MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. — Interesting – that’s the word that was repeated over and over in talking to the Bassmaster Elite Series anglers about this tournament that will be held on lakes Norfork and Bull Shoals over the next four days.
While both are Ozark Highlands reservoirs – Norfork’s 22,000 surface acres is located east of Mountain Home, and Bull Shoals’ 45,000 acres located to the west – and both are within a foot of their normal conservation pools, the fish cover in them is vastly different.
“Bull Shoals has five or six feet of water in the bushes,” said Greg Hackney. “Norfork doesn’t have a bush in the water. It amazes me how much difference there is in the two lakes. I’ll have a totally different game plan, starting out anyway, for Norfork than I do Bull Shoals. That may change as this plays out.”
This is a quick reminder of the format: Day 1 – Norfork; Day 2 – Bull Shoals, then cut to the Top 50 anglers based on the two-day totals. Day 3 – Bull Shoals again, and the field will be cut to the Top 12 based on three-day cumulative weights. Day 4 – Norfork, where a winner will be determined based on total weights from all four days.
“It’s kind of like the old school one-day tournaments,” said Jason Christie, who won on Bull Shoals in April 2013, the last time the Elite Series was here. “You’ve got to go try to catch all you can catch. And hopefully you get through one lake where you’re not too far behind.
“These aren’t lakes where you can have 4, 5 or 6 pounds one day, then come back with 25 pounds the next. You’ve got to stay in contention on both lakes to have a shot.”
Added Steve Kennedy, “You’re not saving fish. You’ve got to go catch everything you can catch the first day because there’s no guarantee you’re coming back.”
That brings up another “interesting” aspect of this tournament.
“Is the same guy going to be on the best fish at both lakes?” said Kennedy. “He may be leading on one lake, then not do so well on the other. If someone does well on both lakes, that would really be impressive.”
It’s bass spawning time in the Ozarks. April’s full moon arrives Friday. Water temperatures are creeping into the mid 60s. This tournament may be won sight fishing spawning beds. Some anglers may commit to that pattern. Christie isn’t one of them.
“I’m not going to sight fish,” he said. “These fish are so spooky. I found some on beds Monday at Bull Shoals. I went back yesterday, and they were gone. I’ll sight fish when the opportunity arises, but not all day.”
There’s a 15-inch minimum length limit on largemouth and smallmouth bass. It’s 12 inches on spotted bass. Both lakes are full of bass due to high-water spring conditions in recent years, which created some extraordinary spawns.
“The size of the fish in both lakes is about the same,” Hackney said. “Both lakes have huge fish populations of all three species. Weight-wise, I think the lakes will fish about the same.
“The deal here is to catch 3-pounders and better. There are just tons of fish here in that 2 1/2-pound range. The deal will be getting a 4-pounder every day. That will be the deciding factor.”
Finally, there’s this: With four days of practice time this week, many anglers fished Norfork on Sunday, Bull Shoals the next two days, then went back to Norfork on Wednesday.
“I wish I hadn’t gone back to Norfork (Wednesday),” Christie said. “It was a totally different lake. I’m going to have to start all over (Thursday).”
Kennedy noticed the same thing, saying, “I heard a lot of guys saying that Norfork was better than Bull Shoals after that first day of practice. But I didn’t get that impression after today.”
This tournament is going to be, of course, interesting.
Takeoff Thursday is at Lake Norfork Marina at 6:15 a.m. CDT. The weigh-ins all four days will begin at 3:45 p.m. at the Arkansas State University-Mountain Home campus.