3 BIG THINGS: Lake Athens Provides New Challenges, Opportunities, Conditions for Championship Round
ATHENS, Texas – After five competition days at the General Tire Stage Three Presented by TrueTimber, the final 10 anglers in the hunt for the championship trophy will shift their focus from Lake Fork and prepare to tackle Lake Athens.
All of the anglers competing in the event had the opportunity to visit the lake during an off-day to sample the fishing. And virtually everything overheard around the boatyard – from both the MLF anglers and from locals – points to a drastically different fishery.
Athens is much smaller than Lake Fork, and it’s chock-full of both grass and bass.
Going into the final day, there are three big things to watch: How is Athens going to fish? Does anybody have an advantage? What weight will it take to claim the title?
1. How is Athens Going to Fish?
Both group winners Mark Daniels, Jr. and Brandon Coulter spent some time on Lake Athens during their off-day and came away with differing views on the lake.
Daniels seemed pretty enthusiastic about the fishing on Athens, predicting quite a show on Championship Wednesday (without divulging too many details).
Coulter, on the other hand, doubted he would be able to fish offshore like he’s done all week on Lake Fork if he expects to compete. That’s his favorite way to fish and his biggest strength, but Coulter believes that he’ll have to change things up if he wants a chance at the win.
“There’s a lot of 4-pounders in there, but there are also plenty of 1- to 2-pounders,” said Texas native Tyler Anderson of TylersReelFishing. “The water is also fairly clear there, so finding bedding fish will be much easier than it is on Lake Fork right now.”
And as Kelly Jordon – a longtime resident of the area and a veteran of Athens – points out: “Athens will be ahead of Lake Fork (in the spawn). It’s a smaller lake so it heats up faster. If the sun comes up, there’ll be a bunch of 6- to 8-pounders on beds.”
2. Who’s Going to Win?
Every angler left in the field has a 1-in-10 shot at winning the event and all of them are more than capable of pulling it off. Looking at the field, it would be hard to count out those with momenta like Daniels and Coulter, but the same can be said of Texans Jeff Sprague and Alton Jones, Jr.
Especially Sprague: the Lake Fork resident has ample experience on Lake Athens. Still, with weights starting at zero, it’s anybody’s game.
“The average fish won’t be as big as Fork, but the guys will probably catch 10 times as many,” Jordon said. “There’ll be some non-scorable fish, for sure, but if somebody figures out how to catch those bigger females, it’ll be a show. I don’t think you can win there on 2s and 4s.”
3. How Much Weight Will it Take?
Because local tournaments on Athens operate under the lake’s slot limit, there are no accurate comparatives for this Championship Round. It’s an unknown (to most of the final 10) in terms of how it will fish, how quickly the final 10 anglers can decode the fishery, and how the lake performs on SCORETRACKER®.
“It really depends on the weather,” Jordon said. “If we don’t have big thunderstorms come through, it’s going to take a load to win. I think it’s going to take over 100 to win.”
One thing is for sure: nobody will be holding back or saving fish for another day. They’ll need to catch everything that bites if they want a chance at a Bass Pro Tour trophy.