Story by Hunter Baughman | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
It’s tournament week and we are at Lake Norman in North Carolina. This is my first time here. So far it reminds me a lot of Lake Hartwell. Unlike Hartwell, I don’t think it has many herring in it—if any at all.
The average size of the bass seems to be fairly small. One-and-a-half to 2 pounds. From what research I did, a 4+ pounder is a big one here. Looks like there will be lots of 9- to 10-pound bags and the check cut will probably be around 12 pounds a day. I’m not sure what the winning weight will be as I haven’t caught enough quality fish yet to get a feel. I’d say 16 1/2 pounds a day will be close though.
The weather is going to be all over the place. The first morning of practice started in the mid 30s. By Monday the high was upper 80s and another cold front will be hitting sometime on Tuesday, bringing the lows back into the 40s as it slowly warms up again throughout the tournament ending with upper 80s again on Friday.
I feel like the fish are in late stages of the spawn with several that are already done. The water is in the 60s throughout the lake. I’ve caught fish from inches of water to 20 feet deep. I’ve also seen fry that are old enough there isn’t a male guarding them, and I’ve seen fish on beds. I feel like the guys that do well will have a mixture of both. They will probably cover ground picking off fry guarders and post spawn females and will also catch a few off beds.
I’d expect moving baits to account for a large portion of fish weighed in. I just don’t think there is enough fish in any one area for this to be a location-oriented event. I think it will be the angler who figures out the best way to cover ground and generate 3+ pound bites. Plus, he will most likely have a handful of bigger bed fish to catch.
As always, these are just educated guesses. Who knows if it’ll go down like we think or if someone will figure out some other bite? There’s only one way to find out.
Tune in this week and watch it go down!
Hunter Baughman – Angler Profile
