COUNCE, Tenn. — Everyone catching bass at Pickwick Lake feels like someone is watching them. “There was a dude 500 yards away on a four-wheeler on the bank watching me,” said Jason Christie, who is in second place with 22 pounds, 2 ounces, after Day 1 of the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite. “I left one spot because I was afraid he was going to tell his buddy. That’s pretty bad when you’re scared to fish.”
That summed up the paranoia apparent on a day when, as expected, Tennessee River offshore ledge fishing was the formula for success. There were plenty more examples.
Bryan Schmitt was one of six anglers to top the 20-pound mark Thursday. He’s in sixth place with 20-5.
“I’ve got one place to myself,” he said. “That’s the only reason I caught ‘em. I caught my limit and one more, then I stayed off of them.”
Schmitt stayed in the spot, but didn’t fish for the last two hours. He played defense.
At one point in the afternoon, Brandon Palaniuk was catching a bass on almost every cast. As another boat went by, Palaniuk muttered, “Nothing to see here. Nothing to see. Just retying.” Then he raised the lid on his main tackle locker as if he were doing just that. Actually, he’d just weighed and released another fish.
Brandon Lester caught all his weight – a fifth-place total of 21-6 – in 21 minutes, from 7:52 a.m. until 8:13 a.m. His fifth keeper, which weighed 6-9 and put him over the 20-pound mark, was his signal to scram.
“I told my cameraman, when I get over 20, I’m getting the heck out of here because there were no other boats around me,” Lester said.
This is a classic Tennessee River ledge fishing tournament. Stealth mode is more important than usual because there aren’t many big schools of bass offshore on the ledges. If you find one, even though it may only have 10 or 15 fish in the school, it’s a big key to success. Lester is a veteran Tennessee River offshore angler, and especially so on Pickwick Lake.
“I spent a lot of time here from 2015 to 2021,” he said. “I’d come over here five or six times a year. Before Kentucky Lake took a downturn, this lake was the best-kept secret of the whole Tennessee River. It was the best ledge fishing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
But the fish Lester found Thursday weren’t on one of his old spots from the past. He found it on the last day of practice – Wednesday.
“On a whim, I was looking around and I saw a school kind of tucked away,” Lester said.
They might be there again Friday, and they might not.
“One thing I know about the Tennessee River, fishing pressure will move these fish around,” he said. “I’ve got some places where I know a school is coming to, they just haven’t showed up yet.”
Previous success doesn’t indicate future results, especially at Pickwick Lake right now. Another group of anglers might be in the 20-pound club Friday. Some of the success posted on the leaderboard Thursday isn’t likely to be repeated on Day 2.
For instance, Palaniuk finished his day on a place where he’d caught “a bunch of two-pounders in practice.” He caught a 3 ¾-pounder and figured his day was a wrap. He made two more casts, looked at his cameraman and said, “Last cast,” and caught a 6-pound, 2-ounce largemouth.
“It was literally a three-pound upgrade,” Palaniuk said. “I had a 3-2 in my box (that he culled with the 6-2). Today was insane. I caught nearly double what I thought I was able to catch after practice. I never even caught a 3 1/2- pounder in practice.”
Christie felt the same way, saying, “I just got lucky today and got five big bites. My next five would have weighed 12 pounds.”
To sum up Day 1 on Pickwick Lake, paranoia abounds and confidence is in short supply.
