Any tips on fishing Lake Douglas this weekend[5/16 thru 5/18?]. First tripand a far distance. Baits, patterns,areas? TIA. WDBRAND.

Never been on the lake but in 2000 they held a BASS event their. The pros said it was one of the best lakes they had ever fished.
It was post spawn, about this time of year and majority of the fish were caught on crankbaits. I belive Rick Clunn won the event. Good luck and catch a bunch.

river rat: Thanks for taking the time to reply. Seems like Douglas is similiar to one of our local ponds {John Kerr/Buggs Island. I'll post how we did next week. wdbrand.

Anybody out there ever fish Lake Douglas? Does anyone have their 2000 Bassmaster magazines close by? I'm sure the T was covered by both the magazine and BASS Times.
If you locate any articles, would appreciate your posting on the subject.
WDBRAND, be assured we will try to get you an answer.
Riverrat, thanks. Knowing B.A.S.S. has been there should provide us with the clue to helping WDB. Much obliged.
JoeM

WDBRAND- I want to e-mail you an article about fishing Douglas Lake and a smaller article about the lake from Tennessee DEP.
I'm at: JMoldashel@AOL.com
I'll get it right out to you. Couldn't get your e-mail from your profile.
JoeM

Also have Rick Clunn's own assessment of Lake Douglas during the MegaBucks T he won there. JoeM

As a point of information, I received an e-mail today from WDBrand. As a result he should have received 3 messages today concerning Douglas Lake.
I asked him to give us a rundown on how the tournament went. Hopefully we will hear good news.
If any of you need similar info, please post the problem or provide alternate solutions when others ask questions. That's why we are here.
Good Fishing. JoeM

JoeM: Thanks for digging up the info you e-mailed me. Unfortunely, I got it after we returned. I was in the process of posting what we found and was bumped off. Possibly due to the lenght of post, so I'll try again. This time I'll do it in three or four parts. PART 1---- The info I received was consistent with what we leaned from the locals. Normal full pond = 994. Current level= 989. Water temp. = 71/75 degrees. Air = 55/80. Lower end water = offcolor, 2 foot vis. Started out on McGuire and Muddy. My partner started with cranks and carolina rigging, and I decided to look for a big bite. He caught fish on carolina and slider worms and I fished jigs around what brush and trees I could find and deep cranks. ZERO. Day 2. Stayed on the lower end and it became obvios to us we couldn't put together anything but short fish and small keepers[10 to 12 lb limit]. Knew that wouldn't cut it. I still stayed with the big bite. Another ZERO. PART 2 NEXT POST.............

PART 2 -- Since I despise to fish the carolina rig due to back problems, I resisted and pulled everything in my box out to try to find some bigger fish. Just couldn't find them, deep or shallow. Day 3--. Show and tell day today. Just like at home, a beautiful day to behold. 10/20 mile winds, temp around 50, light rain. A real long john day. Knowing a lot of 10/12 pound limits would be brought in, we decided to make the run to the upper end. Hoped to find clearer water and better fish. We knew it would be rough and it was. Just like late March tournaments back home. Found some willows and buck brush in deeper water on the upper end and being hardheaded,I stayed with flipping jigs in them and drew another ZERO. Well when in Rome, you know. Started fishing what few points and guts we could find and started picking up a few fish on carolina rigs. PART 3 NEXT..........

PART 3------ Picked up 3 small fish on three different points and started fishing back thru them again. Terry pulled the trigger and broke off. I caught a 15 " and then broke off on a fish. He threw in the same place and promply broke off again. What the hello was going on we don't know, but on the next cast, I hooked a good fish. Figured around 5# plus. Kept hopping the points til we had to make a move. Man, it was a roller coaster on the way back down. Pulled into Flat creek for about 30 minutes before weigh-in and caught 2 more for a total of 7 with a shot at lunker, we thought. Total weight/ 11.08. Big fish/ 4.90. Last place paid was a little over 13#. Lunker was 5.50#. Called sucking hind tit where we're from. Looking back we screwed up by messing with shad for a top water bite that morning, and cranking deep points, which we never got bit on. And mainly didn't concentrate on getting the limit early enough. You have to have 10 fish or lunker to win down there. PART 4 NEXT....

PART 4 AND LAST----- Well, I've bent you'lls ear enough, so I'll wind this up. We saw several fish with blach spots/sores on them and one with one blind eye and the other eye gone, along with a large nose sore/decaying flesh and fins rotting off. Any ideas???? Hope you'll can use this info in you'lls fishing and if you'll head my way {Smith Mountain/John Kerr/Buggs Island, fell free to e-mail me. I'll update my profile to include my address. BTW, I'd like to thank rustyhooks for the pretty picture. wdbrand.

WD- Great posts! Excellent summation. You and your partner made a great comeback which should give you a lot of confidence for your next tournament.
The key to getting the available info was made possible by Brian's mentioning that Rick Clunn won a Megabucks there. Sorry it didn't get to you in time. Maybe another time.