By MLF Communications Staff
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Pre-tournament chatter suggested a diverse event would be on tap for the MLF Bass Pro Tour event at Lake Chickamauga, and Day 1 delivered. With the field fishing Chickamauga for the first of two days Thursday, a wide range of patterns yielded fish. Cloudy skies made for a strong morning shad spawn bite, then some anglers found schools of fish on offshore ledges, while others targeted shallow cover for spawners and fry-guarders and still others caught smallmouth in the tailrace beneath Watts Bar Dam.
Justin Lucas pieced together the best day of the bunch. The Guntersville, Ala. pro got off to a strong start fishing offshore, then moved shallow and targeted bass on beds in Period 3. That produced a total of 64 pounds, 3 ounces on 25 scorable bass, which has him 5-6 ahead of Waco, Texas, pro Alton Jones Jr. in second. Blaine, Tenn., pro Ott DeFoe, the only other angler to top 50 pounds, rounds out the Top 3 with 55-15.
With the first two days of the event taking place on Chickamauga before the field relocates to Nickajack Lake for the Knockout and Championship Rounds, the field got three days of official practice rather than its usual two. Lucas spent most of it on Chick, and yet he still didn’t expect such a strong Day-1 performance.
“Today was fun,” Lucas said. “I can’t believe I caught 25 fish. I didn’t have that many bites in all of practice.”
The big day came at a good time for Lucas, and not just because Thursday marked his 39th birthday. The last time he took the water in competition – at REDCREST on Lake Guntersville, where he’s lived for the past 15 years – he failed to make the Knockout Round and finished 34th. That left a sour taste in his mouth, so seeing his game plan work to perfection provided a welcome jolt of confidence.
“I expected to catch them (at Guntersville), and when you don’t, it definitely takes a little wind out of your sails,” Lucas said. “It feels really good to catch them here.”
Recognizing Chickamauga’s bass were scattered between different phases of the spawn, and in different depth ranges, Lucas centered his strategy on finding an area of the lake where he could catch fish both offshore and around the bank. He started his day plying offshore ledges with the one-two punch of a Neko-rigged Berkley PowerBait MaxScent magnum Hit Worm and a deep-diving crankbait.
As is typical of postspawn ledge fishing, Lucas often got bites in bunches. His best flurry saw him stack nine bass for nearly 23 pounds on ScoreTracker in the final 36 minutes of Period 1. In all, he totaled more than 50 pounds fishing offshore.
“I really didn’t catch but probably two fish using (forward-facing sonar),” Lucas noted. “Just more traditional ledge fishing.”
Lucas then switched gears, spending the final period sight-fishing for shallow spawners. He added four more scorable bass for 13-1, most of them eating a wacky-rigged Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General. He plans to employ a similar program on Day 2, although he’s not sure he can catch another 60 pounds.
“I think the bite is going to be tougher tomorrow,” he said. “I don’t know if I can catch that much weight. But depending on how well some of my deep spots reload, we’ll see.”
If Lucas can maintain the top spot at the end of Friday’s action, he’ll earn an automatic berth to Sunday’s Championship Round. Shortly after lines out Thursday, he remained torn on whether that would be a sound strategy.
On one hand, it’s hard to pass up a guaranteed spot in the Top 10, and there’s no reason to practice or save fish on Day 2 since that will be the field’s final day on Chickamauga. On the other, he (like much of the field) has little experience on Nickajack, so he thinks the best path to hoisting his second career Bass Pro Tour trophy would be to compete in the Knockout Round and hopefully find the winning pattern.
“Obviously, I would take a guaranteed Top 10 anytime,” Lucas said. “But I feel like this one, being that I don’t know Nickajack at all, it would probably benefit me more to make the Knockout Round and fish there and try and figure something out. I think it’s going to be an advantage to the guys that make the Knockout Round.
“I’ll probably try to (win). But I don’t know if it’s a good idea. But I do like Top 10s.”
Like Lucas, Jones pieced together two patterns, both fishing for bedding bass and postspawners offshore. However, he didn’t worry about staying in the same area of the lake.
Jones said he ran a total of 96 miles on the day. He also estimated he caught at least one fish on 10 different baits, illustrating just how spread out the fish are on Chickamauga.
“I never caught one on a big crankbait today, and I never caught one on a swimbait, but I think every other rod on my deck got some action today,” Jones said.
Jones started his day running a few different offshore spots where he targeted postspawn schools.
“I think your chances of catching a quality bass are better offshore if you don’t have forward-facing sonar, and for two-thirds of the day, we can’t,” he explained.
He used the latter part of Period 2 to make a long run to a different area of the lake, making sure he’d have all of Period 3 to maximize his time with forward-facing sonar. Jones used the technology to target fish that were spawning and guarding fry away from the bank. He put together one of the best forward-facing sonar periods of any angler, totaling an even 22 pounds on eight bass and moving from sixth place at the start of the period up to second.
“There’s a lot of fish still spawning, but what I noticed is they’re spawning offshore – points, shoals, bars, whatever,” he said. “And so being really dialed in with that is really, really important this week.”
Like Lucas, Jones expects the bite to slow a bit tomorrow. If he can push his total above 100 pounds, he likes his chances of winning the Qualifying Round.
And he has no reservations about pursuing the automatic berth to the Championship Round. A Top 10 would be important in his pursuit of his first Angler of the Year title (he’s currently fourth), and since he doesn’t have to worry about saving bass on Chickamauga, he sees no reason not to shoot for it.
“Normally, there’s a little more strategy that goes into grabbing the auto qualification,” Jones said. “Do I want to burn my fish? Do I not want to burn my fish? But here, we’re not coming back. So, there is no number where you lay off here. It’s just pedal to the metal and see what happens.”
