TVA: The Tennessee Valley Authority. This is the organization that controls many of the lakes in Alabama and Tennessee. The lakes that fall into TVA’s control have some tremendous fishing, but also are apt to change on a dime. Current generation schedules largely depend on variables that do not include creating the best conditions for bass fishing…rightfully so. Our past event at Wheeler Lake, we dealt with some challenging conditions regarding the flow of current through this Tennessee River impoundment. Adjustments were crucial in this one.
PRACTICE
My plan was to spend a lot of time on the famous Decatur Flats area. Studying many past tournaments and history in general on this Tennessee River impoundment, pointed me there. I was fortunate, my good friend, Mark Hughes, joined me on this trip as a co-angler and got to share in the five days of grinding in 90 degree heat and relatively tough fishing conditions. The good thing in these events is being able to practice with your buddy, not only for the company, but also having two heads and two rods in the water working together. It’s definitely a benefit. We had fun, worked hard and Mark definitely helped us find one of my better spots in the event.
The first morning we arrived, there was a multi-hundred boat High School tournament running out of our main ramp, Ingalls Harbor. The Decatur Flats was littered with boats on about every inch of it. We were able to get to a few places we wanted to fish and began catching fish pretty quickly. Mark started things off catching a solid 2.5 pound largemouth on a ledge with a football jig. I caught a few down the same stretch on a Carolina rig as well. Seemingly, every place we sat down on, we were able to catch fish in the morning.
Then it got much tougher for a few hours. This is where the current variable comes into play. It seemed like they were pulling a good bit of current right off the bat and probably slowed down by mid-morning. Current positions fish and triggers them to feed. Without current in these places, they can scatter some and aren’t quite as apt to feed. That’s when it gets tough. We decided to switch it up and fish some new stuff and ended up catching a nice 3 pound smallmouth and got the wheels turning again.
We began mixing it up more, fishing deep, shallow and in between. Once again, we had a lull before heading back near our starting areas. We were able to get on a couple places that were covered up with boats earlier, and began catching them once again. We ended up catching a couple largemouth over 3 pounds in those areas and ended our day on a good note.
The next few days were definitely much more of a challenge. The amount of current they pulled dwindled even more, the days got warmer and became pretty stagnant. Bites were few and far between and we put in a lot more time around the Decatur Flats, but also covered some new sections of the lake.
One area down the lake ended up being a hidden gem. We found a stretch where we had five smallmouth bites. I caught one that just missed being a keeper (need to be 15 inches), another 2.5 pounder, then shook off a few more bites down the stretch, one of which felt big. Wheeler Lake and much of the Tennessee River has all three species (Largemouth, Smallmouth and Spotted) which is always a treat, not knowing which one you’re going to catch on any given cast. Some areas will hold all three, but many times, the different species will prefer different types of cover and structure, speed of current, etc.
The final morning, we decided to spend our day close to the ramp and finally found a shad spawn. The water was warm and probably on the tail end of the shad spawning cycle, but with a bit of a cool down and some cloudy conditions, it seemed to spark them back up. In the first hour of the morning we shook off about fifteen bites on topwater, mostly a buzzbait. The fish were actively feeding and you could see shad flicking around grass and shallow areas. As soon as it happened, it shut off. A couple hours into the morning, that light switch was off and we began hitting some shallow sloughs, creek mouths, bars and ledges. The next clue proved to be the most important one for the tournament. We began fishing up a small ledge leading to a creek mouth and I picked up a Dredger 14.5 and quickly caught a 2+ pounder. I made note of it and found another bait I could get bit on.
Going in, I had about a half dozen baits that I had some confidence in. Between a couple crankbaits, a buzzbait, a jig and a couple plastics, we had thankfully cleaned up the twenty five rods from the deck and had some more room to move around come derby time.
