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BY DAVE LINK
Walker LaRue and Jackie Hatfield of the Alcoa Fishing Team were winners on the Tennessee Bass Nation circuit in previous seasons with other co-anglers.
But not together as co-anglers.
Until a couple of weekends ago.
The soon-to-be 2025 graduates took advantage of an early-morning bite – before the bass quit hitting – and won the TBN’s Central Tennessee Trail stop March 8 at on Tims Ford Lake.
They had to earn their first victory.
Jackie Hatfield (left) and Walker LaRue of the Alcoa Fishing Team.
“It was really tough, to be honest,” said Hatfield, who is home-schooled. “We only had five keeper bites.”
Their five-bass limit consisted of four largemouth and one smallmouth, including a 5.11-pound largemouth caught by LaRue on a Damiki rig.
“We really caught all our fish in the first hour and a half,” said LaRue, who graduates from Alcoa High School in May, “and after that, it was really slow.”
Both could be fishing for the Carson-Newman Eagle Anglers during the 2025-26 season. LaRue has signed with Carson-Newman and Hatfield is finalizing his plans.
LaRue will reunite with his former AFT co-angler Joe Vaulton next season at Carson-Newman, where Vaulton is a freshman. They were a dominant team on the TBN and regional trails, while Hatfield and Graham Willis were regular contenders and top finishers.
Before going to Tims Ford, Hatfield and LaRue had come close to winning as co-anglers and fell just short.
“We’ve had some pretty good finishes this year,” LaRue said. “Obviously, fishing with Joe for three years, it was a change but after you spend enough time in the boat with Jackie, everything will click.”
It clicked at Tims Ford Lake, located between Lynchburg and Winchester, Tennessee.
LaRue compared Tims Ford to Dale Hollow Lake on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line, only a smaller lake. “It’s clear and deep,” LaRue said of Tims Ford.
And it was slow fishing after the early morning.
LaRue and Hatfield caught eight bass – three were non-keepers – with the 5.11-pounder one of the first keepers.
Their first bass-fishing victory was by fractions of an ounce.
Their winning weight was 17.89 pounds.
Trevor Sanford and Presley Lannom of Mt. Juliet were second (17.69 pounds, 3.88-pounder), ahead of third-place Rex Reagan and Max Moody of Pickett County (16.67 pounds, 3.42-pounder), fourth-place Kylan Mantooth and Courtland Farrar of Coffee County (15.83 pounds, 3.98-pounder) and fifth-place Jonah Johnson and Carson Smith of Pickett County (15.61 pounds, 4.4-pounder).
LaRue and Hatfield caught all their fish live scoping, seeing the bass on a sonar screen.
LaRue saw the tournament’s big bass, the 5.11-pounder, swimming alone.
“I told Jackie, ‘It’s a pretty good one,’” LaRue said. “He had just caught like a 4-pounder, I think, and I casted out there.
“It came up and bit it and I hooked it. I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s a 4- or 5-pounder. We got it in the net and it was a 5.11.”
Just big enough for Hatfield and LaRue to get their first victory.
“That was kind of rare of Tims Ford, a 5-pounder,” Hatfield said.
They’d planned to compete last weekend (March 15) at Watts Bar Lake in a TBN Bass Pro Shops trail event, but it was postponed due to high wind conditions.
Hatfield and LaRue return to the TBN’s Central Tennessee Trail this Saturday (March 22) on Percy Priest Lake, southeast of Nashville. This weekend’s event is also part of the State Open Trail.