Top 5 Patterns from Chickamauga on Friday
The bank and the ledges are both in play at Chick
Nobody hit the magic Lake Chickamauga "30-pound bag" on Friday, but the top five pros in the Costa FLW Series Southeastern Division finale presented by Lowrance all came close to averaging 5 pounds per bass.
Anthony Ford of New Smyrna, Fla., took the lead with 26-14, but anything is possible on Chickamauga and the top five alone is stacked with exceptional Tennessee River talent.
2. Mike Miller – Trinity, N.C. – 25-0 (5)
Friday's second place angler Mike Miller logged the Big Bass of the day, worth $300, with a 9-15 largemouth.
I caught all my fish shallow," says Miller. "I had fished out on the ledges during practice and couldn't really catch them. I had a bunch of bedding fish found, but I couldn't see them today so I just went flipping."
Just 30 minutes before coming in Miller says he broke a fish off that would have put him in the lead.
"We saw her. She was six or seven pounds, but she hung me up in some trash," he said. "If I'd caught her I'd have been pushing a 30-pound bag. That's the way it goes, but it hurt pretty bad."
Miller estimates he caught 30 bass Friday. This week is his first time fishing Lake Chickamauga. With a laugh he says, "I like it. I'm ready to move here."
3. Chad Prough – Chipley, Fla. – 23-13 (5)
Chad Prough has fished nearly everything FLW offers at some point in time and is a perennial contender in the Southeastern Division. Prough says he and his co-angler Robbie Dickerson fished clean, not losing a fish all day.
"We were in creeks and backwater places fishing cover all day," says Prough. Like others, he says this week is his first time ever on Lake Chickamauga.
"I love the lake. The lake is awesome," he says. "Every creek, pocket, ledge … everything looks good out here."
4. Randy Haynes – Counce, Tenn. – 23-12 (5)
Randy Haynes says he spent a lot of time cranking the Profound Outdoors Z Boss crankbaits he helped design today.
"That's all it is,” says the Tennessee River legend.“I put the trolling motor down and just did a bunch of cranking today."
As far as depth Haynes says he, "ran everything, top to bottom."
Haynes fishes Pickwick regularly and says Chickamauga compares a lot to his home lake, although he says the average fish on Chickamauga is bigger. He admits he isn't sure how well his bite will hold up Saturday.
"I feel very fortunate with what I caught today. These fish at Chick, I still haven't figured them out. It's just a 'right place at the right time' deal."
5. Andy Morgan – Dayton, Tenn. – 23-7 (5)
Andy Morgan is always a crowd favorite in any FLW event, and especially so on his home lake in Dayton.
"Man, I caught them every way possible. They just bit today," says Morgan. "It didn't really matter what you wanted to do you could go catch a bass today. I caught them deep, I caught them shallow. Between largemouth, spots and white bass I probably caught 90 fish today."
Morgan says that four of the five fish he weighed he caught deep.
"I caught the biggest one I had shallow, but the other ones came deep. My better average was deep," he says.
With low temperatures in the high 40's and water rising following heavy rains Thursday, Morgan says Saturday won't be the same.
"It'll be a little different game tomorrow with this water coming up," he said. "They may move a little deeper tomorrow with this water rise, but you never can tell. We're just going to have to roll with the punches."