FLORENCE, Ala. — Darold Gleason is from Many, La., so he knows what it’s like to evacuate when a hurricane roars toward the Louisiana Gulf Coast. He had an unpleasant sense of déjà vu Thursday when Pickwick Lake’s McFarland Park was evacuated after forecasts of flooding. Gleason was just one of many Elite Series anglers in campers there. After Day 1 of the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite was postponed due to the high water and high winds, the campers in the park were forced to leave, destination unknown. The fate of this tournament was unknown as well.
“I felt like I was evacuating from a hurricane,” Gleason said. “We had to leave with no place to go.”
Many of the questions had an answer 24 hours later. A previously closed TVA campground at Lake Wheeler Dam was opened to accommodate many of the Elite Series campers. The nomads had a place to land. And, most importantly, the four-day tournament at Pickwick Lake was re-scheduled to run Saturday through Tuesday.
“I’m just ready to fish,” Gleason said. “I’m tired of all the anticipation and unknowns. I’m ready to do what we do.”
The question now is where are the bass going to be. The three-day practice period was spent when Pickwick Lake was considerably lower, clearer and with less current than it has now.
“The one thing for sure is it will definitely be a level playing field now,” said Bill Weidler. “It’s going to be crazy, man. Adjustments are going to be key and being patient is going to be key. I don’t know if it’s going to take 100 pounds to win now, but I’d say it’s still going to take over 80.”
Matt Herren of Ashville, Ala., has considerable experience on Pickwick Lake. He thinks he knows what’s likely to happen when this tournament begins Saturday.
“We were going to have a (Wilson Dam) tailrace/offshore grass deal,” Herren said. “We might be fixing to have us a 20-pound line, 7 1/2-foot rod, let’s-get-it-on tournament. I’m going to go practicing (Saturday) because what we were doing in practice is gone. I have some history here. I kind of know what they’re supposed to do. It could get good.
“The only thing I have in my back pocket from years of fishing here is the knowledge of how quickly these fish will move. On this lake (Wheeler) we’re camping at right now, the lake can be six feet low, come up to full pool and within eight hours the fish will be in the bushes. It can be freezing winter cold, and when the water comes up, they are going to the bushes. It beats anything I’ve ever seen. In the Tennessee River, there are a couple of lakes where they’ll do that. And we’re at prime time. That’s where they want to go.
“There are two possible patterns here. Everybody thinks the smallmouth will be a tailrace deal. But there’s a humongous population of smallmouth in Pickwick besides what’s up there at the dam. The current will have those big smallmouth on down toward Tennessee. Those fish haven’t been biting. They will show up. It’s going to spread the field out. Where Kevin Short won (in 2010), Coffee Slough, which had been bone dry and wasn’t going to be in play, is instantly a player. You’ve just got multiple areas you can name all the way down to Tennessee.”
Herren believes this tournament will get better each day as the current steadies and water clarity improves. The only exception will be is if the Tennessee Valley Authority is able to drop the water again in anticipation of more rain in the forecast next week.
“I hope the river will stay right at 414 (feet above sea level),” Herren said. “If it does, every day that goes by, I predict the weights will get bigger.”
Maybe the happiest camper of all Friday was Steve Kennedy. He’s got a track record of doing well in high-water events. Kennedy’s last Elite Series win came in high water at Arkansas’s Lake Dardanelle in 2017.
“I love flood events,” Kennedy said. “I love them. Fish are very predictable in what they’re going to do. It’s not about keying on that one spot.”