BUCHANAN, Tenn. — One Super Tournament on a lake is a big deal. Three in a month? Welcome to Kentucky Lake this time of year.
While three tournaments in four weekends might seem like a recipe for a lot of similar strategies, the upcoming Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine Super Tournament for the Music City Division has a unique wrinkle – it’s launching on the complete opposite end of one of the longest lakes in the country.
This year, BFL anglers benefit from an expanded slate of Regionals, which minimizes travel costs and provides more opportunities to qualify for the $120,000 BFL All-American while fishing familiar, closer-to-home waters. Click here to find out more.
What to expect
More than 50 miles separates Gilbertsville, Kentucky from Buchannan, Tennessee. Why is that relevant? Because the latter is the launch site for this Music City Division event, while the former will host the Illini and LBL Divisions (as well as most other MLF events on the famed fishery).
Thus, while anglers fishing those events will all be launching on the same lake, the strategies they’ll use will be completely different.
For starters, launching in Tennessee all but rules out Lake Barkley for the majority of the field. But even more noteworthy, it will mitigate the impact of Kentucky Lake’s booming smallmouth population.
“The smallmouth have really blown up the last few years, especially in tournaments,” says longtime pro Ramie Colson Jr. “But with the tournament launching down near Paris, they don’t come into play near as much down there.”
For years, the Paris and New Johnsonville areas have been lush with grass, and with that came serious quality largemouth. And while that grass is now gone – “there’s not a sprig of it anywhere,” says Colson – the big largemouth have remained and continue to be the dominant species in the area.
Now, are they as big as when there was grass? According to Colson, no – but still plenty big enough, with 6- to 7-pounders regularly showing up.
The one issue is quantity. Because even during the best times, limits tend to be tougher to come by in that area. And with the fall transition just starting and fish on the move, it might be even tougher to achieve consistency across two days.
Baits to bring
Cool nights have the shad starting to seek shallower haunts, most notably shallow offshore bars. With that comes an epic topwater bite, which Colson says has just started to fire. Thus, topwaters will be a must-have for many anglers, as will the Kentucky Lake staples of a big worm and a football jig.
As for forward-facing sonar and the baits that typically accompany it, they will definitely come into play for anglers heading north. But Colson doesn’t expect to see as much beaming on the shallower south end of the lake.
What will it take?
Most team tournaments on Kentucky Lake tend to take 21 to 24 pounds to win throughout the year. So, there should certainly be some bags cracking the 20-pound mark. But doing it on back-to-back days during the fall transition might be tough. Hence, Colson figures somewhere in the 34- to 36-pound range for two days should put a pro in contention for the win.