FLW Tour samples Old Hickory
GALLATIN, Tenn. – Anglers practicing for the upcoming FLW tournament on Old Hickory were awakened to the menacing sound of splitting thunder and driving rain early Monday morning.
The wicked weather was associated with a cold front that ripped through Nashville during the morning hours. By afternoon the rain had stopped, but air temperatures had plummeted nearly 25 degrees from the previous day’s high. Anglers were scrambling back into their winter clothes.
“They left here looking like surfers, and came back looking like they had run the Alaskan Iditarod,” said one amateur angler when describing the day’s activity around the hotel.
Pros had just become used to hot summertime temperatures that dominated the Southeast over the last week. Now forecasters are calling for lows in the 40s and highs around 70.
Lake layout
Old Hickory is a TVA impoundment formed by the Cumberland River. The lake is roughly 25,000 acres in size, which doesn’t sound big, but considering the lake is 86 miles long, there is plenty of fishable water.
Similar to its TVA cousins throughout Tennessee and Alabama, Old Hickory is a riverine impoundment. Approximately 80 percent of the lake is the winding Cumberland River channel and its adjacent flats. The lower end of the lake has a handful of creeks that add body to the lake.
Bass cover in the lake is also similar to other TVA impoundments. Old Hickory contains some milfoil and shallow shoreline grass, which is just now coming out of dormancy. Along with vegetation, boat docks, riprap, seawalls and shallow logs on flats constitute a majority of the shallow-water cover.
Offshore, the lake has a plenitude of deep-water breaks, humps and channels.
The water color is “TVA green,” and it fluctuates on a daily basis. Four to 10 inches of fluctuation in a day’s time is not uncommon.
Bass, bass everywhere, but none fit to keep
Old Hickory’s minimum size limit for bass is 14 inches. While anglers are reporting catching plenty of bass – 30 to 50 per day – coming up with keeper bass has been the challenge.
“The lake is full of fish,” says Conseco pro Shad Schenck. “You can catch them on as many different baits as you want to throw. They will bite anything here. But you have to weed through an awful lot of non-keepers to find a keeper.”
With water temperatures ranging from 62 to 72 degrees, fish are still in differing phases of the spawn.
“I think fish are in all three phases of the spawn right now,” says Schenck.
“It depends on where you are,” says pro Paul Elias. “The water way upriver is still cold (62 degrees), some of those fish are still spawning. But down on the lower end where it is warmer (72 degrees), they are about done.”
Even though some fish are still spawning, the popular technique of sight-fishing does not look to be a factor since Old Hickory waters are stained from recent rains.
Some of the more dominant fish-catching techniques will be top-waters, shallow crankbaits, and flipping jigs and plastics to visible cover.
Will cold front effect the bass?
Fuji pro Randy Blaukat said he found Old Hickory bass biting surprisingly well before the cold front passed through. But as bass anglers know all to well, severe cold fronts can really put a muzzle on bass.
“I don’t think this front will do much to impact the fishing,” says Blaukat. “Early in the spring, when fish are just moving up, is when cold fronts really impact bass. But the weather has been warm and a lot of these fish are already in post-spawn, so I don’t think the front will hurt things too badly.”
Florida pro Bernie Schultz believes the muddy water from the rain will have the greatest impact. “The muddy water flushing into the creeks from the rain will pack more anglers into tighter areas of clearer water, making the lake fish smaller than normal,” reports Schultz.
Like with the FLW Tour’s first visit to Lake Ouachita in March, anglers are a bit hesitant about making any weight cut predictions since FLW has no history on Old Hickory. Weight predictions for the top 20 vary from 16 to 22 pounds.