Music City Division wraps the season at Dale Hollow
Dale Hollow Lake will host the final event of the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine Music City Division on Sept. 7-8. The storied lake hosts BFL events yearly in multiple divisions and continues to pump out quality bass all year long.
Tournament details
Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine Music City Division Super Tournament
Sept. 7-8
Byrdstown, Tenn.
About the fishery
Located on the Kentucky and Tennessee border, Dale Hollow covers 27,000 acres and has a winding layout that includes multiple bends and creek arms. It’s home to excellent bass fishing and the world record smallmouth bass, an 11-pound, 15-ounce behemoth caught by David Hayes in 1955.
Much of the lake is prime smallmouth habitat with plenty of rock and deep clear water, but this event will be dominated by largemouth thanks to a unique size limit. Smallmouth bass between 16 and 21 inches must be released, and only one over the slot may be kept. As a result, largemouth will be essential to winning the event, but one big smallmouth can still push weights even higher.
Loudon, Tennessee’s Jacob Woods lives over two hours away but feels right at home at Dale Hollow, and he’s had great success on the lake, with five Top 10 finishes in the last year alone. His run of top finishes includes a win in the March Mountain Division tournament.
“The grass is healthy, and there’s a lot of fish in the grass right now, as well as quite a few fish offshore on brush,” Woods said. “It’s been real hot lately, and the same class of fish is still out there; they are just skinny now and weigh less than they do in the winter months.”
Woods believes the vegetation will draw most of the anglers in this event.
“The lake has a lot of good grass, and that’s what makes it so good,” he said. “The lake has hydrilla and milfoil, one of the only middle Tennessee lakes where it grows deep. You can have some good times fishing the grass because there is always fish in it, and they tend to weigh a little more because they seem healthier.”
What to expect
With a large lake and ample cover, Woods said that just about anywhere on the lake has potential.
“The whole lake is good, and it can be won anywhere, as crazy as that sounds,” he said. “You can win it anywhere from Star Point to the dam. The whole lake was good on my last trip, and I caught some big fish on the upper end and then caught some nice ones in the Wolf (River) around mid-lake.”
Woods has been monitoring recent tournaments and says there is no direct comparison as most events have been held in the evenings, but he says the fishing should be solid when the Super Tournament rolls around.
“It’s been taking good weights in those night tournaments, but there haven’t been many in the daytime,” he said. “Last year in the Super Tournament, we did a three-fish limit for conservation, and it still took over 25 pounds for six fish, but the fishing is not as good as last year, in my opinion. I think whoever weighs in six 4-pounders will win this year if we do the three-fish limit again.”
Woods said that several techniques should be in play.
“It will be a ‘pick your poison’ thing,” he said. “You can do the whole ‘Scoping thing. You can also get offshore with a drop-shot, a big magnum spoon, or swimbait around the brush. From what I’ve seen, those are the best ways to catch better-than-average fish.”
The possibility of one over-the-slot limit smallmouth also plays into Woods’ strategy.
“Smallmouth can be a player if you can get a big one and then two good largemouth to go with,” he said. “One of the best ways to catch a big smallmouth is to throw a topwater to fish out there chasing bait. That will be my game plan for the first two hours of the day to try to catch one.”