DAYTON, Tenn. – When the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine Volunteer Division begins its 2025 season, it’ll be on a famed fishery during a (usually) prime window for chasing giant largemouth. Lake Chickamauga is known for its healthy population of huge bass, as evidenced by the Tennessee state record (15 pounds, 3 ounces) caught there about a week shy of 10 years from this BFL on Feb. 8.
While hooking into a double-digit largemouth sounds great, it’s going to take more than one tank to take down the BFL trophy. Chickamauga hasn’t coughed up the prolific numbers it was known for five or six years ago, but it’s still a lake capable of providing anglers with 30-pound bags under the right conditions.
Also of note as sign-ups for this event are in full swing, in 2025, the BFLs will feature an expanded slate of Regional events, which will give anglers more chances to qualify for the All-American and further minimize travel costs. This expansion ensures that grassroots anglers can fish closer to home on lakes they know and love for a chance to win a $50,000 Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200-horsepower outboard as a boater and a new $20,000 cash award as a co-angler, plus qualification into the BFL All-American.
Banks Shaw of Harrison, Tennessee, has two wins with MLF, both of which came last year on Chickamauga. He’s spent some quality time on Chick so far in 2025 and is still trying to get a handle on the ever-changing conditions this time of year can present to anglers.
“Fishing has definitely picked up since it’s gotten colder, but the water level’s been up and down and the water temperature plays to where the fish are going to be right now,” he said. “You get a warm rain and the fish will pull shallower. If it stays cold for a few weeks like it has been, they’re going to stay deeper. This winter, the fishing has been kind of tougher compared to what it usually is in the wintertime, but I think it’s mostly due to the water levels and water temperatures changing.”
Bass in TVA reservoirs are notoriously susceptible to changes in air and water temperature as well as water levels that change drastically with rain and snow runoff. It’s impossible to predict exact conditions for the leadup to Feb. 8, but there’s good news to be found regardless of conditions.
“Come February, it’s going to depend on the water temperature whether the bite is going to be good up shallow – there’s always fish up shallow no matter what the water temperature is,” Shaw said. “Anywhere in the 50s, there’s going to be a few places where you can really, really catch them up shallow.”
Dayton, Tennessee, Toyota Series and BFL angler Seth Davis (six Top 10s at Chickamauga) has similar thoughts about late-winter conditions on the eastern Tennessee impoundment. Davis noted that while offshore use of forward-facing sonar is the new norm for winning tournaments on TVA lakes, warmer conditions (with a little rain mixed in) could be great for anglers who want to employ a shallow power-fishing approach.
“If you get some rain and the water stains up a little bit, there’ll be some checks paid out to guys cranking banks,” he said. “I look for some guys – especially if we get some stain on the water – catching them off the bank, especially if we get one of those spring rains before the tournament.
Both anglers agree, though, that the offshore bite tends to be the more consistent player on Chick these days, and the Alabama rig, jighead minnow and jerkbait are hard to beat for offshore probing with FFS in February.
With so much hinging on the conditions, it’s hard to predict what kind of weight might take down a win in a one-day derby such as this. It’s also been a couple years since MLF visited Chick this early in the season, with the last such BFL taking place on Feb. 11, 2023. That tournament was won by Rusty White with 24 pounds, 1 ounce.
Davis, having fished some local tournament in the early weeks of 2025, expects there to be a wide range of possibilities for winning weight.
“I’m feeling good about the population of 2 1/2- to 4-pounders in the lake versus a couple years ago,” he said. “It won’t surprise me if it takes 21 pounds to win and it won’t surprise me if it takes 31 pounds to win. But I think you’ll need about 14 pounds to have a chance at taking home money in your pocket.”