2019 FLW Tour Lake Chickamauga Day 2: Matt Greenblatt Leads with 43-2lbs!

Canadians Richardson 83rd & Sim 109th

by Justin Onslow

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Spawning bass and wacky rig Senkos key to leaders!
(Photo: FLW)

Matt Greenblatt was one of the few pros fishing the FLW Tour’s Lake Chickamauga event this week who didn’t let off the accelerator on day two. With weights down across the board, the Port St. Lucie, Fla., pro brought 19 pounds, 13 ounces across the weigh-in stage and jumped day-one leader John Cox to take the lead with 43-2 overall.

The tournament, presented by Evinrude, hasn’t quite lived up to expectations to this point, due mainly to the odd transitional period into which it falls. Some fish are still moving up to bed, but the big ones don’t seem to be all the out to the ledges yet – a summertime staple for Tennessee River fisheries – and they haven’t been all that easy to catch up shallow, either.

Greenblatt seems to have found the magic formula, or at least the magic spot, where some big ones have been hanging out. He isn’t catching giants, but he’s been hauling in enough quality fish to put together a bag that only needs one kicker to do some damage.

The six-year Tour pro didn’t change anything up from day one, which produced 23-5 of quality Chickamauga largemouths. He simply found a great spot that’s been holding a ton of fish and went to town.

“[It was the] same thing as yesterday,” he explains. “Same spot. Same everything. That slope, I milked her for everything she was worth. Yesterday, I was hoping I was going to get decent weather [on day two]. We were expecting rain and nasty stuff.”

With rain in the forecast for day one (rain that never ended up coming), Greenblatt hammered on that spot pretty hard, but his fish seemed to replenish overnight, and even with some extra fishing pressure on it Friday, it produced nearly as well.

“Of course, you get a little bit of company, too,” he adds. “I had two other boats in there with me: Lendell [Martin Jr.] and John Hunter. John got a 3-pound average out of there. We’re hitting it pretty hard, all three of us.

“We’ve got hopefully two more days in here, and I don’t know what she’s got left.”

Should Greenblatt’s spot dry up or the weather muddy up the water enough to turn off the bite, he has a backup plan in mind.

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2019 FLW Tour Lake Chickamauga Day 1: John Cox Slams 24-11lbs!

Canadians Richardson 71^st & Sim 75th

by Justin Onslow

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Shallow water expert Cox grabs lead.
(Photo: FLW)

John Cox just has a way of not taking himself too seriously. Maybe that’s why he was able to quietly haul the tournament-leading sack to weigh-in and take the lead with only one angler left to cross the stage behind him.

Cox doesn’t get hung up on figuring out how much weight he has. He’s not always crunching the numbers and stressing out about the weight he needs. And on day one of the FLW Tour event on Lake Chickamauga, which is presented by Evinrude, his 24-pound, 11-ounce stringer was more than enough to position the nine-year Tour pro atop the leaderboard heading into day two.

For Cox, it’s a pretty simple formula.

“I’m going to go out there [tomorrow] and try to catch five more decent males, and I’m hoping I can get lucky and catch a 9- or 10-pounder,” he says. “The thing is, this place is awesome. Someone’s going to pull up on a drop or hit a stretch of shoreline and smoke them. Hopefully I can be consistent and get that 22 or 23 pounds every day and I’ll be all right.”

Consistency isn’t always Cox’s calling card, but that isn’t a knock on his immense talent. He just loves to fish shallow – especially sight-fishing, which he did plenty of Thursday – and that recipe often leads to trouble when things don’t line up just right. Today, they did.

The DeBary, Fla., pro marked about 10 fish in practice that he thought might help him during the tournament. Many of those fish had already been caught or moved off their beds by the time Thursday rolled around, but he was able to make the most of what he had. He also might have something left in his bag of tricks tomorrow.

“I started on a real big fish and got frustrated with it,” he explains. “I couldn’t catch her, and I just bailed on her.”

Cox returned to that fish several times throughout the day, each time finding a new male on the bed with her. After trying a few times to catch the “probably at least 10-pound” female, he determined he might have better luck on Friday.

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2018 FLW Tour Harris Chain Day 2: Chris Johnston Grabs Leads with 45-04lbs!

Gustafson 16th, Richardson 37th, Cory Johnston 105th
by Curt Neidermier

FLW PRESS RELEASE

It didn’t take long for Chris Johnston to get the action started during day two of the FLW Tour event presented by Lowrance on the Harris Chain this morning. Nor did it take long for him to rile up the weigh-in crowd. Johnston was one of the first to cross the stage, dropping more than 25 pounds in the weigh basket to take the lead with a two-day total of 45 pounds, 4 ounces.

Canadian Chris Johnston rockets to lead with 25lb limit.
(Photo: FLW)

Yesterday, Johnston went to Griffin in the morning and caught three of his five keepers there, then finished in Harris. With an early check-in time today, he figured he’d be better off avoiding lost time in the lock and staying in Harris, which is the lake where the field takes off from each morning. 

Smart decision.

“It started right off the bat this morning,” he says. “I went to the spot where I finished yesterday.”

Shortly after takeoff Johnston hooked a tiny bass – we’re talking 4 inches. As he was winding it in, the bass suddenly started fighting back and ducked under the boat. Johnston called for the net, just in case, and when his co-angler dipped the net into the lake he came back up with a 6-pounder. 

“The 6-pounder ate the small bass and the bait,” Johnston says. “They were both in the net, so that was crazy.”

Crazy, maybe, but definitely a good omen, as Johnston quickly landed a limit of bass.

His strategy was to park his Ranger on a 300-yard-long stretch of 12-foot-deep hydrilla packed with shad and pick it apart with a reaction bait.

“It’s definitely key to get them early in the hydrilla,” he says. “I think there’s a little bit of a shad spawn in the morning.

“I’m fishing a main-lake weed edge. There’s a little bit of an indentation in it, and there’s some wind blowing into it. I just hit the Spot-Lock [on the Minn Kota Ultrex] and sat there.”

Johnston caught about 30 bass without moving the boat. That was partly based on playing defense to keep other anglers off, and partly because he was dialed in on an isolated group of fish. He’s hoping this weekend he’ll be able to work up and down the edge more to try and locate more groups of fish. 

Most of his action came on one bait, which he declined to name, but he did make a big upgrade in the hydrilla at 9:30 with a key bait switch.

“That bite died, so I threw a ‘Trap in there and caught an 8-6.”

It was 10:30 until Johnston finally pulled the plug on his honey hole. He spent the rest of the day running some old water and hunting for a bonus kicker, which he got in the form of a 4-pounder that let him cull up to his final weight.