Lake Chickamauga Setting Up for the June Offshore Bite

Fish have been slow to transition to offshore haunts after cold spring

DAYTON, Tenn. – It’s been barely a week since the Bass Pro Tour left Florida’s Harris Chain of Lakes, but as of Friday, June 4 – when B&W Trailer Hitches Stage Four Presented by Wrangler kicks off on Lake Chickamauga – thoughts of shallow Florida largemouth will be replaced with classic Tennessee River offshore bass.

This popular fishery will certainly allow anglers to fish how they like – and there are plenty of options here – but signs point to the fourth regular-season stop on the Bass Pro Tour being dominated by offshore tactics.

Chickamauga’s popularity as a summer tournament lake guarantees that there’s plenty of history to analyze when predicting how Stage Four will play out. One of the most recent events here was the recent Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. Central Division tournament, which Jordan Harman won with 51 pounds, 3 ounces over three days.

How It Sets Up

Lake Chickamauga stretches nearly 60 miles from dam to dam between Watts Bar and Nickajack lakes, and features everything a bass angler could want in a fishery. From hydrilla to laydowns to current and ledges, Chickamauga has it all, and it’s home to some true monster bass, with double-digit potential on any cast.

Local pros Michael Neal and Miles Burghoff both repeat the terms “fishing small” and “community holes” in talking about the June fishery – although the lake stretches a good distance, the hot spots are well known and will likely collect groups of anglers (both BPT and locals) during the event.

Heavy rains arrived in the area the night before Thursday’s final practice day, and continue to pummel Chickamauga as of this writing, which could also alter conditions throughout the system.

Neal Ready for a Home Game

Even with the lower-than-usual weights at the late-May Toyota Series, Neal is optimistic that the fishing will be excellent for Stage Four.

“Everything has been later this year because it was so cold this spring,” he said. “I think the fish are just not all the way out there yet. I expect guys will catch them both shallow and deep, but the offshore bite will be the way to win.”

Offshore, he expects a host of proven lures to produce fish.

“They’ll catch fish cranking and throwing swimbaits,” he said. “Jigs and big worms will also be a way to catch them, as well as finesse stuff like a drop-shot. Up shallow, we’ll see guys having success with frogs and flipping.”

Neal believes most of the field will be on offshore ledges and is thankful for the field size in each group during this event. He also expects some eye-popping numbers on SCORETRACKER®.

“This place fishes really small because all of the places are well known, but we’ll only have 40 anglers at most each day, so that should help,” he said. “If you land on the right school, you can catch them one after another and we’ll see those weights climb fast. I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone catch 100 pounds in a day.”

While Neal knows the lake as well as anyone in the field, he doesn’t feel a significant home-field advantage on Chickamauga for himself or any other local pro.

“The electronics and mapping have become so good that I don’t think there’s much left out there that hasn’t been found,” Neal said. “We’ve all been on this lake so many times that everyone knows it pretty well by now.”

A Biologist’s Perspective

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency fisheries biologist Mike Jolley has been with the organization for 27 years. He works in Region 3, including Chickamauga and other noted bass fisheries like Dale Hollow, Watts Bar, Nickajack, and more.

Jolley credits the improved fishing on Chickamauga over recent years to the stocking programs of the “F1” hybrid largemouth, which is a cross between the Florida and northern strains of largemouth bass.

“We’ve stocked well over 3 million fingerlings since 2000 and have seen a huge increase in the average bass size since then,” he said. “The average largemouth bass size in 2000 was 1.42 pounds. Early data from the most recent studies showed an average size that was a little above 3 pounds, more than doubling since we started the stocking program.”

This bodes well for the Bass Pro Tour anglers and Jolley expects good fishing, despite an unusual weather year.

“It stayed cooler for longer this spring,” Jolley said. “Then recently, we had record heat with temperatures we haven’t seen this early since the 1940s. It’s been a different year, but the majority of the bass have finished spawning and have moved towards deeper water.”

The fishery receives a large amount of fishing pressure due to its reputation as a big bass factory, but Jolley says it still kicks out good numbers of healthy bass.

“Our most recent electrofishing studies showed that the fish are healthy, with a good length-to-weight ratio,” he said. “This lake has a variety of habitats for bass spawning and juvenile retention. It also has a good population of gizzard and threadfin shad, as well as bluegill and skipjack herring. It has a long history for bass success, and this should be an excellent tournament to showcase the fishery.”

What “Sonar” Says

Pro Circuit angler Miles “Sonar” Burghoff has resided in several cities close to popular tournament lakes over the years but has settled in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, just minutes from Lake Chickamauga.

He’s worked to learn the lake in the past few years, and it showed with his third-place finish in the recent Toyota Series on his adopted home lake. While the fishing was a challenge for him and the rest of the field at that event, Burghoff sees things improving quickly based on his past several days on the water.

“The fish were in a postspawn funk (for the Toyota Series), but they’ve been transitioning quickly and getting offshore,” he said. “I think the bite is going to continue to get better. The shallow bite has been fizzling, so I think the majority of the anglers will find success offshore.”

Burghoff points to deep-diving crankbaits, spoons, hair jigs, and dragging big worms as potential winning baits.

“There may be some guys who make the Knockout Round, or even the Championship Round flipping shallow, but the ledge bite is the only way to get the numbers and size they’ll need to compete in the Bass Pro Tour format,” Burghoff said. “There are a lot of 2- and 3-pounders out there with an occasional 5-pounder mixed in.”

Like Neal, Burghoff expects plenty of fish catches during the week.

“I think the weight totals will be very similar to the Harris Chain event,” he said. “Guys catching 80 pounds or more in a day would not surprise me.”