KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — When Nick Dyer planned his trip to the Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series Championship at Chickamauga and Nickajack Lakes presented by Native Watercraft, he didn’t take off Friday, thinking he likely wouldn’t finish well enough to make the Top 10.
On Thursday afternoon, the Phenix City, Ala., pro had to call his bosses and ask for another day off, which they graciously granted to him so he could hoist a trophy in Food City Arena.
Dyer claimed the National Championship title with a two day total of 200.75 inches to earn the $20,000 first-place prize and a blue trophy, outlasting a final day charge from Tennessee’s Joshua Sharp.
“I was supposed to be back at work today,” he said. “This is amazing. I’ve won a few local events and a B.A.S.S. Nation event but hadn’t got a blue trophy until now. The group of anglers we have is so good, and the reality is, it’s not often you get in a position to have this opportunity.
“To win my first national event, and for it to be this event … dreams came true and prayers were answered. It has been the best week of fishing I’ve ever had in my life.”
He controlled the tournament from the jump, opening the tournament with 101.25 inches, a limit that included a 22-inch largemouth and four smallmouth over 19.5 inches. On the second day, he landed 99.5 inches made up of four brown fish and a largemouth.
A Chattahoochee River rat at heart, Dyer spent both days of the tournament below the Watts Bar tailrace, targeting bass stacked up in two specific sweet spots. One of those sweets spots was a hard point at the mouth of a tributary where the current and wind was trapping baitfish.
“Part of it was a lack of pressure. I think it got looked over by a lot of people,” Dyer said. “There was a little bit of a mud line and current. The wind was a big factor too. It was pushing in the area and keeping that bait trapped. The rain did blow out one of my areas, but the secondary area I had was better after the rain.
“It was a magic spot and magical timing.”
A Spro RkCrawler was the only bait Dyer could get a bite on during his two days of fishing. He worked that bait between 8 and 12 feet of water, and the bait had to bounce off the bottom to get a bite. Several different colors produced bites.
“There was something about a RkCrawler that triggered the bites,” he said. “When you get the right bites and none of them get off, (it’s a great thing). The smallmouth were in a feeding frenzy. It was a perfect storm, and I found the perfect bait.
Dyer’s first cast on the second day was a 19-inch smallmouth, which told him the bass were still exactly where he needed them to be.
“That helped settle the nerves. I knew it was going down,” he said. “A huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I landed a 20.75-incher not too long after in front of the camera boat and then caught another 20.75-incher.”
He proceeded to fill out a quick limit and added key bass throughout the day. While these two lakes house giant bass, Dyer knew stronger winds and the heavy rain that fell overnight before Day 2 would mess some anglers up.
“I knew there were people that could catch me, but they would have had to put up a bag to do it,” Dyer said.
Sharp finished second with a two-day total weighing 197 inches. The Tennessee angler landed 94.25 inches on Day 1 before landing 102.75 inches on the final day, the biggest limit of the tournament.
After a productive practice frog fishing, Sharp targeted prespawn largemouth around vegetation on Nickajack Lake. On Day 1, he was joined by four other anglers on what he felt was his best spot, but made a 4-mile run to his secondary area after a couple hours without a bite.
“It was another little spawning pocket, and I filled out a limit quickly. I left it alone for a little bit, let them reset and came back and culled twice,” Sharp explained. “On Day 2 I went straight there and had 92 inches in an hour. I left it alone for two hours, came back and caught a 24-incher.”
That 24-incher earned Big Bass of the Tournament honors. All of his bass ate a ChatterBait in less than 4 feet of water.
With limits measuring 98.5 and 94.25, two-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier Mark Kile finished third with a total of 189.5 inches. The Arizona native targeted a grassy pocket in Nickajack where he found spawning largemouth in practice. Unfortunately, the cold front and rain pushed his spawners back.
“I was still able to catch good bass,” Kile said. “My first bass on Day 1 was a 23.5-incher that I found on a bed. If it had stayed warmer, it would have been a different story. There were some big bass in there.”
While he was able to land some spawning bass, he caught the majority of his bass using a ChatterBait and a spinnerbait.
“On one end of the bay, you had to pull the ChatterBait off the bottom and let it fall and they’d eat it off the bottom,” Kile explained. “On the other end, you had to burn the spinnerbait over the top of the grass and they’d come up and swirl on it.”
Final results from the Newport Bassmaster Kayak Series Championship presented by Native Watercraft can be found here.
The tournament was hosted by The Chattanooga Tourism Co.