Chickamauga Midday Update – Day 3
Stable conditions could heat up the bite to close things out
With bluebird skies and a little breeze, day three conditions on Chickamauga almost mirror those of day two, which saw a 37-pound, 5-ounce bag caught by current leader Brent Butler. Weights might have been down a bit across the board, but there are enough anglers in the top 10 that are on enough fish to make today’s weigh-in interesting. They’re all out there chasing down some Chick giants today.
Butler, who moved from 40th to first with his mega-bag yesterday, caught his fish offshore using a jerkbait and an umbrella rig. He’s back at it today in the same locations throwing the same baits, though he did say yesterday that he has about 15 spots he didn’t hit on day two.
From the looks of things, Butler might be running those spots today. We caught up with him around 9:15, and he only had one keeper at the time (his co-angler, Scott Ostmann, had two at that point). Butler threw around both a jerkbait and an umbrella rig for a bit before picking up and running at 9:30, ending up near Soddy Creek.
A local angler was on Butler’s spot when he pulled up, but the former vacated the area for the leader to get after it. Unfortunately, Butler didn’t have much luck there either and made another move farther south around 10 o’clock.
Brandon Stanley, who entered day three in third place, didn’t have to run far from takeoff. He started running his best pattern – fishing steep drops along rocky shorelines and laydowns – in the same spot he hammered on Friday. He caught a couple short fish within a half hour of takeoff before jumping into a shallow cut. Stanley has been throwing around a lipless crankbait and a vibrating jig (mainly around wood).
Derek Hicks caught 16-11 yesterday, but it wasn’t the 24-9 he weighed in the day prior. Changing weather conditions and slower current hurt his pattern, but it seems like he’s found some good current today. He was fishing near a marina shortly before 10 o’clock and landed a 3-pounder with an umbrella rig. He was also tossing around a square-bill crankbait.
Bryan Thrift is doing what he does best – catching limits. He said he has a small limit as of about noon. He looks to be doing many of the same things he’s been doing all week, with the exception of also mixing in an umbrella rig.
Local boat traffic is heavy on Chick today, and we’ve been unable to wade through the crowd to track down the rest of the top 10. But, as has been the case most of the week, the afternoon bite could be really stellar, and weigh-in has the potential to get very, very interesting.
Tune in to FLW Live at 4:30 ET to see how everything plays out. Weigh-in will be held at Bass Pro Shops at 1000 Bass Pro Drive in Chattanooga.