DAY ONE
I knew what hopes I had at catching my shad spawn was negated, being boat 213. These are the tough things for many to deal with when you fish these kind of tournaments. For some of these events, a boat draw can mean so much. It doesn’t bother me and it hasn’t for a long time though. It’s 100% out of your control and worrying about it adds nothing to you, it only distracts you and gives you an excuse. My mindset was, I’d try and get on any shad spawn thing I wanted to fish and if I couldn’t I’d start running to my other nearby spots. To my surprise, I was able to get on a small portion of a morning spot I wanted to fish. Unfortunately, the sun was already pretty high and it wasn’t happening for me or the other competitors around me. I tried to get on another one with no luck and pulled the plug and went to the Flats.
My third stop, I sat down on a ledge we had gotten a couple bites on in practice. Surprisingly, there was no one there. I put a solid 2+ pound keeper in the boat quickly dragging a jig. We were on the board. I drug the jig around for a little while more with nothing, before something told me to pick up that Dredger crankbait. Within a few casts, the rod loaded up and I could quickly tell from the head shakes it was a good one. It came up and jumped as that inkling was further verified. I fought the fish around the boat before cradling her in the seat. Boom, a 4 pounder to get things going. I put her in the livewell cast out again and shortly after hooked up with another solid fish. A near 3 pounder hit the deck and we had three in the well. We had two I would want at the end of the day and one I hoped to cull out. I stayed there a bit longer with no more bites, before heading back up to near where I started.
There was some offshore grass I’d gotten some good bites out of and as I approached the same spot I caught a 3 pounder out of in practice, I felt that subtle pull and reared back on one I could tell was another quality fish. She came straight up and jumped and I knew it was another one I wanted to take for a ride to weigh in. When I brought her in, my co-angler, Cole (it was his first ever Open), fist bumped each other as I put in in the well. We had four. I worked my way up a bit further and threw on a current break with a ned rig, tick, another one that felt like a keeper, yes indeed. It wasn’t big, but I’m always happy to have every one we get. I put number five in the well, a chunky little spotted bass. Awesome.
We bounced around on the flats some more, culling here and there on a big squarebill before making our way to a spot nearby that I had caught the nice smallmouth day one of practice. It didn’t take long before we had an angry red eyed bronzeback pulling on the other end of the line. We fought it to the boat and had a solid cull fish. Unfortunately, I saw it was bleeding, which was concerning. It had eaten my bait deep. Usually you can stop the bleeding with a pop with citric acid in it or I’ve had success putting some rejuvenate down their throats too as it seems to help close the wound quickly too. As much as I worked on that fish, and tried to get her back to normal, she didn’t. I took that penalty at the weigh in, but the most disappointing thing is having one die. It’s part of it and no matter how careful you are, it happens occasionally, but it still stinks. Day one, I ended up with 12-5 after the penalty.
DAY TWO
We were going out early and going to have first pickings on some areas I wasn’t able to fish the day before. The way these events work is, depending on the boat draw you are, it will flip the next day so everyone has the same amount of fishing time for the two days each competitor gets to fish. This means, if you were in the first flight on day one, you will be in the last on day two and vice versa. Day two, we had some different conditions as the winds began to blow after a relatively calm practice on day one. I rolled up to some early morning spots and saw no activity from shad or bass. After hitting a couple of these, I pulled the plug on it and began running some of my day one spots in a different order. I knew my best ledge spot would not get pressure, so I gave it a bit before heading there, hoping to catch a random big one or two up near the ramp. I stopped short of it on another small ledge spot we got bit off in practice and I quickly hooked up with keeper number one, a chunky and mean, Tennessee River spotted bass. The crankbait proved useful again. Number one was a quality 2.25-2.5 lb spot. Surprised to catch a spotted bass there, but happy to catch him. The next stop, we hit the juice. We cranked and dragged around there and pulled another keeper there on the crankbait. It wasn’t a giant, but again, I was thankful to have him.
I hit another spot or two with no luck before making a big decision to run down the lake to my smallmouth area I intentionally saved for the always tougher second day. I knew it was going to eat a lot of time as the river was getting rough with strong winds going about straight down the pipe. It took me about thirty minutes, but those are the days the 21 PHX Phoenix earns its keep.
