Story by Pete Robbins - Photos by Mark Jeffreys

Norman, Ok. – When flooding forced BASS to abandon the idea of holding a tournament in Iowa this month, they left a section of the Mississippi River that few of the Elite Series pros had previously fished in competition. They replaced it with Old Hickory Lake, an impoundment that many of them had fished before, particularly those who have been around for a while or previously fished FLW Tour events. 

While Old Hickory is in Tennessee, it is not on the Tennessee River, like previous 2008 Elite Series stops Wheeler and Kentucky Lake, or past year favorite Guntersville. All three of those are dynamic fisheries that have produced big weights. On the contrary, Old Hickory, an impoundment of the Cumberland River and a playground for the residents of nearby Nashville, is known for being a stingy provider.

The pros are already singing the blues about low weights, but they’ve been doing that all year. At each stop, it seems, they complain about scattered fish and no size, and then they go out and set records. Is this a pre-practice form of sandbagging?

Even a broken clock is correct twice a day, and this lake may be the first real grind ‘em out affair for the 108 anglers. While its serpentine shoreline stretches almost a hundred miles dam to dam, it seems likely to fish small and for the first time this year, limits may not be a given.

Also, it’s unclear what type of pattern or patterns will prevail. While fish were clearly out on the ledges at Kentucky Lake, some anglers feel that shallow docks and grass could be the most productive habitat next week.

While some anglers may be grousing about the tough fishery, there is a greater number who are pleased by this scheduling quirk – as a result of the late site announcement, no one knew to gather information prior to the cutoff. As a result, it will be a truer test of the “no information” rules.

Historical Markers
BASS has fished pro events on Old Hickory four times, the last time coming in September of 2000, an Invitational won by Cary Bever with a paltry three day weight of 24-07. There were only a handful of current Elite Series pros in that field, and only Jim Murray and Kevin Wirth did well, finishing 11th and 15th, respectively. Notable strugglers included Timmy Horton (297th) and Shaw Grigsby, who failed to weigh in a fish and finished tied for 315th.

The last Tour level BASS event on Old Hickory was the 1999 Megabucks Tournament, won by Ron Shuffield with 39-14. Notably, the top four finishers in that event either no longer fish BASS or no longer fish professionally. But Tommy Biffle, Mark Davis, Davy Hite and KVD all made the top 10. It took only 17-08 to get a check (40th out of 147).

The 1998 Megabucks was also at Old Hickory, and Doug Garrett won it with the more Elite-like catch of 69-12. Once again, none of the top four from that event will be in this tournament. In fact, only two of the top eleven are back, but one is KVD (5th) and the other is Mark Davis (8th). The last check was claimed by Marty Stone with 30-04 (35th out of 160).

In 1996, Chad Brauer won a BASS Top 100 on the lake with 47-07 (three days). While Brauer no longer fishes the Elites, five of the top eleven from that tournament will be in the field next week – Clunn (2nd), Alton Jones (5th), Ray Sedgwick (6th), Gary Klein (11th), and of course KVD (9th).

Since KVD is leading the AOY race at this point, with two New York events left after Old Hickory, this would seem to play into his hands.

The FLW Tour has visited the lake twice more recently than the last BASS Tour level event there. In March of 2004, Dave Lefebre won the event with 27-07 over the last two days. It took 26-06 to make the cut after two days. The last check (75th out of 200) was claimed by Steve Daniel with six fish for 12-05, so while there were some decent strings to be caught, the drop off was severe. Even Lefebre, the winner, didn’t have a limit all four days. 

Greg Hackney, Rick Clunn, John Murray and Tommy Biffle finished 4th, 6th, 8th and 16th, respectively in the 2004 FLW.

The FLW Tour had been there just under two years earlier, in May of 2002 and veteran Basil Bacon won with 26-02 over the last two days. It had taken 20-07 after two days to make the cut and only 12-08 to get a check. KVD had another stellar performance, finishing third, but others struggled. For example, Denny Brauer blanked both days he fished.

The Pros’ Opinions
While the announcement of the site change is so recent that the pros haven’t been able to do much internet surfing, they still have opinions about how the tournament could go, and in particular about the unique “no help” nature of the event. We caught up with Mark Menendez, Tommy Biffle and Kenyon Hill for their opinions.

Mark Menendez
Although he doesn’t live terribly far away, Menendez has struggled in tour-level events on Old Hickory. He finished 30th in 1996, 78th in 1998 and 47th in 2000.

“It’ll be real finicky. The lake levels bounce up and down so you may be on something real solid one day and it’ll all change the next.”

“Ten or eleven (pounds) will be very solid catches there. There are some strange length limits, like an eighteen inch limits on smallmouths there, I understand, which takes them out of the game unless you get lucky and catch a big one.”

“It will be predominantly a shallow water event. There’s a lot of grass and docks. There may be a secondary bite of a deep bite, but the river channel could be as cold as 60 degrees.”

“It’ll fish tiny. We’ll all be about 12 miles of the lake. It’ll fish smaller (than Wheeler). We’re going to all be friends.”

“For the first time in my career, no background information can be used. I think that’s the way all of our tournaments should be. The best of the best will rise to the top without any outside help or any outside information.”

“For the top 50 cut, give me 22 or 23 pounds, that’ll probably slide you in pretty good. It’ll take 13 a day to make the top 12 cut.”

Tommy Biffle
Noted flipping expert Tommy Biffle has a stellar track record at Old Hickory. He finished 19th in 1996, 43rd in 1998, 5th in 1999 and 16th and 35th in the two FLW Tour events. 

“Old Hickory has always been pretty tough even in the good times. The boat traffic’s going to be heavy. If they run a little bit of current that might help.”

“I believe it’ll fish real small. I’m thinking they’re gong to be on ledges and there’s not that much ledge material in Old Hickory.”

“Ten to 12 pounds a day will probably do you pretty good. I think it could take 10 pounds a day to make the top 50, but that’s just a guess.”

“I wish all of our tournaments were like this. I wish we’d have no practice and then six days of tournament. You show up and when you get there it starts, with a 30 day off limits. I think you’d see a little bit of change in the fishermen that catch them because a lot of them are getting a lot of help, a lot of waypoints.”

Kenyon Hill
Oklahoma’s Kenyon Hill has not been able to find a comfortable groove at Old Hickory. His best finish was a 16th in 1998, sandwiched between a 32nd in 1996 and an 89th in 1999.

“Old Hickory is not noted for real big stringers of fish. There will be a love/hate thing going on. Some guys couldn’t catch a cold and some guys will do pretty good. I don’t think there’s going to be any middle ground.”

“It’s not a bad lake. It’s just not a real awesome lake.”

“With the WBT there last week, it's kinda beat up.”

“It’ll probably take 21 or 22 pounds to make the top 50 cut.”

“It’ll fish small. There’s only a few places they’ll be.”  

Full On Location coverage of the Elite Series event will begin on Wednesday.  The BZ on XM will also broadcast On Location LIVE from Old Hickory on Sunday, June 29th on XM Channel 144 at 6:00 and 8:00am EST.