Rose grows on ledges

Arkansas pro’s obsession with TVA ledge fishing only gets stronger

HIXSON, Tenn. – Ask bass pro Mark Rose a question about ledge fishing and he lights up like Lowrance unit over a big school of bass.

“I love it,” said Rose of catching bass on offshore structure. “It’s a culmination of understanding so many subtle things: bottom composition, structure, current, fish position, bait, reading electronics, proper lure presentation. It’s like a giant combination lock – once you get the right combination dialed in, there’s no faster way to catch quality bass, especially in the summer and fall.”

Though Rose has a passion for ledge fishing, he shies away from titles like “ledge specialist” or “ledge master.”

“I’m getting there, but I still have a lot to learn,” Rose said. “There are still too many days when I sit out there looking at hoards of bass on my screen and I can’t get them to bite. Those are the frustrating days, when just one or two components of the right combination are off and it keeps me from catching bass.”

“But at the same time, that’s what intrigues me about it,” he continued. “You can change just one number in the combination – maybe like a lure change or even a simple boat position change – and suddenly the whole school fires up and you catch them cast after cast. I’m telling you, it’s so cool when you find out what trips their trigger.”

Rose’s obsession with ledge fishing began in 2007 when he won the FLW Series at Pickwick Lake dragging ledges with a jig.

Since then he can’t seem to satiate his hunger for ledge fishing knowledge.

“It’s a lot of work,” Rose revealed. “I’ve spent hundreds of hours on TVA lakes – Pickwick, Guntersville, Wheeler, Fort Loudoun – just idling around studying ledges on my Lowrances. And now with their Structure Scan and Down Scan capabilities I can study ledges from different angles and see things I’ve never seen before.”

And his efforts have paid off handsomely in FLW competition.

This season he finished second at the Lake Guntersville FLW Tour event. In 2009 he took 4th place at the Kentucky Lake FLW Tour event and then won the American Fishing Series Championship on Pickwick.

And this week at the Lake Chickamauga FLW Series event, Rose is at it again. He is currently in second place, hoping to add another ledge-fishing win to his resume.

This morning, as Rose looked over his arsenal of ledge-fishing tools, checking the knots on his Strike King Sexy Spoon and 6XD crankbaits, he seemed calm and confident.

“Anything can happen in fishing,” Rose said. “With so many factors at work in ledge fishing, a lot of things have to be right to catch them. But I will say, I feel pretty comfortable on the Tennessee River this time of year.”

The day-two weigh-in of the FLW Series event on Lake Chickamauga will begin at 2:30 ET at Chester Frost Park.

Thursday’s conditions

Temperature at takeoff: 68 degrees

Expected high temperature: 92 degrees

Water temperature: 81 degrees

Wind: calm

Day’s outlook: sunny, warm