GALLERY: Rhea County Students Add MossBack Fish Habitats to Watts Bar

During Stage Four of the Bass Pro Tour, a few MLF pros teamed up with MossBack Fish Habitat, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and student anglers from Rhea County High School and Middle School to build and sink fish attractors in Watts Bar Reservoir.

Watts Bar was created in 1942. MossBack’s Will Barron explained that since then, most of the trees and natural cover that existed when the reservoir was compounded is gone because it decomposed over the years. That means there are fewer places for fish of all species to inhabit. The MossBack Fish Habitats that the students assembled (with help from the pros and their parents) will sit on the bottom of Watts Bar permanently, growing biofilm and algae on the artificial “branches” that attract baitfish. That, in turn, will attract bass. Barron explained that the different sizes and shapes of Mossback Fish Habitats can serve different purposes, like providing a safe place for bass to grow to spawning size and providing places for bass to feed.

Four days after the fish habitats were dropped into the lake, students from the Rhea County Fishing Club returned to Watts Bar to fish those same areas.