Bassmaster College Regional Takes Anglers To Remote, Unknown Watts Bar Lake

Tournament Director Hank Weldon (far left) will bring the excitement of collegiate angling to Watts Bar Lake next week. photo by Vance McCullough

As many as 100 collegiate teams are expected to find their way to remote Watts Bar Reservoir to compete in the upcoming Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Eastern Regional June 12-13.

Located near Dayton, TN Watts Bar is a TVA lake. That may be the biggest clue most of the anglers have as far as how to approach the fishery. Few have any experience on the lake.

One angler who has spent some time on Watts Bar is Jackson Minnich, the vice president of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville bass club.

 “Honestly, it is kind of out there in the middle of nowhere,” Minnich said. “It is one of my favorite lakes to fish. I just wish I got to go there more often. The fishing stays pretty constant for me. Every time I go, I usually catch quite a few bass.”

Minnich expects a 3-pound-per-fish average to carry teams into the Top 10. Twenty pounds per day may be needed to win.

“There are big fish there, but you are not going to catch them with the same consistency as you would at Chickamauga or Kentucky Lake or somewhere like that,” said Minnich, before adding that Watts Bar is full of 2- to 3-pound largemouth.

As for patterns that may come into play, “A lot of people think Watts Bar is really a deep lake, but there is usually a consistent shallow bite too,” Minnich said. Flipping to shallow cover should be productive during the regional.

“There are a lot of humps and quite a few ledges too, so there is a lot of opportunity to fish offshore there.

“We have had kind of a late winter and cold spring, so it will be somewhere between postspawn and summertime. We have had some rain events, but the cold fronts more than anything have kind of messed up the fishing.”

Temperatures throughout the month of May have swung wildly from highs in the 90s to lows in the 30s.

Right now the lake is near summer pool and water clarity is described as slightly stained.

If the city of Dayton (population 6,180) rings a bell, it was the site of the famous Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial of 1925 wherein the idea of evolution was pitted against the concept of Divine Creation. No matter how the bass got there, our collegians’ debate will center on how to catch 5 of the biggest each day in next week’s Regional tourney.