With the weather situation roiling Dardanelle this week, anglers will likely have to fish differently each of the four days of the tournament, said Davy Hite of Ninety Six, S.C., who has a pretty strong record on the Arkansas reservoir.

“The weather has been kind of nasty,” Hite said while practicing Tuesday morning. “We’ve had a whole bunch of rain and we are looking for more. The temperature is supposed to make a pretty big change. It was in the mid-80s yesterday and is dropping into the 60s today. Tomorrow the low is expected to be 41 degrees with a high of 52 degrees That is a really big change for the middle of May.”

But, Hite added, the rain will probably have more of an effect on the fishing than the temperature this week.

“I don’t think the cool-down is going to change the water temperature a whole lot, but all that rain will. This lake has a lock and dam on each end, so they might let the lake come up a few feet or suck it out as fast as it comes in. It’s really going to change the fish, depending on what they do with the water.”

With the water level rising and possibly falling just as fast, combined with a very unseasonable cool front, things will likely change day to day, said Hite who won the Elite Series tournament on Lake Dardanelle during the same time of year in 2005 and finished 18^th in late March 2009.

“This is going to be a really interesting tournament,” the two-time B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year said. “I don’t think anybody can fish the same pattern four days in a row the way things are changing.”

Although he has never fished Dardanelle under the circumstances that prevail this week, Hite is hoping his proven versatility will help him fish to a high finish here. Currently ranked 51^st in AOY points, he needs to finish strong in the last half of the Elite season if he hopes to qualify for the 2015 Bassmaster Classic at Lake Hartwell in his home state.

“This is the turning point in the season. I have to fish one tournament at a time and have some good finishes the rest of the year,” said Hite who won the 1999 Bassmaster Classic on the Louisiana Delta. “I made a mistake in fishing what I wanted to at Toledo Bend two weeks ago and it really bit me. I made a bad choice on the area of the lake I chose to fish.”

But, added Hite, who has notched eight tournament wins in his 20-year career, a win automatically puts an angler in the Classic, so nobody is ever completely out of the race.

“With the Classic on Lake Hartwell this year I’d certainly rather be weighing fish than working the show,” he said.

 

Bassmaster Elite Series

May 15-18, 2014

Lake Dardanelle

www.bassmaster.com