Lake Chickamauga Day 4 Coverage
Fog delays start of final day
QUICK LINKS
FLW Live Leaderboard – click here
Tournament Preview – click here
Tournament Details – click here
Super Tournament Details – click here
Day 1 Coverage Blog – click here
Jacob Wheeler's Day 1 Pattern – click here
Day 2 Coverage Blog – click here
Jason Reyes' Day 2 Pattern – click here
Day 3 Coverage Blog – click here
Jacob Wheeler's Day 3 Pattern – click here
2:00 – That’s a wrap
It’s time to close down the blog and leaderboard for the tournament. Right now, it looks like Jacob Wheeler is going to take it all, but it still is Lake Chickamauga and giant fish are only a cast away. Tune in for weigh-in in an hour on flwfishing.com.
1:40 – Wheeler gets his kicker
“That’s her, that’s a big one.”
Tournament leader Jacob Wheeler might have just caught the fish that will lock up the tournament for him – a 7.89-pounder. He caught her on a Rapala DT20. Now he has more than 20 pounds in the box with room to upgrade.
1:35 Floyd is crushing
Cole Floyd is working a school of fish on a worm. He’s got them fired up and keeps culling. His total weight is at about 17 pounds. Now he needs a couple 8-pounders to anchor his bag to have a shot at catching Wheeler.
Wheeler is catching nonstop with a crankbait, but they are all dinks that won’t help his limit.
Alex Davis also has a solid bag at 17 pounds. He has one fish that weighs nearly 6 pounds in the livewell.
1:05 – Floyd, Cox
Just like that Cole Floyd has culled up to 14 pounds. He is catching them nearly every cast at the moment. His biggest so far is a 4-8.
Cox also joined the upgrade crew. He just pulled out a 3-plus pounder in only a couple inches of water. He has the John Cox chuckle going – look out.
1:00 – Couple culls
The offshore guys had a little flurry within the last 15 minutes. Wheeler, Weaver and Floyd were all able to upgrade. Wheeler is now about 10 pounds ahead of second place angler Jason Reyes, unofficially.
Cox says he is seeing fish swim up into the grass that he is fishing. Specifically, a trail in the grass that he ripped his trolling motor through earlier in the week. He can’t explain why the fish are congregating there, but he knows there is something special about that specific spot.
12:42 – Cox catches a 4
The shallow grass bite is finally kicking into gear. We saw Miles Burghoff catch a couple keepers, and John Cox just landed a 4-pounder. That's interesting news because the ledge bite has gone stagnant. It would take a mega-bag to catch Wheeler at this point, but Wheeler absolutely has not slammed the door on this win. If anyone could pull off last-minute drama with a huge bag, it's Cox.
12:30 – Eight limits checked in
Eight of the top 10 have recorded limits so far, and we're already two hours away from check-in time. It really has been a tough day. Miles Burghoff's changeup to throwing a frog appears to be the right move. Unfortunately for him, he just dumped a fish by the boat. That one might've cost him some money.
12:00 – Burghoff connects on a frog fish
Like Floyd, Miles Burghoff also shed his initial pattern and ran to shallow water. Burghoff's been throwing a frog for the last half-hour or so, and his adjustment is paying off. He just landed a 3 1/4-pound bass. He has a limit for almost 15 pounds.
11:42 – Floyd calls an audible
Cole Floyd has absolutely crushed fish on Chickamauga's ledges this week. Yesterday, he hooked multiple giants. Today, his luck seems to have changed. Rather than ride down a sinking ship, he's trying to change it back. Floyd left his ledges and is now flipping grass. That pattern is certainly capable of producing some very big bass, as we've seen from Jason Reyes all week. But will it be enough to catch Wheeler? We'll have to wait and see.
11:35 – David Williams finds a flurry
David Williams, despite not wearing rain gear, just went on a tear and smoked four fish in a row. He's culling now. Williams has a massive hill to climb to get up into the top five, but we're excited about his recent success because maybe it's a sign that the bite is about to turn on for everyone. We're calling Williams weight at just shy of 11 pounds.
