Old Hickory Lake TN

2017 Ray Scott National Championship in Nashville, TN April 3rd-9th

While my tournament event did not go as expected, Cumberland River's Old Hickory reservoir in Tennessee was a beautiful system to fish the ABA National Champship. Dense angler fishing pressure and abnormal weather conditions threw a wrench in my fishing, eliminated anything I found during my single-day ride around, and shut down the bass bite to a slow crawl.

Bass Pro Shop Outpost in Chattanooga TN

With all three species: largemouth, spotted, and smallmouth bass, the possibilities for catching fish seemed endless.

Scouting

On the Tuesday I arrived water temperatures where reaching 67F degrees.  My plan started with several hours of scouting with my Lowrance Structure Scan unit.  Once I got a feel for the water conditions, I made my first fishing stop along the main river channel along a rocky bluff wall. In water 40ft deep, the logical thing to do would be to fish a jig down the rock outcroppings.

But I'm not logical and I surmised by the conditions that any bass out here would be pre-spawn, feeding in anticipation of soon heading shallow to spawn. With the predicted cold front on the way, this deeper area should hold heat longer.

Using a topwater walking bait, I fished the bluff and caught a good pre-spawn spotted bass that looked to be just under three pounds. So far so good.

First spotted bass of practice on a rock bluff

There was a large crawfish pincher sticking out of the fish's gullet.

My next fishing stop was all the way to the back of a creek to assess the stage of any spawners. I needed to find out if the bass were on beds yet or if they had spawned already.

On my first pass along the shallows I eye-balled five single bass on beds, and two paired with bigger females. No bass fry was present.  The beds were extremely different than our Florida Kissimmee Lake bass beds.  Old Hickory bass made very light colored beds and non-distinct bed on sandy bottoms. Male bass were observed in the middle of the beds and were extremely hard to see.  These bass lacked any mottling and were an almost silver in color.

The lighter color in the center of this sand flat was a bass on a bed

A nice largemouth caught fishing the shallows near beds.

Waterwillow plants were still brown from the winter but new sprouts were starting!

Since I had scouted both extremes (shallow and deep), my third fishing stop was mid-river to find bass closer to the river channel.  This group of bass should be a mix of prespawn/spawning fish but less subjected to the effects of the predicted cold front.  Cold temperatures often pull bass off beds, and may even pushed spawning fish back out to the main river until weather conditions stabilize.

It was in this mid-river area that I found the biggest largemouth and spotted bass. In fact, one largemouth bass-bed deep inside a fallen tree held a six pound female spawning with a three male!!

A six pound bass was seen spawning in the protection of this tree-fall.

Severe Weather

On Wednesday afternoon the American Bass Angler's Ray Scott National Championship registration meeting began. 

Angler registration and pairing meeting in TN Civic Center

 During the event the weather front officially hit Nashville TN. Along with rain and cold temperatures, the front also brought ludicrous-level wind speeds. With 45 mph gusts and small craft wind advisory throughout the night, the tournament organization was forced to cancel the first day of the tournament. The scheduled three-day championship turned into a two-day shootout.

I drew out as boat #29 in flight 2, so all night I wondered how the wind and cold would affect those big spawning bass. I contained my excitement of potentially catching that six pound spawning bass first thing in the morning.

  

Day One

Day one of the tournament started at 4am with predicted winds in the 30mph range and air temperatures in the low 40s.  After a 20 minute run up lake from the Sanders Ferry boat ramp, I could hardly feel my face or work my hands. The wind burn and cracked skin I received is still slowing my ability to type this blog a week later!

My first stop was a wind protected, deepwater bay just off the main river north of the mid-lake bridge. Sunlight was low and the morning was gorgeous. Working a rocky point in the bay I landed my first spotted bass over the required 12 inch limit. After catching a few short spotted bass, I moved to the back of the bay and caught my first keeper largemouth bass over 14 inches. As I was fishing, the sun was breaking the horizon on this bluebird sky day.  The warmth from the bright sunshine felt good and would hopefully warm up the shallows that sat in the mid 50s.  Surface water temperatures had dropped over 12 degrees!

