Kevin VanDam

Hundreds a day

April 29, 2010
(bassmaster.com, April 29, 2010)

FLORENCE, Ala. — When the Elite Series anglers take off onto Pickwick Lake Thursday for the Alabama Charge, catching over 100 fish a day won’t be impossible. Catching fish over 4 pounds, however, nearly has been.

Alabama Charge Video

Elite anglers find plentiful bass on Pickwick, but size will prove challenging.

“There’s probably more fish in this lake than any other I’ve every fished,” said Mark Tucker. “This has the perfect habitat for them, both moving water and backwaters, without the pressure like Kentucky Lake.”

The biggest challenge for Tucker in the tournament will be not getting lulled into complacency by the number of fish.

“Not losing a fish will be important here,” Tucker said. “You are getting so many bites, the minute you get sloppy, you could lose a 3- to 5-pounder and that will kill you.”

With a 12-inch minimum length limit on spotted and largemouth bass and a 14-inch limit on smallmouth, catching a five-fish limit will not be a problem for the 93 anglers competing this week. Unfortunately, many of the pros plan on wading through numbers of fish and hoping for a big bite to come along.

Gary Klein has found several schools of fish, but has to hope that he has those spots to himself and a big fish comes along eventually.

“As an anglers, you only have a couple of options: try to wade through them, or make a boat or bait change, something you figure out over the course of the day,” Klein said. “The weather will also be a factor. We had two hard days of practice and we’re supposed to have wind tomorrow. They bite good when it’s overcast, cloudy and windy.”

Forecasts for Florence call for sunny skies for the first day of competition, but scattered thunderstorms will likely move through north Alabama for the anglers fishing over the weekend.

As for the lake itself, the anglers can go all the way up to the Tennessee line on Pickwick or lock down into Wilson. Historically, smallmouth have dominated on Pickwick and while they still represent great fishing, the recent emergence of grass has made largemouth even more dominant.

Muscle Shoals resident Timmy Horton has extensive experience on this section of the Tennessee River and doesn’t think grass is as big a factor this time of year because it hasn’t had enough time to develop yet.

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/elite/news/story?id=5145580

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