11:00 – It's raining
Put on your rain jacket. There's a steady drizzle falling in Dayton, Tenn. Maybe that'll help the bite for some of the anglers that are trying to catch bass on moving baits.
We now have five pros in the top 10 with a limit of bass in the boat. Miles Burghoff is not one of them. Yesterday he caught a pile of bass from a bluff wall where mayflies were hatching in wild number, but today, despite plenty of mayflies, he hasn't been able to make it work. Burghoff is on the move now. Jason Reyes finally added his third keeper. He hasn't really been on big numbers of bass this week. Reyes has been on a quality-over-quantity pattern, so he's prepared to pick and hunt and grind his way to a limit today. Cody Meyer, Cole Floyd and Alex Davis all managed to ignite a school of bass today, but their flurries were short-lived and didn't produce many big fish.
As of now, it's still a tight race for second, but Jacob Wheeler has a commanding lead. It's going to take a mega-bag on what has been a very tough day of fishing if someone wants to catch arguably the best angler in bass fishing right now.
10:10 – Lots of spectators today
An impressive flotilla is trailing Jacob Wheeler today. That's not surprising. Wheeler is the hottest angler in bass fishing right now, and this is a bass-crazy part of the country. Everyone wants to see how he's catching these mega-bags this week. Several other pros have spectators tagging along, too. The extra boats don't seem to be affecting the bite very much. But still, fishing is tough right now. Some pros were hoping for sunshine to move the fish onto the ledges, into the grass or under the docks. That's not happened just yet.
9:50 – Wheeler picking up steam
Jacob Wheeler got off to a slow start in the first half-hour, but he quickly got it back on track. He now has a limit in the livewell that'll weigh about 12 pounds. Alex Davis is also heating up. He fired up a school and has been catching 'em quick. He has four in the livewell. Cole Floyd has boated a number of bass. But several of his have been short fish. He also broke one off. Other than that, there's not a lot to report right now. It's overcast with a light breeze, which makes for a great day on the lake. We hope you're following along on FLW Live.
UPDATE: At 9:54, Alex Davis caught his fifth keeper. He has 12 pounds.
9:25 – Five of the top 10 on the board
Missing out on the morning bite probably slowed the progress for several of the top 10 pros today. So far, only five of the top 10 have landed a keeper. Miles Burghoff's 4-pounder is the biggest of the day so far. Nobody has more than two keepers.
9:00 – Early updates
Jacob Wheeler idled and graphed on his main spot for a few minutes before finally settling in and starting to fish. Jason Reyes, meanwhile, has already plucked a keeper from some grass. And Miles Burghoff, who's been targeting bass around bluff walls where mayflies are hatching, is back on his starting spot. He says he has to make a very precise cast in order to get bit. He also believes there are even more mayflies today than yesterday, and yesterday had a pretty epic hatch.
8:45 – Time to send them
We finally had a break in the fog that allowed the top 10 to take off on Lake Chickamauga. Though the prime morning bite may have passed, look for these guys to sack ‘em up quick. We had reports come in this morning that fish were schooling offshore so hopefully they are still willing to cooperate once the pros get to their starting spots.
If you haven’t already, make sure to watch FLW Live for the most up-to-date coverage of today’s fishing. We should see some fish caught shortly.
6:44 – Fog Delay
We're in a fog delay in Dayton, Tenn., on the final morning of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Super Tournament. We'll keep you posted about when the fog lifts and we can finally send the top 10 out into action.
CONDITIONS
Temperature at takeoff: 67 degrees
Forecast high: 83 degrees
Sky: foggy
Precipitation: 61 percent chance, with a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms
Wind: SW at 6 mph
TOURNAMENT DETAILS
Hosted by Fish Dayton and the Rhea Economic & Tourism Council
Takeoff: 6:30 a.m. ET at Dayton Boat Dock, 185 Chickamauga Drive, Dayton, TN
Weigh-in: 3 p.m. ET at Wind Creek State Park
FLW Live weigh-in show: 3 p.m. ET to end of weigh-in
FLW Live studio and on-the-water show: 8 a.m.-2 p.m. ET all four days