High School Midday Update – Day 2
Pickwick continues to show its diversity
Pickwick showed off its impressive diversity during day two of the High School Fishing National Championship, which is held in conjunction with the High School Fishing World Finals. End-to-end, this Tennessee River reservoir stretches about 53 miles, and, while the offshore ledge game gets most of the attention, anglers were also leveraging the lake's many other fishable features.
From anglers fishing the Wilson Dam tailrace to others working island points, bluff walls and bridges, there was a lot going on this morning. Just outside of the takeoff site at McFarland Park, George Rogers Park High School’s Allen Powell and Alex Dunaway were catching fish in the current eddies coming off the barge canal bumpers above the O’Neal Bridge.
We also caught up with Will Daniels and Kade Suratt, who placed second on day one in the World Finals. We found them on a riprap bank where they finished their three-bass limit. A couple of short moves later, Suratt added a chunky 5-pounder that ate his big worm in the canopy of a big laydown. We’re expecting this team to do well again today.
A few miles downriver from McFarland, we found the Alhambra High School team of Ryan Beaty and James Alderman around the emergent tip of a wing dam. They had a limit when we arrived and added two culls.
Today’s weather complexion will likely play a role in how anglers fare. The early clouds that covered takeoff partly yielded to bright sun around 9 a.m., but by 11, skies were once again gray.
The dim conditions will likely hamper the offshore patterns, as anglers typically favor the sunny skies that position fish predictably on structure. Case in point, JD Bedford and Walker Brown, who lead day one of the National Championship with 13 pounds, 12 ounces of offshore fish, had only a small limit when we visited them mid-morning.
Much can change as the day progresses, particularly if the TVA increases the current. Overall, we’re expecting some shakeups in the standings.