OK, fantasy players, the official word from Fort-Loudoun and Tellico lakes is that the fishing is “tough.” The quotation marks are necessary here because that’s what most of the anglers are saying in practice, but most who follow this sport know that most of what anglers say practice can be taken with a grain of salt.
However, consensus opinion here is pretty consistent: The fishing is tough. They’re saying 10 pounds a day will be a good catch. When that happens, most of the positive developments and patterns that work are held pretty close to the vest, understandably. Even David Fritts, a pretournament favorite thanks to his strength as a summer, deepwater crankbait specialist, said he’s having a hard time catching keeper bass.
When the good fish are few and far between, that tends to open up the prospects, fantasy-wise. When everybody’s saying they aren’t catching fish, it’s obviously a little tougher to pick up on who might have top-10 potential. So this one could be a crapshoot.
Still, somebody’s going to come out ahead and there will be top-10 cut by Friday afternoon. To that end, it might be wise to lean on the old fantasy favorites – the locals – if you’re having trouble deciding who to choose. Lots of guys I talked to today coughed up the same names when I asked them for picks. They all pointed to east Tennessee River rats like Andy Morgan, Wesley Strader and Craig Powers, to name a few. The thinking here is that if anybody can find fish here, it will be them.
Still, even those guys might be having trouble coaxing the good ones to bite in this summer heat. If that happens, this one looks like it’s wide open.