Practice began for the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Pickwick Lake on Monday, Memorial Day. The lake had been off limits for 28 days prior to the start of practice, and the anglers were eager to get out on the water and see what they could find. What many of them found was lots and lots of boat traffic.
Local anglers occupied a good bit of the best bass fishing real estate on day one of practice while pleasure boaters threw a few wakes in every direction. We caught up with Buddy Gross after day one of practice to see how it looked to him out there on the water.
“It was crowded today,” said Gross. “With it being a holiday, there’s just a lot of people on the lake, and I haven’t seen a whole lot. There are a few fish out, but there aren’t many.”
Gross is an offshore fishing fanatic, hailing from up the Tennessee River on Chickamauga Lake. So he’s looking for fish that are “out.” meaning offshore on the hundreds of miles of ledges that line the main river channel, back channels, creek channels and other little offshore oddities along Pickwick Lake.
The increased boat traffic on the water made finding an offshore spot to fish pretty difficult for Gross.
“I think it’ll be better tomorrow,” Gross remarked in reference to day two of practice.
But the real problem is he’s not seeing a lot of fish offshore on the places he has been able to get on.
“There should be more fish out where I’ve been looking. I don’t think the lake is struggling, I think it’s just getting a lot of pressure like every other lake in the country, and the fish are getting smarter.”
Sometimes early in the summer, when not seeing a lot of fish offshore, there’s the hope that there are still big waves of fresh fish to come. Fresh fish is a term anglers love to throw around and hear when talking about offshore fishing. It refers to fish that are just getting to the offshore spots, and they are eager to eat anything you put in front of them. But it looks to Gross like there won’t be a lot of fresh fish found offshore this week.
“I think the majority of them have been beat up a little bit. When we were here before the off limits, they were already coming out — a big wave. I’m sure there are still fresh fish coming, I just don’t think there are big wads of them.”
So likely what you see is what you’re going to get offshore right now. There will be a few more bass that show up in Gross’ opinion, but the fishing pressure is likely the culprit for the schools of fish being busted up and a bit harder to find. This may drive many anglers shallow this week, and that shallow bite is something Gross has already sampled himself.
“This morning, I found a little bit of a shad spawn left, and I caught three in the 3 1/2- to 4-pound range. I just quit.”
The shad spawn is always a factor in a late spring tournament, but we’ve moved a little past that season and are working our way more into early summer. Water temps are in the low 80s, so the shad spawn is surely slowing down.
“The thing about the shad spawn here is it can go away in a minute, so I’m not really relying on that. I really think it’s going to be an offshore bite. I’ve just got to find it.”
But the shad spawn isn’t the only thing that might tempt anglers off the ledges and onto the shore. This time of year, the bream and bluegill start to spawn shallow as well. When asked whether or not Gross thought the bluegill have started their spawning process, “I haven’t been up there to look at it, but I think they are, yes. A lot of the local people, even bream fishermen, a lot of them are up on the banks so I’m assuming they are probably already spawning.”
If the bluegill are spawning shallow, this opens up a whole new world of possibilities for anglers like Bill Lowen and John Cox who will inevitably fish shallow here this week as they almost always do. The bluegill and other bream beds will keep a lot of bass shallow as they terrorize the spawning baitfish. And this bite can last all day, as the bream won’t vacate their beds. So a topwater bite shallow could play big here on Pickwick this week.
Though Gross is still aiming most of his attention offshore, he believes it’s really up to whatever the angler wants to do.
“The water’s high enough, people are going to be able to go to the bank. I think it’s going to be whatever someone wants to do, they’re going to be able to do this week. I’m going to start up shallow every morning and then just gradually work my way out.”
The allure of the shallow bite to even Gross is interesting, and it shows his lack of confidence in the offshore bite. He does feel confident the inevitable winner of the event will catch some deep, but the angler may catch some shallow as well. It doesn’t look to him like this will be a purely offshore dominated event.
“I think at least some of it is going to have to come deep. But right now, I’m not seeing four days worth of anything, that’s my problem. I haven’t even found enough to start out there.”
Finding enough fish to last four days in order to have a shot at fishing and competing for the win on Championship Sunday is the main goal of the anglers in practice. Gross hasn’t found that yet out deep.
“When you start splitting it up between us, it’s going to get tough,” Gross remarked in reference to the amount of pressure the few offshore spots that are holding fish are getting.
Still, he’s hopeful his early practice woes will subside in time, partly confident they will as the lake gets a little bit of rest midweek after a hectic weekend.
“I think it’s going to get better as the week goes on and the lake gets a little less pressure on it. And I stayed off what I think is going to be the key area all day today.”
Gross’ decision to avoid fishing what he believes is the key offshore area on day one of practice came as a result of a strong 15 mile per hour wind, heavy amounts of boat traffic, recreational fishing pressure and a belief that the bite is just going to get better later in the week.
So for now, Gross is choosing to look elsewhere in hopes of finding something a little off the wall or rule out a good bit of water, before making his way to the stretch of the Tennessee River where he believes the best ledges lie later in practice.
The rest of the Elite Series field is also working their way through the decision-making process as we near the midway point of practice. When this event was announced nearly a year ago, there’s no doubt the offshore guys circled it on their calendar, already licking their chops. And the shallow water guys probably looked at it with a bit of hesitancy, just hoping to not get their teeth kicked in by the deep-water anglers.
But this one is setting up to be more of a fair fight it seems, with a strong likelihood of several anglers making a Top 10 here shallow and deep. We’ll have to see how it all plays out over the next few days. Be sure to tune in to Bassmaster LIVE and see for yourself starting Thursday at 7 a.m. CT.
