SPRING CITY, Tenn. — The season-ending Super Tournament for the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine Volunteer Division will take place on Watts Bar Lake Sept 20-21. The lake is fishing the best it has in years, and it should be prime time for the fall transition bite, with many patterns expected to be in play.
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
Longtime touring pro and Watts Bar guide John Murray expects good things from his home lake. Murray and his son, T.J., will both be fishing this event, and the elder Murray says the lake is in its best shape since he moved there a decade ago.
“This has been the best fishing I can remember here, especially for bigger fish, with a lot of 6- to 8-pounders being caught all year,” he said. “It’s a cool lake with a lot of options right now. The beauty of Watts Bar is that it’s 75 miles long and you can fish however you want to catch them right now, including targeting smallmouth.”
Smallmouth have always been in the lake, but a recent regulation change has made them more of a factor in tournaments.
“The limit was always 18 inches for smallmouth, but starting August 1, it went to 15 inches, and you can keep five of them,” he said. “We’d always catch a bunch of 17-inch smallmouth that did us no good, but those will be a player now for guys running way up the river.”
Murray says several other patterns could also lead to a win.
“The grass has grown up really nice, so you can fish it with ChatterBaits and worms, and then you have the ‘Scope bite on the outside stuff around brush, big trees and stuff like that,” he added. “A lot is going on right now; it’s going to be a typical fall bite with a lot of fish caught on several different baits.”
Baits to bring
Murray says to pack your favorite grass lures for the vegetation and some minnows if you want to play the forward-facing sonar game. The fall topwater bite should be in full swing, too. Murray recommends rigging up a River2Sea Whopper Plopper as well as standard walking topwaters and buzzbaits.
What will it take?
Murray keeps close tabs on the local events and says 17 to 18 pounds is a solid day on Watts Bar. Catching that two days in a row will put an angler in contention for the win at this event. Twelve to 13 pounds should be enough to advance to the second day.