As we’ve seen previously at Lake Guntersville and Santee Cooper Lakes, there will be some wild fluctuations in the standings from Day 1 to Day 2 at Chickamauga Lake today. The fickleness of fall transition fishing makes that so.
John Cox has seen that world from both sides the last two tournaments. At Lake Guntersville, he was in 4th place on Day 1 with 17-3, before dropping to 53rd on Day 2 with a single bass weighing 2-1. Last week at Santee Cooper, he was 62nd on Day 1 and jumped to 24th on Day 2. Cox won’t be riding that rollercoaster this week, apparently. He started the day in 4th place and BASSTrakk currently shows him in 10th.
But plenty of other anglers will be on that ride today. It’s just too hard to be consistent during this time of year, as the last two tournaments have shown.
The AOY title and Classic qualification implications are significant today, when the field is cut to the top 40. So where will the cut-line be? After Day 1, Chris Johnston and Drew Cook were tied for 40th place with 8 pounds, 9 ounces. If you double that and err on the low side, 16 pounds would be a good guess. But it could be less, considering how tough it is to get a bite on Chickamauga Lake now.