With over 200 pros and co-anglers on hand, the Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. Central Division is going out with a bang this week on Lake Chickamauga. The season finale for the Central Division anglers, Chickamauga is a favorite stop for every kind of angler. Despite the nearly constant fishing pressure over the years, the lake continues to do amazing things – regularly kicking out double-digit bass and limits over 25 pounds.
The Central Division is presented by Neat Companies. This event is presented by Googan Baits and hosted by Fish Dayton – Rhea Economic & Tourism Council.
Located in southeast Tennessee, Lake Chickamauga is a Tennessee Valley Authority impoundment on the upper end of the Tennessee River nestled between Watts Bar to the north and Nickajack to the south. The lake was created upon completion of the Chickamauga Dam back in 1940 and named after the Chickamauga tribe of Cherokees who used to call the area home.
Stretching nearly 60 miles long, Chickamauga isn’t the biggest lake on the Tennessee River, though what it lacks in size it easily makes up for with the quality of fish that reside in it. While other lakes along the system have phenomenal fishing and an abundance of 3- to 5-pound fish, Chickamauga has that and then some with the potential for a 10-pounder on any cast.
Chickamauga largemouths grow to be giants thanks to Florida-strain genetics in the system and because the lake holds nearly everything a bass could ask for in terms of cover and structure. Current, laydowns, tons of aquatic vegetation – including hydrilla – and offshore structure and cover such as ledges and brush piles all give bass plenty of places to hide and feed throughout the year.
One of the beautiful things about Chickamauga is the variety it brings to the table. Back at the peak of Kentucky Lake’s ledge bite, it was virtually impossible to contend for a win doing anything else when the postspawn and summer rolled around. By contrast, Chickamauga gives anglers a bevy of options in May, and even later on into summer. John Cox has perhaps made the most of it, but even if this event was held in June, it wouldn’t be a tremendous surprise to see a few pros Top 10 near the bank.
This week, the patterns in play should be extremely diverse. Dakota Ebare says that “everything is spawning,” and with water temperatures in the 70s and some 80-degree days on the way, the offshore bite is good and getting better.
“The lake is fishing really good, it’s not going to be easy to catch over 15 pounds, but if you want to come snatch on a few 2- and 3-pounders it is prime right now,” says Jimmy Washam, the current Angler of the Year leader. “Whatever you want to do you can catch fish and you can catch quality fish. One hundred percent, there will be more than one guy in the Top 10 that catches them shallow. There will be somebody that catches them frogging, somebody that catches them flipping, and there will be guys in between. There’s literally fish from 1 foot to 25 foot. What’s crazy is, normally when that happens on the Tennessee River, the fishing can get kind of tough, but you can catch 16- and 17-inch fish everywhere you go on this lake. It’s fishing really good right now.”
While Washam is probably right that the lake is fishing really well, most pros don’t see the weights living up to the big fish standards of previous years, and the kicker class seems to be hard to come by.
Washam says he’s caught a couple good fish in practice, but not enough any one way to commit to just a few rods on the deck.
“I’m going to have to do a whole bunch of stuff and see what’s paying the best,” says Washam. “I haven’t leaned on the fish offshore, I haven’t got a school fired up and actually caught ‘em, because there are always boats around. I’ve got 15 or 20 schools that have anywhere from 10 to 100 fish in them – those schools will be growing by the hour right now. So, I’m definitely going to lean on that quite a bit. But, this time of year they set up on obvious places first, so they’re easy to find, so I expect to have a lot of company doing that.”
Washam is an offshore angler at heart, like many bred on the Tennessee River, but he’s got other stuff going on as well.
“I can’t remember finding so many offshore schools and then being able to go in a pocket and see a 3-pounder on a bed,” says Washam. “I’ve fished some docks, and if you get on the right stretch, it doesn’t take very many of them to catch 12 or 13 pounds, and I know that’s a way to catch a 7-pounder of sure. And scattered hydrilla is playing, and there are also bream beds, and there are some quality fish hanging around them. Plus, [Tuesday morning], it was raining, and I just picked up a buzzbait and went down the bank catching 3-pounders.”