As the sun rose, I noticed the water in the bay was dirty, and rising. My first thought was "Wholly crap, the main river was swelling due to rain and the lack of hydro-generation”. I fished all the rocky bluffs, creeks and bays I scouted as well as new ones with no success. Between the 12 degree temperature drop and incoming dirty water, my bass got lock-jaw.   My first day weigh-in at 3:15pm consisted of two bass for a miserable 130th place standing out of 156 pros.

Day Two

On the second tournament day it was even colder at 4am with frost all over my boat and Mercury engine. Being physically worn down from the cold at this point, I donned four layers of shirts and my BassProShop’s heavy duty rain suit.

My Triton/Mercury Marine rig was cold and covered with frost

My first fishing stop was again in the deep water bay where I caught my two bass on day one. I found the water up half a foot higher and dirty water from the main Cumberland river all the way back in my bay. After fishing for 40 minutes my coangler and I never got a bite so I called an audible.

Heading back out to the deep water of the main river I found parts of the river was clearing. Fishing the clear side along the river shoals, my coangler caught the first keeper bass off a wood laydown.  I had my first clue of the day.  But after working main river wood for an hour neither one of us got bit again.  “Some clues lead anglers in the wrong direction.”

Given the conditions, I moved to fish the deepest water in the largest protected creeks way off the main river.  My first stop was a large marina surrounded by 20 feet of water. Large schools of shad were swimming around the marina docks and my coangler caught his second keeper largemouth bass on a jerkbait. I worked hard with a jerkbait, shakeyhead, worm, and sinko around every dock and only managed to draw strikes from two short bass. 

Large, deepwater marinas held the shad and a few bass.

Fishing sinkos wacky-style earn a few bites but no keeper bass

Things just did not go my way and I ended the day officially skunked. First time I have been fishless in over 15 years fishing as a pro angler. Very disappointing to me and I felt I let my family and sponsors down. I wanted to do so much more for the Kids in Support of Soldiers.  All the yearlong effort to qualify for the national championship and miles of travel, everything at the time seemed worthless.  The highs and low of tournament fishing hurt, but that pain builds toughness, and the ability to shake it off is something tournament angler know all too well.  

On the 10-hour drive home I was able to review the event and shake off the pain and humility I experienced.

Internal Dialog

On the bright side, the ten-ton gorilla is off my back! The experience of being skunked allowed me to push through my fear of failure and stand tall despite my poor results.  Being skunked did not cause the world to end, people didn't laugh, sponsors didn't drop me, and no one posted ridicule on social media.  Wow!  Life continued…

As I write this summary, I am concurrently preparing for the second stop of the Bassmaster Southern Open trail on Tennessee's Lake Chickamauga!  Our Florida strain bass were stocked there beginning in 2000 and the bigger females are now making the local newspapers. Huge 30 and 40 pound bags of bass are winning tournaments in the area. Lake Chickamauga is set up to be a much different fishery than Old Hickory!

The lessons learned from Old Hickory Lake have greatly helped me understand the bass of Tennessee.   Stay tuned, I'll post my Bassmaster Southern Open experiences and results in the next blog.

I hope this helps you catch more bass on Old Hickory Lake.   Jeff

Notes from Smith Lake Bassmaster Southern Open

THE STAGE 

Birmingham Alabama is the location of the Bassmaster headquarters, and one hour north was the location of the Southern Open stop #2 In Jasper, AL. 

 

I set up camp at the Smith Lake County Campground on Ryan Creek, about 30 minutes north of the event launch site. 

When I arrived in Alabama, Smith Lake was still in a winter setting. The county had been experiencing radical weather: record snowfall a week before we arrived, then a warm front in the 60s, followed by light snow flurries and temperatures in the 20s. We fished every day of practice and the tournament under different weather conditions. 