Bobby Lane earned the Day 1 Berkley Big Bass Award Thursday with a 7-14 largemouth that he caught on a bladed swim jig in Period 1. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.
The full field of anglers compete in the two-day Qualifying Round on Thursday and Friday. From there, the pro with the highest two-day total advances directly to Sunday’s Championship Round. Anglers who finish 2nd through 20th will advance to Saturday’s Knockout Round.
In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining anglers compete to finish in the Top 9 to advance to Sunday’s Championship Round, when weights are again zeroed and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $150,000.
Anglers will launch at 7:15 a.m. ET Friday from Chester Frost Park, located at 2277 Gold Point Circle N. in Hixson, Tenn. The takeout on Friday will be held at the same location beginning at 3:45 p.m.
On Saturday and Sunday, anglers will launch at 7:15 a.m. ET from the Tennessee Riverpark, located at 4301 Amnicola Highway in Chattanooga. Takouts will be held at the same location beginning at 3:45 p.m.
The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney breaks down the extended action live on all four days of competition from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. MLFNOW! is livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.
The tournament features anglers competing with a 2-pound minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. The MLF Fisheries Management Division determines minimum weights for each body of water that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.
Qualifying Round – Day 1
(Figure at far right indicates weight of angler's heaviest fish for the round)
1. Justin Lucas -- 64-03 (25) -- 4-04
2. Alton Jones Jr. -- 58-13 (19) -- 6-14
3. Ott DeFoe -- 55-15 (19) -- 3-14
4. Cole Floyd -- 47-12 (16) -- 4-15
5. Nick Hatfield -- 47-08 (17) -- 5-03
6. Drew Gill -- 47-05 (18) -- 4-14
7. Matt Becker -- 46-03 (17) -- 5-00
8. Andy Morgan -- 44-04 (14) -- 5-14
9. Jacob Wheeler -- 42-12 (15) -- 5-11
10. Spencer Shuffield -- 42-02 (15) -- 3-09
11. Brent Chapman -- 41-02 (12) -- 5-13
12. Andy Montgomery -- 40-02 (15) -- 4-02
13. Justin Cooper -- 38-12 (16) -- 4-06
14. David Walker -- 38-03 (13) -- 6-04
15. Zack Birge -- 37-15 (15) -- 3-05
16. Dean Rojas -- 36-14 (12) -- 9-06
17. Colby Miller -- 33-10 (12) -- 6-11
18. Wesley Strader -- 33-03 (13) -- 3-13
19. Jeff Sprague -- 32-03 (10) -- 5-05
20. Bobby Lane -- 31-08 (9) -- 7-14
21. Jake Lawrence -- 31-03 (13) -- 3-04
22. Fletcher Shryock -- 30-15 (13) -- 3-05
23. Dave Lefebre -- 29-10 (9) -- 5-10
24. Luke Clausen -- 29-04 (12) -- 3-11
25. Keith Carson -- 29-01 (10) -- 5-10
26. Brent Ehrler -- 28-11 (11) -- 5-00
27. Brandon Coulter -- 28-00 (12) -- 3-03
28. Ron Nelson -- 27-10 (9) -- 5-08
29. Michael Neal -- 27-00 (7) -- 5-15
30. Britt Myers -- 26-09 (10) -- 4-02
31. Jared Lintner -- 26-04 (10) -- 3-04
32. Todd Faircloth -- 25-14 (8) -- 5-08
33. Keith Poche -- 24-13 (9) -- 3-10
34. Jacob Wall -- 23-13 (8) -- 4-12
35. Josh Bertrand -- 23-06 (8) -- 5-06
36. Dustin Connell -- 22-14 (8) -- 3-11
37. Adrian Avena -- 22-13 (9) -- 3-13
38. Chris Lane -- 22-06 (10) -- 2-10
39. Takahiro Omori -- 21-01 (8) -- 4-02
40. Marshall Hughes -- 20-12 (7) -- 4-07
41. Gerald Spohrer -- 20-04 (8) -- 3-00
42. Mark Davis -- 20-03 (7) -- 6-00
43. Anthony Gagliardi -- 19-15 (7) -- 5-06
44. Alton Jones -- 19-12 (8) -- 3-02
45. Mark Daniels Jr. -- 18-14 (7) -- 3-15
46. Casey Ashley -- 18-10 (6) -- 4-02
47. Shin Fukae -- 18-09 (6) -- 6-04
48. Greg Vinson -- 17-09 (7) -- 3-11
49. Mark Rose -- 17-07 (6) -- 3-10
50. John Hunter -- 17-04 (6) -- 5-12
51. Jesse Wiggins -- 16-10 (7) -- 3-00
52. Terry Scroggins -- 16-05 (7) -- 2-12
53. Nick LeBrun -- 16-00 (6) -- 3-00
54. Bradley Roy -- 13-07 (5) -- 3-14
55. David Dudley -- 12-13 (5) -- 3-09
56. Bryan Thrift -- 12-11 (4) -- 3-14
57. Skeet Reese -- 12-11 (5) -- 2-14
58. Marshall Robinson -- 12-05 (5) -- 2-14
59. Martin Villa -- 11-07 (4) -- 3-01
60. Dylan Hays -- 11-02 (5) -- 2-11
61. James Elam -- 10-05 (3) -- 3-15
62. Jeremy Lawyer -- 9-09 (4) -- 3-04
63. Marty Robinson -- 7-05 (3) -- 3-02
64. Gary Klein -- 6-13 (2) -- 4-03
65. Edwin Evers -- 2-08 (1) -- 2-08
66. Fred Roumbanis -- 2-00 (1) -- 2-00
