2015 Walmart FLW Tour Lake Chickamauga Day 3: Michael Wooley's Lead Expands!

Wooley Keeps Wow Them!
FLW PRESS RELEASE
For a third day in a row, Michael Wooley of Collierville, Tenn., hauled in more than 23 pounds of bass from a single red-hot fishing hole on Lake Chickamauga. He caught a 23-pound, 7-ounce limit today to retain his lead in the Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Igloo Coolers. His three-day total now stands at 72 pounds, 14 ounces, giving him a 6-pound, 2-ounce edge over Stetson Blaylock, who brought in today’s biggest stringer with 25-12.
Wooley has reeled in all but one of his weigh-in bass from a single shell bar located inside a large bay on Chickamauga’s lower end. Wooley describes the bar as being about 13 feet deep on top with a 20-foot-deep creek channel wrapping around the end of it.
He does most of his damage in the first hour of the morning when the fish are chasing gizzard shad on the bar.

Another 23 pounds keeps Michael Wooley ahead of strong pack. (Photo:FLW)

“Yesterday we had some cloud cover, and it took a little longer to catch them,” Wooley says. “But this morning the sun was shining, and it happened pretty quick, like it did the first morning.”
Despite seeing gizzards being chased, Wooley says he hasn’t been able to catch bass with a shad-imitating bait.

Top Ten Below

“That’s the part that puzzles me,” he admits. “Those big gizzards come skipping out of the water, and I cannot get a bite on a big spoon or swimbait. Even when I get the school fired up, I’ll heave a spoon out there after catching back-to-back fish [on a slower-moving bait] and never get a bite on it. All they want is something dragging on the bottom, and that’s it.”
Each day, Wooley has left his area by noon, after the primary feed was over. He has then hit a few places on the river, but so far nothing on the river has helped him.
“Tomorrow I’m just going to sit on that one place all day and see what I can get out of it,” Wooley says. “I haven’t really fished it in the afternoon to see if there is a second feeding period that happens. I know there are plenty of fish in there, and I don’t see any reason they would leave.”

Top 10 Pros
1. Michael Wooley – Collierville, Tenn. – 72-14 (15)
2. Stetson Blaylock – Benton, Ark. – 66-12 (15)
3. Bryan Thrift – Shelby, N.C. – 62-06 (15)       
4. David Dudley – Lynchburg, Va. – 62-02 (15)
5. Bill McDonald – Greenwood, Ind. – 59-15 (15)         
6. Larry Nixon – Bee Branch, Ark. – 59-14 (15)
7. Darrell Davis – Dover, Fla. – 59-05 (15)        
8. Michael Neal – Dayton, Tenn. – 58-04 (14)   
9. Richard Peek – Centre, Ala. – 57-05 (15)      
10. Terry Bolton – Paducah, Ky. – 56-04 (15)