BYRDSTOWN, Tenn. – Ever since Dale Hollow Reservoir was announced as the location for PowerStop Brakes Stage Three Presented by Mercury, it’s been one that everyone has been looking forward to. The time is here, and while reports from the water during practice have been mixed, there’s some serious potential for this legendary fishery to show modern tournament anglers what it can produce.
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No local advantage for Roy or DeFoe
A handful of anglers live within a few hours’ drive of Dale Hollow, including Lancaster, Kentucky’s Bradley Roy. He’s spent some time here over the years but says that knowledge is erased this time of year.
“I’d consider Cumberland (one lake up) more of a home lake, but I did spend some days on Dale growing up,” Roy said. “You’d never know that after my practice this week, though. The main word for the week is ‘random,’ and I think the fish are caught in a transition between the spawn. There’s also been tons of tournament pressure on them for the past month. They’ve gotten pretty smart.”
Even though he’s a little down on his prospects for the week, Roy knows the potential is there for anyone to do well.
“The fish are really split up right now and have had a lot of pressure, but this is still a great fishery,” the Mercury pro said.
While Ott DeFoe also makes his home just a few hours away, Dale Hollow is not somewhere he’s spent a lot of time on in the past.
“I’ve only spent a few days fishing here, a couple of BFLs when I was about 18 and one day for the old Selects,” he said. “I’ll spend more time here this week than I have my whole life. There’s so much closer to my house that there was never really a reason to come here, and it’s a little too far away to come here for a day.”
Wheeler ready for Dale Hollow to shine
Although he lives two hours away, Jacob Wheeler counts Dale Hollow as one of his favorite fisheries in the country. He’s spent plenty of time here, but always in the dead of winter. He knows the potential is there for huge numbers and a variety of techniques responsible for placing fish on SCORETRACKER®.
“Things are changing quickly here this week, and many things will be happening,” he said. “It’s clear water, and we’ll see a lot of forward-facing sonar with minnows and swimbaits, but the conditions are opening up the doors for many other techniques to work.”
Wheeler said the fish here are very healthy, and we’ll likely see some huge numbers after each day of fishing.
“This has never been known as a numbers lake, and a good day may be 10 or 15 bass, but they’ll average close to 3-pound each,” he said. “The top weights are going to be very good.”
Smallmouth will be a factor
Dale Hollow is home to the world record smallmouth, but they are usually not a factor in traditional tournaments due to the strict slot limit that requires immediate release of fish between 16 and 21 inches long. However, anglers expect brown bass to be a major player this week thanks to the Bass Pro Tour’s catch-weigh-release format.
“They will play, without a doubt,” said Roy. I believe the winner will have a mixed bag, with some largemouth to go with, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was all smallmouth.”
Wheeler said the smallmouth are bigger on average, but the largemouth population has exploded recently.
“I’d say it’s 65 percent largemouth and 35 percent smallmouth right now,” he said. “The smallmouth average is heavier, and I don’t know which species will win this one. I couldn’t pick one or the other and think it will be a little of both.”
DeFoe came into this week looking forward to the outstanding smallmouth potential, but at least during practice, it has yet to live up to the hype.
“I’m personally disappointed with the smallmouth bite. They haven’t cooperated,” he said. “The smallmouth fishing has just been OK because I haven’t gotten a lot of bites and it’s not easy, but the quality is right. Both the largemouth and smallmouth have looked very healthy, and that’s indicative of the tournament results you’ve seen here recently.”
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