The boundaries for this tournament, which include a section of the Tennessee River near Knoxville, plus Tellico and Fort Loudoun lakes, are wide. But the 100 anglers competing in the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite are probably going to be concentrated in a small area, or as the anglers say, “It’s going to fish small.”
“I think this tournament will fish pretty small,” said Brandon Lester, the Tennessee native who finished sixth in the Bassmaster Classic here in 2019. “I’m a little concerned about that. The only other time we were here was the Classic. It fished small then, in a 52-boat field. Everything went down at the bottom end of Loudoun.”
And that’s where the center of activity is predicted to be this year. Matt Herren likens it to a game of musical chairs, where anglers are rotating through the same areas repeatedly throughout the day.
“It’s all about timing,” Herren said. “Do you pull up at the right time, in the right place.”
Lester thinks Tellico Lake’s clear water and big smallmouth bass, which have to be big to be a legal catch of 18 inches, have a chance to be a surprise element this week.
“Tellico is the X factor, if somebody can figure that out,” Lester said. “I took a look at it. But that water is so clear, I just don’t like it. Smallmouth are definitely going to play a roll in this tournament. If we could keep 15-inch smallmouth, they’d play a huge roll. But the chances of catching five 18-inch smallmouth, that’s a tall order.”