Destination: Old Hickory Lake

Wal-Mart FLW Tour, May 15-18

Flipper Copeland runs a tackle store on the shores of Old Hickory Lake, so he’s always got a pretty good idea as to what the fish are biting and where the heaviest sacks are being caught. Pros and co-anglers anted up for the Wal-Mart FLW Tour slated for the 22,500-acre fishery May 15-18 are sure to be interested in the information he has to offer.

According to Copeland, largemouths typically wind up the spawn by early May and begin making the transition towards the deeper, summer haunts along the Cumberland River channel. But they won’t make the move all at once. At this stage of the game, the fish are likely to have moved off the flats and they’ll be holding around maturing milfoil beds and/or stumps and laydowns in 4 to 6 feet of water.

“A lot of the fish will still be in the creeks,” Copeland said. “But how active they’ll be will depend a lot on the weather. We usually have a real good top-water bite in May, but I’ve seen it change at the drop of a hat. You could be hammering the fish on a buzzbait or Zara Spook one day, then catching them 10-feet deep on a Carolina-rig the next.”

In addition to top-waters and Carolina-rigs, Copeland recommends teasing the fish with a medium-diving chartreuse/blue or firetiger crankbait. A white, chartreuse/white or glimmer blue spinner bait (1/2-ounce) can also be productive when crawled around stumps, laydown logs and scattered milfoil beds.

In the event the fish aren’t in a chasing mood, anglers could turn up some banner catches by flipping grass beds with jigs, plastic worms, tubes or creature baits.

– Matt Williams

Links:

Wal-Mart FLW Tour anglers heading for Old Hickory
Pro field
Co-angler field
Tournament details and payouts