Snow on boat seats and frozen hatches.

Main lake water temperatures were in the mid 40s, but creek temperatures would rise and fall daily. Snow melt and rain water flowed into some backwater creeks bringing stained water. Throughout the week, the sun would quickly warm up the shallow creeks whenever it would shine, only to have overnight low temperatures cool them down again. 

Spotted bass are known to spawn when water temperatures reach 55° and largemouth in the low 60s. One day during practice the backwater areas warmed up to 54° and set the stage for a pre-spawn/ spawning fishing tournament.  

Shallows reached temperatures in the 50s

PRACTICE DAYS

When I first started my practice it was partly sunny and I confirmed feeder streams were flowing stained, warm water into the backwater creeks, turning them a light turquoise color. The nutrients were surely allowing algae and zooplankton to flurrish which should attract the shad and bass. 

With water temperatures rising into the 50s I fished on the assumption that spotted bass were ready to spawn. I concentrated my fishing in this warmer, shallow water at first. Then, I simply fished the rocky shoreline and floating docks all the way out to the crystal-clear main lake. My goal was to find schools of pre-spawn bass. 

Standing timber lined the entire bottom of the creeks leading into the bays

On my second day of practice it was overcast all day. The shallow waters started to cool down but the deep, clear waters of the main lake held steady at 48°.  Forecasters told of snow and more cold weather coming overnight. The approaching front was sure to slow down my shallow water largemouth bass bite so I worked to locate the more aggressive spotted bass in deep water. Depth would buffer the effect of the weather and provide a blanket of comfort to the fish. 

Since the lake is predominantly a clearwater system, I found that overall the bass would hit better during overcast days or in the shallow turquoise-stained water during sunny days. I was able to get bites on bluegill colored swimming jigs and shad colored hard jerk baits.

I caught several nice bass during my hunt, including a brute at nearly six pounds. 

My biggest bass were holding on a cement road surrounded by boulder rock. The road traveled down the bank and into the lake and was located at the mouth of a shallow creek. It was the perfect prespawn staging area for big bass. 

Weather during practice changed so much it was difficult keeping up with the bass. My practice only yielded one good area and a fishing pattern of using jerkbaits and swim jigs in shallow creeks. Not a good feeling going into an event. 

 

TOURNAMENT DAY ONE
The first day of the tournament was partly cloudy with a potential for afternoon showers. Launching out as boat number three I was able to beat the anglers to my best area and had the creek all to myself for about an hour. I found the creek starting to clear up and the warm water temperatures had dropped back down to 47°.  Conditions didn't look good for that big shallow-water bite I had found in practice. 

 

Using a hard jerk bait, I was able to catch three bass under two pounds in the first hour. I left and went to another bay and caught a three-pound spotted bass working my jerk bait over a hump that rose up to 8 feet out of 40 feet. Moving to a third bay I fished fallen trees and caught a four-pound largemouth bass to fill out my limit. I had the rest if the day to just fish and catch bigger bass. It never happened. 

I tried my hardest to fish shakyhead and skirted jigs in deeper water, but I only enticed one small bass that I culled immediately.  I finished day one with a weight of 11 lbs. 9 oz. for five bass.  It put me in 42nd place, just 3lbs, 6ozs from making the final day top-12 cut. 

 

TOURNAMENT DAY TWO

The second day of the tournament we fished under bluebird skies, calm winds, and bright sunshine. During the first low-light hours I fished jerkbaits in the shallows to successfully draw the attention of two bass. One spotted bass of nearly three pounds and a largemouth in the two pound range. The bass only nipped at my hard jerk bait and never committed to eating it. Their skittishness told me that fishing pressure and front had taken their toll on making the fish weary. 

