Jackie Hatfield and Walker LaRue after the Tennessee Bass Nation’s Central Tennessee Championshi on Center Hill Lake.
BY DAVE LINK
Jackie Hatfield and Walker LaRue of the Alcoa Fishing Team showed you don’t have to be on your home lakes to crush it in bass fishing.
Hatfield and LaRue finished second last Saturday (April 5) at Center Hill Lake near Cookeville/Smithville in the Tennessee Bass Nation’s Central Tennessee Championship, the fifth stop of the circuit.
Their second-place finish earned Hatfield and LaRue a tie for first place in the points race, earning them the Co-Anglers of the Year award for Central Tennessee with Pickett County’s Rex Reagan and Max Moody.
Hatfield and LaRue are the first team from East Tennessee to win the TBN’s Central Tennessee points race, which is dominated by anglers from middle Tennessee. About 170 teams competed in the TBN Central trail.
“It’s a pretty big deal,” Hatfield said. “Anytime you win AOY or the points title for the year it’s pretty big.”
Especially when it’s not on local waters.
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“There was a bunch of good kids there fishing, a bunch of our buddies there we fish against,” LaRue said. “For some of them, it’s their home lake.”
Reagan and Moody won the Central Championship with a 19.54-pound bag containing the five-bass limit, including a 5.7-pounder.
LaRue compared Center Hill Lake to one of his area’s lakes.
“It’s literally like a miniature Dale Hollow,” LaRue said. “It’s pretty deep and pretty clear.”
LaRue and Hatfield finished with five bass weighing 16.66 pounds, including a 3.79-pounder.
They edged third-place Jonah Johnson and Carson Smith of Pickett County, whose five bass weighed 16.58 pounds and included a 3.71-pounder.
Barrett Newton and Landon Krauss of Upperman were fourth with the five-bass limit weighing 16.57 pounds, including a 3.68-pounder.
LaRue and Hatfield are friends with Newton, whose family hosted them for dinner.
“That’s his home lake,” LaRue said. “We had a pretty good time on his houseboat with him and his dad. It’s cool when you can go hang out with the competition, having a good time.”
The TBN’s Central points race was determined by each team’s top three of four finishes in the tour stops, combined with its finish in the Central Tennessee Championship on Center Hill Lake.
Hatfield won the first Central Tennessee event on Dale Hollow Lake with his father, Chris, serving as boat captain. LaRue was fishing a TBN Bass Pro Shops event that same weekend with his father as boat captain.
Hatfield and LaRue won the TBN’s Central Trail event on March 8 at Tims Ford Lake.
Hatfield credits his father and J.J. LaRue – Walker’s father and the AFT coach – for helping them be successful.
“We’re blessed to be able to participate in this sport,” Hatfield said.
By claiming Co-AOY awards for Central Tennessee, Hatfield and LaRue earn a spot in the Nationals this summer on Clarks Hill Lake near Augusta, Georgia.
Both have been to nationals in previous years.
“Going to nationals is always fun,” LaRue said. “I think we might get a house with a couple of other teammates and teams, so hopefully we’ll have a pretty good time and soak it all up. We’ll focus on trying to win but also have a lot of fun since it’s our last tournament (of high school competition).”
MYERS BUSTS UNLUCKY STREAK
Landon Myers of the Alcoa Fishing Team hadn’t had much luck – except for bad luck – before his most recent tournament on Percy Priest Lake near Nashville.
Myers, fishing solo with his father, Matt, as boat captain, ended that trend in late March, posting a second-place finish in the TBN’s Central Tennessee stop with a five-bass limit weighing 20.05 pounds, including a 4.75-pounder.
“I was honestly ecstatic,” Myers said, “because that lake’s had my number for the past two years that we’ve had tournaments on it. One year we blew a motor and had one fish, and last year, we only had two fish. I felt very blessed to have what I had. The Lord blessed me.”
Mason Taylor and Wesley Kent of DeKalb Fishing won with five bass weighing 21.59 pounds, including a 5.94-pounder.
LaRue and Hatfield finished ninth (five bass, 16.1 pounds, 4.72 pounder).
Myers was fishing alone because his co-angler, junior Seth McCroskey, plays baseball for Maryville Christian and had a scheduling conflict.
After a couple of days of practice on Percy Priest, Myers wasn’t too confident going into the event.
“I didn’t do well at all,” he said of practice. “I think over three days I caught like six or seven bass. It was pretty tough, but I was catching the right size, so I knew I had an area that if I went and put my head down, I might be able to make something happen and that’s what ended up working.”
Myers used a jighead minnow for most of the tournament, estimating he caught 20 to 25 bass.
“The bait I had been catching them on in practice, I started out throwing the first 30 minutes and didn’t get a bite, so I made a few adjustments, and they ended up working out for me,” Myers said. “It’s been a very successful bait for me.
“But during practice, I could hardly get a bite on it, and during the tournament, I saw the fish were acting a little bit different, so I made a few minor adjustments, and those minor adjustments ended up making them bite, I guess you could say. It’s what they wanted to see.”
Myers weighed in three smallmouth and two largemouth. By early morning, he had the five-bass limit.
“And then later in the day, those spawning smallmouth started moving,” Myers said, “and I was able to catch them.”
One of those was the big largemouth.
Myers saw it on his LiveScope in about 2 feet of water.
“I was able to cast up to it,” Myers said. “I knew where I’d casted and I knew I made a good cast, so I just started working my bait. I looked back at dad and said, ‘This is a big one, hopefully he bites,’ and as soon as I was looking back, I felt a pop in my rod, and I just reeled down and it ended up being that fish. It was pretty cool.”
So was signing last fall to fish for the Carson-Newman Eagle Anglers.
“I’m stoked for it, to be honest with you,” Myers said.