The headwaters of Tims Ford are more river than lake and Brown said trophy stripers split their time between raiding shallow waters and holding in the main channel. Like his favorite tactic at Cherokee, Brown will be towing fillet-able-sized gizzard shad behind a large Offshore planer board with a No. 5 treble hook stuck in its nose. He accesses two factors that determine how and where he'll fish the nearly four miles of trophy striper water at the head of Tims Ford.

"Good bait is my number one focus," the guide stated. "If you put good bait at the right depth, you will catch big fish."

Brown thinks so highly of having good bait that he and a partner have begun offering large gizzard shad for sale at their newly opened shop, The Shad Shack. Otherwise, anglers can catch bait in either Woods Reservoir or make a foray north to Old Hickory Lake.

Brown has a compelling philosophy concerning "where" fish will be located and choose to feed based on a combination of barometer, water temperatures, and moon phase. He views barometric pressure as "the flu," indicating that low or falling barometer makes fish feel miserable and pushes them into deeper water in the channel. Conversely, high or rising pressure puts fish in a feeding pattern where they are more likely to be found shallow on the inside bends of the river and shoals.

Water temperatures above 55 degrees are more conducive to shallow feeding as well, while temperatures below this level send fish deep to more suitable temperatures to maintain their metabolism.

The final piece of the puzzle is moon phase. The guide states that the moon phase provides nighttime light under which stripers feed. During the full moon, stripers feed most of the night and become less interested in feeding right at daylight, preferring feeding patterns on up in the day. A dark moon means the bite will be at first light and last for several hours through the morning. The timing and duration of early morning feeding during waxing or waning moon phases follow the amount of light available at night, which may or may not sustain stripers through the day.

Brown sums up the moon phase by indicating "the fuller the moon, the more stripers feed at night and the later in the day the bite returns."

For more information about trophy striper fishing with Tennessee trophy striped bass guide Micah Brown, contact him by email at micah @graceintullahoma.com or phone him at the Shad Shack at (931) 247-5014.