After an hour without a fish, I moved out of the creek to the main lake and fished my jerkbaits along bluff walls and rock piles that gradually dropped from 10 feet into a hundred feet.

I noticed the bass were suspended between 10 and 30 feet and probably not feeding well. I managed to catch a two-pound spotted bass off a rock ledge that totally ate the jerkbait. When fish totally swallow your artificial lure it usually means you have found the right lure and fishing technique. 

With that in mind I felt that each backwater feeder creek was worth at least one bass, so I began fishing as many as possible. The creeks had warmed up to 55° and schools of shad were starting to show up. I caught two more small bass in the creeks but this method was not going to get me in the top-12. 

With only three hours left I sped up Ryan Creek to fish a large stained bay that I had found in practice. I had seen mostly largemouth bass in the area and they would really help my bag if I could catch a few.  Unfortunately, the creek was loaded with anglers and did not produce a bass. 

In one cove I saw stripped bass busting baitfish under a dock that was sitting in 60 feet of water.

I tossed my jerkbait to them only to have them eat my lure and break my line. Dang..lost my best jerkbait. I quickly tied on a topwater bait and worked the surrounding docks. I caught one small largemouth bass amongst the stripers that gave me four bass total. ...a very slow day. 

I worked a Carolina rigged trick worm on primary and secondary points the rest of the day trying to relocate the bass. I never did find them. 

I finished day two with four small bass that weighed under six pounds and ended my chance of making a top placing. 

FINAL STANDINGS

My final weight of 17 lbs, 5 oz. put me in 75th place out of 158 pros and a mere three pounds out of the money. 

 

Had I hooked one of those early morning bass I saw following and nip at my jerkbait I would have achieved a better outcome. 

 

On my drive home I listened to the top 12 anglers tell how they caught their bass, and many spoke of jerkbaits in the shallow water creeks.  Looks like I had the right pattern, I just didn't get enough of the right bites...next time. 

SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS

Most of Smith Lakes's bass species seemed more oriented around the abundant shad than the bluegill. Algae growing on the rocks from 8 to 12 feet was the primary food source I found for shad, crayfish, zooplankton, and shrimp. 

Changes in bass behavior appeared to be driven by angler pressure, water temperatures, and lowlight feeding opportunities. When the water warmed our fish catches increased. 

Studies have determined that cold blooded aquatic critters experience a 50% reduction in metabolism for every 10°C  (18°F) drop in water temperature. This means the algae grows half is fast, zooplankton reproduce slower, and bass take twice as long to digest their food, so they stay full longer.  Even so, bass are top predators and are opportunistic feeders even when full. If the conditions are right, they will often gorge themselves. Normally though, bass feed less during periods of slower metabolism such as cold water. 

MY HOMEWORK

To improve my game on the Bassmaster Opens Trail I need to get better at locating and catching bass between 8 and 25 feet. I know how to fish most lures required for this depth range, but I need to do my homework on developing more efficient fishing methods.

In the end, I did not finish as high as I would have liked, but it was good for my fishing career to experience what a clear water spotted bass fishery goes through during early spring cold fronts. Bassmaster Classics are now held during the late winter time of year, so I needed this experience to hone my skills for my upcoming Classic appearance. ...got to think positive. 

 

During warming trends the fishing was phenomenal and Smith Lake bass were fun to catch. During cold fronts the bass quit biting and fishing really stunk. 

All and all, another great Bassmaster event full of excitement and anticipation. The staff at BASS and the Cullman County Chamber of Commerce hosted an amazing venue. The vunteeers from the Alabama Bass Nation did a professional job. My hat goes off to all those who made this event go so smooth. 

My biggest thanks go to my wife, family, friends, and sponsors for all the "fish wishes" and for following along my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/jhfishdad). 

 

I hope you enjoyed my fishing notes.   Jeff 

(Bassmaster Profile Page)

http://www.bassmaster.com/blogs/bass-pro-shops-bassmaster-opens-blog