SPRING CITY, Tenn. — The Volunteer Division of the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine will spend a full weekend on Watts Bar, with a doubleheader slated for May 2 and 3. With a diverse range of habitat and all three species in the lake, anglers should be able to catch bass in a variety of ways, with the potential that two completely different patterns could win the two events.
What to expect
Bass Pro Tour pro Matt Becker lives on Watts Bar. While he’s spent much of this spring on the road, reports indicate the Tennessee River impoundment has been fishing well.
“The lake is really full of fish right now,” Becker said. “It has a very healthy population of largemouth between 2 and 4 pounds. Lots of bites, lots of fish, weights are stout. So, I expect the fishing to be really, really good.”
Watts Bar is always a diverse fishery, and those options should be on full display during these events. Becker expects anglers to be able to catch both spawning and postspawn bass, and there could be a morning shad spawn bite, too.
“There’s grass, there’s laydowns, there’s rock, there’s pea gravel, there’s bluffs – you’ve got all sorts of options,” Becker said. “Guys will catch them from the dam to all the way up the river. It would be hard to pick a section and an area that you will win out of. I feel like you could win just about anywhere right now.”
Becker expects largemouth to dominate the catch count, but if an angler can find a way to catch a mixed bag, that could give them a leg up.
“The wild card is figuring out the smallmouth and the spotted bass,” he said. “There’s some really big spotted bass and smallmouth in there, but they start to vanish this time of year. So, that’ll kind of be the wild card of the tournament.”
Becker expects quite a few boaters to mix and match strategies. If he were fishing these events, he’d start each morning on a shad spawn bite, then use his three hours with forward-facing sonar to target bass on offshore cover.
“An ideal situation, you’d kind of start on the bank in the morning – a shad spawn or something like that,” Becker said. “And then transition to maybe some brushpile fishing and utilize your sonar. Then afternoon, go to flipping shade lines or docks or something like that.”
Baits to bring
Bait choice will largely depend on which pattern, or combination thereof, anglers choose to employ. But Becker thinks a jig would be a versatile, productive tool to have tied on.
“A jig is a big deal on Watts Bar,” he said.
If schools of bass have started grouping up offshore, he said a Carolina rig and a deep-diving crankbait will be productive. Otherwise, soft-plastics, both Texas rigs and finesse worms, could be big players.
What will it take?
With bass transitioning between spawn and summertime patterns, this time of year can be tricky, especially when it comes to catching big females. But with so many 3- and 4-pound bass in the lake, Becker thinks it’ll take at least 20 pounds to win both days, possibly as much as 23.