Tennessee heat wave

Unusual warmup greets FLW Tour anglers for stop No. 2 on Fort Loudoun-Tellico Lakes

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Cold fronts follow bass tournaments like kids follow an ice cream truck and the Wal-Mart FLW Tour is no exception.

Normally when the FLW Tour rolls into a town anytime during the first four months of the year, a cold front follows.

But for stop No. 2 of the 2007 season, which began Thursday morning on Loudoun and Tellico lakes, Mother Nature has defied all odds: Instead of a bone-chilling arctic blast, a heat wave has settled on eastern Tennessee.

In the last 20 days, daytime highs have gone from the 50s to 80s. Trees have gone from bare to green. Water temperatures on Loudoun and Tellico have jumped nearly 25 degrees. And the bass have gone from dormant to amorous.

“This is unprecedented!” exclaimed Fujifilm pro Wesley Strader of Spring City, Tenn. “In all my years of living here, I’ve never seen a warmup like this. She went from winter, right past spring to summer without ever checking up. If you had told me three weeks ago that we’d be fishing for bedding bass in this tournament, I’d have said you were crazy.”

But from the looks of the number of pros stalking the shallow banks of Fort Loudoun this morning with wacky worms and tubes, there’s no doubt the fish are spawning.

For the last few days, air temperatures have peaked into the low 80s, and water temperatures have reached the magical 70-degree mark.

“Normally the bass don’t spawn here until the water comes up in mid-April,” said local favorite Ott Defoe of Knoxville, Tenn. “But with the water temperatures coming up so fast, they’re trying to get on beds even before the water comes up.”

“I think a lot of the fish are confused,” said the ever-colorful Strader. “They know what they want to be doing, but they can’t get up there around the bank to do it because the water is still at winter pool.”

For the next two days, a full field of 200 pros and 200 co-anglers will be combing the waters of Loudoun and Tellico for keeper bass: 12 inches for spotted bass, 14 inches for largemouths and 18 inches for smallmouths.

In terms of which lake will fish the best, a lot of anglers seem to have Fort Loudoun on the brain. But that could open up a lot of unpressured water in Tellico, which is slightly bigger, deeper and clearer.

Both lakes contain a mix of species.

“If someone gets on a patch of spawning smallmouths, they could get quite a head start in this thing,” Defoe noted. “In a local tournament here recently, the winner had five smallmouths that weighed nearly 25 pounds. A one-day catch like that might just lock a guy into the top 10.”

Since the practice period began, several locals have downgraded their original weight predictions for the top-10 cut.

“At first I really thought it would take about 15 pounds a day to make it,” Strader said. “But after my practice, I’m going to say it might be more like 11 or 12 pounds per day.

“I fished some of my best places in practice without a bite,” he added. “I went a couple of days without a keeper. It’s been pretty tough on me.”

Defoe, too, dropped his top-10 cut predictions from 26 to 27 pounds for two days to 23 to 24.

“The period of time when the big fish pile up and stage in those offshore locations before the water comes up never really happened,” Defoe said. “When the water is in the mid-50s like I thought it would be, the big ones tend to group up more. Now they’re kind of scattered out, looking to spawn.”

FLW Outdoors moves indoors

This year FLW Outdoors has moved its final two days of weigh-ins from Wal-Mart parking lots to indoor venues. The Saturday and Sunday weigh-ins of this event will be held at the Knoxville Convention Center in downtown Knoxville, Tenn.

As part of the enhanced indoor weigh-in festivities, the Family Fun Zone will open at noon on both Saturday and Sunday, allowing kids to experience virtual boat rides in simulators, play various fishing-oriented games and meet their favorite FLW Tour fishing pros.

Adults will enjoy displays and demonstrations of the latest and greatest fishing products from top manufacturers in the industry as well as an opportunity to chat with their favorite FLW Tour fishing pros about specific fishing techniques and tactics.

And even though the final weigh-ins have moved indoors, the Family Fun Zone and weigh-ins, as always, are free and open to the public.

Each day’s Family Fun Zone will culminate at center stage with the weigh-in of the top 10 pros at 4 p.m. Eastern time. Fishing fans will get to see how the cream of the crop fished Loudoun-Tellico and watch one pro walk away with a potential $125,000 payday on Sunday afternoon.

Logistics and locations

During the first two days of the event, Thursday and Friday, March 29-30, a full field of 200 pros and 200 co-anglers will take off at 7 a.m. Eastern time from the Tellico Recreational Area Ramp located at the junction of highways 321 and 444 in Lenoir City, Tenn.

Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Tellico Recreational Area Ramp beginning at 3 p.m.

On Friday afternoon, a top-10 cut will be made in both the Pro and Co-angler divisions based on accumulated weight of the first two days.

When the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers take to the water on Saturday, their weights will start from zero.

On Saturday and Sunday, March 31 and April 1, the takeoff location of the top 10 will again be at the Tellico Recreational Area Ramp at 7 a.m.

The Saturday and Sunday Family Fun Zones and weigh-ins will be held at the Knoxville Convention Center located at 701 Henley St. in Knoxville, Tenn.

The free Family Fun Zone opens at noon and the weigh-in begins at 4 p.m. both days.

The first 300 children, 14 and under, visiting the Family Fun Zone on Saturday will receive a free FLW Outdoors hat.

During Saturday’s weigh-in, a Co-angler champion will be crowned and awarded a check for $25,000.

On Sunday, FLW Outdoors will give the first 300 children, 14 and under, visiting the Family Fun Zone a free rod and reel combo.

On Sunday afternoon, the winning pro will be awarded $100,000 plus another $25,000 in contingency money if the winner is a Ranger boat owner.

Thursday’s conditions

Sunrise: 7:27 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 62 degrees

Expected high temperature: 78 degrees

Water temperature: 65-70 degrees

Forecasted winds: light and variable

Day’s outlook: cloudy, warm, 40 percent chance of rain