PARIS, Tenn. – John Garrett finished fourth in the recent Bassmaster Elite Series event at the St. Johns River, but he wasn’t surprised when, an hour later, he was asked to shift his attention instead to the upcoming Bassmaster Open at Kentucky Lake/Lake Barkley back home on the Tennessee/Kentucky border.
The Open will be held March Thursday through Saturday and Garrett, who hails from Union City, Tenn., cut his teeth on those fisheries just east of his hometown. He then honed his game during routine practices and tournaments there when competing for nearby Bethel University.
And if Garrett’s instinct is correct, the 231 anglers entered in the Open have reason to be excited.
“That’s probably going to be one of the best tournaments of the season,” the 29-year-old pro said. “There should be absolutely perfect water conditions because we’ve had just inches and inches of rain, which makes the water a little dirty but also gets the current flowing.
“And that’s a combination that makes the fish want to eat their own tails,” he added, his voice rising at the prospect of promising catches. “It will be absurd, the number of 15- to 18-pound bags you’re gonna see caught.”
Garrett isn’t fishing in the Open, but said if he was, he’d go with what’s worked for him before to boat the best bass on Lake Barkley or Kentucky Lake.
“I’d go old-school, cranking a Rat-L-Trap in the main-river current,” he said. “(Underwater) drops will be huge players, I’m sure. You can ’Scope out in the current and find fish or tuck into a creek pocket throwing to moving water. There’ll probably be a healthy portion of smallmouth weighed, maybe 50 percent. But if you’re looking to win, I think you’ll need to mix in four or five largemouth to have a chance.”
There certainly is no lack of space for competitors to explore. Kentucky Lake is a 160,000-acre impoundment of the Tennessee River, making it the seventh-largest man-made lake in the U.S. Lake Barkley, which runs parallel and is connected to Kentucky Lake via a canal at the north (Kentucky) end of both lakes, provides an additional 58,000 acres.
That tremendous expanse of water, not to mention historically solid largemouth and smallmouth populations, has lured B.A.S.S. through the years. The last visit, for the 2024 Bassmaster Team Championship in December, saw the team portion of the event won by Noah Morgan and Clint Knight, who caught 47 pounds, 5 ounces over the course of two days.
Garrett said it’ll take a similar daily haul to win the Open. And, of course, this isn’t a team event, so the burden of production is placed squarely on the shoulders of individual anglers.
“Over three days, you’ll need about 23 pounds per day to win it,” Garrett said. “But this will be different than that December tournament. That was strictly a deep-water ’Scoping deal. There will be a lot more shallow-water bites this time. And the water will have some color with how much is moving through the TVA right now.
“And, it’ll definitely still be prespawn,” Garrett added. “Kentucky Lake has a later spawn than any (Southern) lake because it gets all the cooler water dumped into it from other lakes above it.”
The event will begin with daily takeoffs at 6:15 a.m. CT from Paris Landing State Park. Daily weigh-ins are scheduled for 2:15 p.m. CT and will be held at the park. The full field will compete the first two days of the event, with the Top 10 anglers fishing on Saturday.
