Half an inch enough for kayak angler Minor

BYRDSTOWN, Tenn. — Everything about Dale Hollow Reservoir sets up for how Ewing Minor likes to fish, and he certainly showed that during the recent Bassmaster Kayak Series event.

With a two-day total of 192.75 inches, Minor hoisted the trophy at the famed reservoir, edging out Florida’s Seth Taylor by half an inch. It's the Virginia angler’s second Bassmaster Kayak Series victory, his first coming last year at the Susquehanna River.

He also carried his Carson-Newman University team to victory in the Bassmaster College Kayak Series event that was held in conjunction with the main tournament.

“It was the final kayak tournament for me as a part of the Carson-Newman team,” Minor said. “So, getting the win there was pretty cool to do it with my team. It might be my first major kayak win in Tennessee, too. Dale Hollow is an awesome lake. It is loaded with big fish.”

Home of the world-record smallmouth, Dale Hollow produced impressive limits during the two-day tournament, including 43 that measured 90 inches or better. In total, 2,065 bass were caught by the 233-angler field.

Minor has been fishing Dale Hollow two or three times a year for the past three years, learning the ins and outs of what the bass do. He also grew up fishing South Holston Reservoir, another Tennessee smallmouth factory, which helped him decipher the Dale Hollow smallie bite.

“I've always loved highland reservoirs with clear water and smallmouth, especially with the primary baitfish being alewives,” he said. “South Holston, the way those fish act out there is pretty much identical to the way these fish act.”

While many of his fellow competitors targeted the shallow coves and creeks for spawning largemouth, as well as the main lake smallmouth spawning grounds, Ewing found success fishing for prespawn and postspawn smallmouth on one particular section of a long point in 25 feet of water. He landed all of his bass using a 1/4-ounce jighead with a 4/0 hook and a 5-inch electric shad-colored minnow.

Minor said he isn’t really sure what made that spot special other than the bass were there.

During his first day of practice, Minor landed a 20.75-inch smallmouth right next to the boat ramp he launched at, giving him an idea of what depth range to look in for those bigger bites. As he practiced, he found the smallmouth toward the dam were relating more to bait, while the smallmouth midlake were hunkered down on the bottom.

He found his magic hole with only a couple of hours to go on the final day of practice.

“I threw at a fish, and when I caught it, 30 or 40 more followed it out,” he said. “I threw at one more fish on the other side of the point and the same thing happened. I knew then it had potential, but I didn’t expect it to produce (that much).”

On Day 1, Minor opened the morning by catching an 18.75-inch largemouth close to the launch and only had three bass total before moving out to his smallmouth hole. There, he landed 96 inches of smallmouth in a 45-minute flurry. Once he reached a sizable limit, he left and searched for new water the rest of the day and culled once late in the afternoon with a 19-inch largemouth. His 97.75-inch limit lifted Minor to second place heading into the final day.

Minor spent the entire second day in his smallmouth hole. When he arrived, he discovered the bass were suspended under balls of bait, and it took Minor a little while to figure out the bite.

“They weren’t committing to my bait for the first hour of being there,” he said.

After landing a quality smallmouth and a smaller bass that he would later cull out, the 360 Drive on his Hobie locked up, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Minor. The rest of the day, Minor would let the wind push him over the spot, allowing him to still use his forward-facing sonar.

“It helped me find a way to catch those fish,” he said. “I would drift with the wind back through the spot, and there were still a lot of fish holding tight to the bottom, but when they got directly under the boat, they would swim up towards the boat because they were curious, I guess. When you got past them, they would swim back down. I would time it for my bait to make it to the bottom right after the bass got back to the bottom. If I got the bait to them before they reached the bottom, they wouldn’t eat it.

“Once I got that dialed in, it was lights out for an hour.”

Taylor, who had never been to Dale Hollow, spent his tournament targeting spawning largemouth and smallmouth with his forward-facing sonar. The largemouth, in particular, were spawning in 8 to 10 feet of water, out of eyesight for most anglers. The smallmouth, meanwhile, were on main lake humps in 10 to 14 feet of water, and in practice he felt like many of those smallies were males.

“In practice, I marked over 100 beds,” the Floridian said.

On Day 1, Taylor targeted the largemouth and anchored his 96.50-inch bag with a 21-incher. Most of those bass were located in coves off the main lake. After testing his largemouth stuff in the morning of Day 2 and landing a little over 80 inches, he moved out to the main lake and hoped some big females joined the males on beds. Sure enough, Taylor found plenty of smallies ready to bite and he finished the day with 95.75 inches.

“They were everywhere,” he said. “I went around and caught them with a Neko rig. I caught an 18- to 19-inch smallmouth every 15 minutes and there are probably 200 more beds out there that haven’t been fished.”

Ohio’s Jason Isaacs finished third with a total of 186 inches. After a disappointing practice period, the 2024 Possum Kingdom champion fished totally new water on tournament day, and didn’t even find his starting spot until a couple of minutes before lines-in. A shaky-head paired with a Z-Man FattyZ produced all of his bites.

“I stopped at a point, and there was a really brief shad spawn,” he said. “I caught a 19.25 and then fished down that bank. I had four smallmouth and one largemouth in my total yesterday. I did the exact same thing today and had four largemouth and a smallmouth. I caught an 18-inch largemouth right on the dam.”

Joshua Sharp of Franklin, Tenn., earned Big Bass of the Tournament honors with a 22.25-inch largemouth he landed on Day 2.

The Top 5 finishers earned an automatic bid to the 2026 Bassmaster Kayak Series Championship, details of which will be announced at a later date.

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