Cory Allen

Cory Allen is the Tennessee Valley Muskie Authority and In The Spread's Head of Freshwater. He guides the Tennessee River drainage basin, from southwest Kentucky to north Georgia, and few anglers understand southern muskie behavior as deeply. Allen approaches the sport analytically, matching lure dynamics and presentation to current, water temperature, and fish mood. In his In The Spread videos, he teaches vertical jigging for neutral and winter muskie, glide baits, the boatside figure eight, and trolling topwater for fish that will only eat slow.

Instructor's videos

Cory Allen goes by the Tennessee Muskie Authority, a play on the Tennessee Valley Authority that fits him better than most nicknames fit anyone. His water is the Tennessee River drainage basin, a system that reaches from southwest Kentucky down to north Georgia and touches parts of Mississippi, Virginia, and North Carolina, and few anglers understand southern muskie the way he does. As In The Spread's Head of Freshwater, Allen is the person we lean on to break down the sport for our members.

What sets Allen apart is not just time on the water. It is how he thinks. He treats muskie fishing as a problem to be worked, studying current, water temperature, forage, and fish mood, then matching a presentation to what the fish is actually doing rather than what he wishes it would do. Hand him a new lure and his first move is to throw it in the water and do nothing, watching how it behaves before he ever tries to manipulate it. That habit of getting to the bottom of why a bait works is what makes his instruction so valuable.

His teaching covers the techniques that separate consistent muskie anglers from the rest. He is a leading voice on vertical jigging for neutral and winter fish, where holding a bait in the strike zone gives a reluctant muskie time to commit. He breaks down glide baits and twitch baits and the erratic action that triggers followers, the boatside figure eight and the angles that convert a trailing fish into one in the net, and trolling topwater for big fish that will only eat a slow presentation.

For all the expertise, Allen stays a student of the sport, always pushing to learn more and think outside the box. In his In The Spread videos, he shares dozens of lessons on muskie behavior, lure dynamics, and presentation. If you want to actually understand why muskies do what they do, he is the one to learn from.