This report was filed by outdoor writer Alan Clemons, who is on the scene at Paris Landing State Park at Kentucky Lake during this week’s Bassmaster Elite Series tournament:
BUCHANAN, Tenn. – If BASS is in town, that means there’s going to be rain.
For anyone who believed they might get through this week’s tournament without a drop, they lost their bet. A thick, black cloud began building about 8 p.m. Tuesday night southwest of the state park, where the tournament will launch and weigh in, with webs of lightning snaking across the sky.
An hour later the slow-moving storm announced its arrival with an explosive bolt of lightning that sounded like a bomb going off across the bay from the park lodge. Lightning continued like that for little more than an hour along with intermittent and occasionally heavy rain. Today’s forecast has a 40 percent chance of scattered storms and 60 percent Thursday, clearing up by the weekend.
Some anglers have indicated an incredible ledge bite with football jigs, with fish on every cast. But they’re culling through small fish. The shallow bite amid the water willow could offer unmolested water for patient flippers or frog-tossers, but conventional wisdom and seasonal history says the winning catch will come from the river ledges.
With the storm that passed through last night, it reminded me of a conversation with Mike Iaconelli during the rain delay at the Wheeler Elite tournament back in April. Ike mentioned in the past that he’s seen severe storms with thunder and harsh lighting affecting fish, primarily in shallow areas.
“I definitely think it can affect them,” he said. “I’ve seen it before up north on some of the lakes and rivers I’ve fished, but primarily with the smallmouth bite. I don’t know what it is or what happens, but I’ve seen the bite turn off or change the day after.”
Whether that is due to the pressure change from a passing storm, the noise from thunder or some kind of electrical charge from the lightning, we don’t know. During the Wheeler tournament, the biggest change was due to the wind and amount of water in the lake that muddied up the Decatur Flats and TVA moving water through the dam.
It obviously didn’t affect Tommy Biffle’s shallow bite there, as he claimed the win, and this week on Kentucky Lake the storm may not affect the ledge bite. But we’ll find out today what is going on and who figures out the puzzle.