We rolled up as waves were crashing the area, almost too hard, muddying it up some. We were there, so we dang sure were going to give it its due, knowing full well there were good smallmouth there. I decided to start up a little before where I had gotten the bites. That ended up being a key decision. Within ten minutes, we flipped up to shore and were hopping it down the break, donk! A fish tried to rip the rod out of my hands while I cracked back the other direction, my rod bowed in half. A hefty, black looking bass missile. shot out of the water as my eyes got bigger, before rocketing back down in the water and giving every ounce of energy to get off my line. After what seemed to be a long fight, I got the wild TVA smallmouth up to the boat, cradled her and pulled her aboard. It was a beautiful fish, probably around 3 pounds, only due to it being leaner, most likely postspawn. The third one hit the well, awesome. In my mind, it was happening and we were going to stick it out there for a while and grind out a good limit. Who knows, maybe we would even happen into one of those 5 pound Wheeler smallmouth that live in there. It got tougher. Quickly after, two more bites came, crack! Not the species we were looking for. A drum and a catfish came to the side of the DuraEdge Phoenix. We got to the juicy stretches and my line started swimming off, crack, crack! Wait, what was that second crack. The line broke, way up the line, hmm. I had just retied a new bait and it didn’t break at the knot, it broke way up the line. I checked the ceramic guides and couldn’t find a nick. Ok, retie, and onto the next. I worked down further than I had and another swims away with it slowly, crack, nothing! Weird. It seemed to break up the line again. Has to be a guide with a nick. Still couldn’t find it, but had to be. I swapped rods and kept going down, crack, got em this time! It was a 14.5” smallmouth. I kept going down and turned around and caught a few more non-keeper smallmouth. I fished slowly back through and picked apart the good stretches, with no luck other than more non-keepers.
We pulled the plug with only a few hours left in our day and headed back to the Flats. I rolled up to the shallower bars with stumps and grass and quickly got a limit pitching to stumps on my Active Target. They weren’t big, but once again, thankful to get us a limit. I decided to go back to the juice ledge spot and hopefully fool a couple more of those quality postspawn largemouth. I set up and saw some good marks on my Active Target and began peppering them with that Dredger crank. It banged off some wood and I watched a fish come get it, felt the rod load and the fight was on. A big one came up trying to throw that crankbait to no avail. The night before the tournament I switched all my trebles with Owner ST-36s and never lost a fish either day. Those are sticky sharp and I’ve yet to find a treble as reliable. I got her to the boat and pulled her in, making a big cull, whew. I fired right back, changing my retrieve, attempting to trigger a bite from one of its tougher to catch buddies. Stop, go, bang! I watched another come get it on Active Target. It was another solid one, and only had the back hook. I scoped it close and saw it was in a solid spot and swung her in.
I’ve caught a lot of deep cranking fish as it’s one of my favorite things to do, especially for smallmouth, that I know risking fighting the fish longer in some of those cases puts you at more of a risk to lose it. Sometimes, you just have to get their momentum coming and just swing them in. It was a solid keeper that culled my last dink (small keeper).
I worked my way up and down my key ledge stretch with no more bites as time dwindled, I ran a few more high percentage spots, cranking and flipping my plastic in the grass and around hard targets. We grinded until the last minute and I felt like I did everything within my control. I ended up having about the same weight as the day before and moved up a few spots to finish Wheeler in 84th out of 224.
KEEP ON KEEPING ON
A finish like that isn’t bad, especially when you are fishing for points in a nine event format, but my goal is always to win. I’ve learned over the years, when you are trusting your gut, making something out of nothing, and catching limits even in tough conditions, good things come. Winning one of these is great, but the ultimate goal is being consistent and being up in the top 9 in points by the end of the season however that manifests. Currently, we are sitting in 48th out of 176 Bassmaster EQ anglers.
We still have five events left and I can promise you, the points will shake up a lot as our season progresses. I’ll continue to grind and most importantly, have faith. I’m thankful to have this opportunity once again to be alive and kicking and ready to attack the second half of this season. Tightlines everyone!
