Chickamauga FLW Tour Major #3

Well, I’m finally home from the FLW Tour Major, Lake Chickamauga event.  It was a great time, but I’ve hardly been able to catch my breath.  I got home Sunday night, then back to work Monday morning around 7:00 am.  Not complaining, just explaining…my late blog that is.

Ok, about the tournament.  I finally had a good practice.  I, like everyone else found that the fish were spawning heavy during practice.  On day 1 of practice, I ran up the river and fished.  Boy did I have fun, I found numerous areas full of nice sized fish.  The fish would bite pretty easy also, so I figured the river would draw a crowd.  On day 2 of practice, I fished down the lake.  I also got plenty of bites there throwing a spinnerbait and a jig to shallow cover.  After day 2, it was evident that they were drawing down the water really quick.  For day 3, I decided that I better go check my river fish because of the drawdown.  Good thing I did that because the bushes and grass I had caught fish in were high and dry.  I’ve never seen a lake get pulled down so quickly…amazing.  The falling water kind of helped me a little because after practice, I was already planning to fish off the bank.  I wanted to target the female bass holding out a little deeper in the spawning areas.  On day 3 of practice I found my primary area.  It was a big flat with a creek channel running around it.  The bass were spawning in laydowns and there was tons of fish.  You could go down the bank with a spinnerbait and have 15 lbs pretty quick.

Day 1 of the tournament was no surprise, the water had changed drastically (lower) and I had about 5 boats in my area.  One was Brent Ehler.  OK, I’ll go ahead and admit it, that’s a little intimidating to be sharing water with that guy.  That’s when you realize that you are not co-angling anymore…pretty cool stuff.  I went down the bank with a Buckeye Lures 1/2 oz. spinnerbait and had about 12 lbs.  Once I got to the end, I new I didn’t want to go flipping behind those 5 pros slinging everything known to man at them, so I came up with a different approach.  Looking at the bank, the only thing not getting fished was the tips of those trees, where the other guys boats were sitting.  I told my co-angler that we were going to fish out deeper.  We moved the boat and we each caught a keeper right away.  That turned out to be a key decision as we both caught them good for the rest of the day. I weighed in 19-2 on day 1 and then 15-15 on day 2 in the same area fishing the same pattern.  I fished a Zoom Ol’ Monster worm in Plum.  Never dreamed I would catch them that way…never say never in bass fishing.

I made the cut and was able to fish Day 3.  I ran to some crankbait fish I found in practice, trying to hit a home run.  I hit into a double play and it didn’t work out too good, although I did catch a 3lber.  When I got back to my primary area, the whole thing was completely muddied up.  Also, there was about 40 mph winds crashing in on the laydowns, you couldn’t even hold the boat.  I adjusted to flipping and only caught 8-9.  Looking back, I think I could have done a better job on day 3 with some proper planning, but hey, I’m still learning.  Thanks for reading…off to Table Rock!

Thank you, Ranger Boats, Evinrude E-Tec, Buckeye Lures, Anglerschannel.com, Snag Proof, and Costa Del Mar

Dearal Rodgers (www.dearalrodgers.com)