While Washam is looking forward to a good event and not too worried about the current lack of size, Brent Butler has seen the heights that Chickamauga can reach and hasn’t quite reconciled the current conditions with history.
“The lake is definitely behind, there’s still a lot of fish shallow and spawning,” says Butler. “There’s a few places where [the shad spawn] is taking place, but it’s not all over the lake. Getting on one will be the luck of the boat draw pretty much, and it’s not lasting very long.
“Typically, the fish have already done their deal and moved out in years past,” explains Butler. “Usually, it’s an offshore game is what is going to win it. This year, that’s not going to be the case. It’s going to be junk fishing, from shallow to deep, and potentially a shad spawn. A man’s going to have to have 15 rods and cover a lot of water.”
Butler says that the weights might be a little off because of the late spawn, but also because of the fish. Now, he thinks the lake has a lot more pure Florida-strain bass in it than it did in the heyday, and that while there are a lot of 3-pounders and 10-pounders, the middle class of 6- and 7-pounders that used to produce the giant Chickamauga weights isn’t as present.
Overall, he says the offshore bite is less paint-by-numbers than it used to be.
“The good ol’ days of seeing them and busting 25 pounds in five casts, those days are over,” says Butler. “They’re so smart and educated it’s unbelievable. It’s still a great lake and all, but the fish have changed and the size has changed. You’ve got the 3-pounders and then the big ones, there are a few in between, but not as many as there used to be. This same time of year in ’17, they were set up right, and I crushed them offshore and caught 29 pounds and 150-something fish one day offshore. You’re just not seeing that anymore – you can see the schools there, but they’re so educated.”
With a shallow bite almost guaranteed to play, you’ll be able to see the gamut of baits on deck this week. Up shallow, expect wacky rigs, topwaters, vibrating jigs and flipping baits to make waves. There are also going to be a lot of in-between options, like a swimbait or crankbait that could be used shallow as well.
Off the bank, the typical ledge staples will go far. So, deep-diving crankbaits, swimbaits, spoons, bucktail jigs, worms and football jigs will do well. Plenty of spinning rods will also be on deck, and throwing a drop-shot isn’t an admission of defeat on the ledges – finesse tactics can put a lot of weight in the boat on Chickamauga.
A slew of options on the table this week should make for good fishing, but most aren’t predicting terribly high weights.
“I’d say 16 pounds a day will be the cut weight, maybe even 17,” says Washam. “I think it’ll probably take around 58 to 60 to win. The big fish aren’t grouped up enough and recovered enough from the spawn for someone to catch five a day. I don’t think it will be a 75-pound deal.”
Perhaps slightly less optimistic, Miles Burghoff thinks that 54- to 58-pounds will win and that it’ll take about 33 pounds or so to make the Top 10.
Butler would love to have a higher estimate, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him blow his own guess out of the water, but he’s also pegging the winner to have less than 60 pounds.
“Somebody is going to catch low 20s one day,” says Butler. “I’m gonna say that it takes 55 to win.”
We’ll see how it shakes out – in June of 2020 in the Super Tournament, Cox fished shallow and tallied 55 pounds and change the first three days. Cox finished seventh in the event and is the best in the world shallow, but it seems fair to think a slightly bumped up version of that weight could be the mark to beat this week considering the variety in play.
With 517 points, Washam leads Steve Lopez by 15 points ahead of the finale on Lake Chickamauga. Coming out of practice, Washam says he’s feeling pretty good.
“I’m confident going into this because I’m getting so many bites,” says Washam. “But, it’s definitely not going to be a walk in the park, I’m going to have to work really hard. I could easily catch a 13-pound limit both days and finish 60th and leave the door wide open. But, it’s my wheelhouse, it’s the Tennessee River, I’m confident, but it’s definitely not sewed up.”
On the Strike King co-angler side, the race is a little more prone to fluctuation. With a slim lead and 493 points, Blake Lewis is leading the way. Behind him, Larry Franks Jr. has 487 points and is looking to overtake him. Though the points are close, Lewis is an experienced angler with quite a bit of MLF history on his side, so he’s looking decent heading into Chick.