test his big baits on the better-than-average Chickamauga largemouth. Only time will tell how well it will play, but on paper big baits could be strong for this event.
BUCKET C: SCHMITT
There is nothing super obvious in the tournament stats that suggest Bryan Schmitt should be strong on Chick, but Chickamauga is turning into more of a grass fishery than ever. When we have grass, you always have to consider Schmitt as a contender. Schmitt has a strong track record in spawning events on river systems with grass, so that is why I am adding him to my roster.
Strong mid-depth game
Everything is setting up for bass to be caught in midrange depths getting ready to make their move to spawning flats. Seth Feider proved he is one of the best at fishing and adapting to bass in mid-depth ranges last year during his AOY campaign. We knew Feider wouldn’t linger long in the lower buckets, and his ascent is in progress. It’s up to you if you want your Fantasy roster to ride along.
BUCKET D: DOUGLAS
After a tough Florida swing for Josh Douglas, he bounced back with a solid finish on Santee Cooper Lakes, and he brings that momentum into a familiar fishery that he has spent many of days on in the spring. Douglas also had stint where he guided on the famed TVA fishery.
He is mad at them
Matthew Robertson has been very vocal on social media that he is not pleased with how he has fished at the start of the 2022 Bassmaster Elite Series season. I feel like this can go either way, but Robertson is a proud angler with a chip on his shoulder, plenty of TVA experience and a guy that is not afraid to fish swimbaits which could play strongly at Chick.
BUCKET E: FOUTZ
Jacob Foutz has not had a great start to his Rookie campaign, but this event will play out in his backyard. Not to mention, Foutz guides on Chickamauga and surrounding lakes, and I have heard that this time of year is one of his favorite periods of the year to catch them the way he likes.
I may regret not picking him
My first instinct was to go with Kyle Welcher this week at Lake Chickamauga, but it felt too easy and with more than 40% of Fantasy players already having him on the squad, it scared me away. Welcher has a plethora of tournament history on Chick, and his run and gun, fish-the-moment style should serve him well this week. Expect Welcher to bounce back at Chick.
Mercury Bassmaster Drain the Lake Challenge
Now onto season two of the Mercury Bassmaster Drain the Lake Challenge. This additional fantasy fishing game not only offers a fresh way to play the game, but a separate prize pool. Drain the Lake is an elimination or survivor-style game where you can only use an angler once all season.
Every event played leaves us all with a smaller pool of anglers to add to rosters for each reaming event, so plan carefully.
Here is my Chickamauga Drain the Lake roster:
• Buddy Gross
• John Cox
• Jacob Foutz
• Brandon Card
• Kyle Welcher
• Carl Jocumsen
• David Mullins
• Skylar Hamilton
