Any angler who registered for a full division of the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine and who is still seeking to qualify for next year’s All-American will have one last chance to do so when Lake Cherokee hosts the 2024 Wild Card Oct. 25-26. While Cherokee proved challenging for the anglers who fished the 2024 rendition of the All-American, moving water and fish feeding up before winter figure to make the bite quite a bit better during the final event of the BFL season.
Tournament details
Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine Wild Card
Jefferson City, TN
Oct. 25-26
About the fishery
Covering about 30,000 acres, Cherokee offers plenty of shallow cover as well as islands and other main-lake structure for anglers to pick apart. Normally at this time of year, fishing up the Holston River would likely be the dominant pattern. But Hunter Sales, who has a win and three Top 10s on Cherokee to his credit and who coaches the bass fishing team at nearby Carson-Newman University, believes it could all be in play during the Wild Card.
Like the rest of the Appalachian region, East Tennessee has been impacted by flooding resulting from Hurricane Helene, which caused the cancelation of a Volunteer Division Super Tournament slated for Cherokee in late September. Fortunately, Cherokee and the surrounding areas haven’t experienced near the devastation of some surrounding areas.
From a fishing standpoint, Sales said the influx of water has actually helped the bite. The lake didn’t get too high or dirty, but the current resulting from water being moved through the Holston River impoundment has positioned bass in predictable ambush locations.
“The floodgates are open right now, which has created a lot of current on the lake,” Sales said. “The fish are honestly biting really well, and they’re set up on really obvious current-break type stuff — island heads and things like that. So, it’s actually impacted the fishing in a pretty positive way, and I would look for that to continue throughout the Wild Card.”
The other factor that Sales believes will boost weights during the Wild Card is the fact that the lake’s smallmouth restriction, which only allows anglers to possess one smallmouth over 18 inches each day from June 1-Oct. 15, will no longer be in effect. That will allow anglers to target both largemouth and smallmouth, with the minimum length being 15 inches for both species.
“I would look for the smallmouth fishing to be a major factor,” he said. “I think that largemouth will be the way to hit a home run and be leading after the first day, but a key to being consistent is going to be having a few areas where you can mix in some keeper smallmouth to kind of solidify your bag. It seems like the smallmouth bite is always the more stable of the two.”
What to expect
The top six boaters and co-anglers in the Wild Card will earn coveted spots in the 2025 All-American field. How they manage to do so will likely be determined by how far the water has dropped by derby day.
Like many highland reservoirs, Cherokee experiences a significant drawdown each fall. When the lake nears winter pool, there’s not much cover left in the water, so anglers tend to congregate around anything they can find as well as channel-swing banks up the river, according to Sales. As of this writing, however, the lake is still about 34 feet above winter pool. The lower it gets, the more isolated cover will play, whereas more water in the fishery means a greater likelihood that current breaks and other offshore habitat will dominate.
“With there being more water on all that (isolated cover), it’s not great right now,” Sales explained. “But, with that being said, as the water level starts to fall and recede to normal, by the time of that tournament, not only could you be seeing those channel-swing areas get good again with the limited cover, but you’re still going to see some of those fish that are set up off the bank on points and stuff like that. That current really positions those fish well.”
As of now, Sales expects to see a mixed approach account for the win. He noted that shallow largemouth typically comprise the heaviest limits, but those fish can be difficult to catch two days in a row. As a result, he expects to see the top anglers supplement an offshore pattern with a shallow kicker or two.
“You can’t be afraid to mix it up,” he said. “If you go up the river and you can fish those obvious channel-swing, bluff banks and catch 15 to 17 pounds the first day, you really gotta have a fall-back plan, whether that’s fishing brushpiles or isolated pieces of cover or something like that down the lake. It’s really, really hard to make that river bite work two days in a row.”
Sales expects to see plenty of anglers flipping jigs and winding buzzbaits in the shallows, while the jighead minnow and finesse swimbaits will likely be the dominant players offshore. He predicted the winning weight will fall somewhere between 28 and 30 pounds across the two-day event.
“There are some fish that are feeding on bait right now, and so the Damiki rig with like a Z-Man Scented Jerk ShadZ is going to be a big player,” Sales said. “And then it’s the fall on Cherokee, so I would say a 1/2-ounce jig and a buzzbait will be two big players, as well.”