Tornado Smallies

The National Weather Service had issued a Tornado Warning for the Roane County area  as I drove south on Hwy 58 to fish below Watts Bar Dam, and the Emergency Notification System interrupted the music on the radio and announced that severe weather was in the area and everyone should remain in doors - I thought for a minute about whether I should go or not...the thought might have lasted a minute, but I seriously doubt it - more like 10 seconds.  I did decide that it was probably a good idea to go below the dam since it would provide the best wind break I could find.  Needless to say when I arrived at the launching ramp I got the closest parking spot because there was no one else in sight.  At about 4:30 p.m., I headed up river.  The wind was blowing straight up the river out of the southeast and about 1/4 mile downstream of the dam the fast flowing water (rushing down river) met the wind blowing the top surface of the water and formed some huge 3-4' waves that were quite a force to be reckoned with when traveling to the dam.  Once I was up close to the dam the wind wasn't too bad.  There was a nice school of shad minnows running the west shoreline, so I got a good batch of bait fairly easily.  The rig of choice was a poppin' cork with a 3' 10 lb test flourocarbon leader and a 1/0 Owner Mutu Light circle hook.  I drifted down the west shoreline offering the 3" gizzard shad along the chunk rock bank. In about 3 hours I boated 8 bass, the best being a 4 lb. smallmouth shown above, a nice 2 lb Kentucky spotted bass, and a 2 lb largemouth completed the day's East TN Bass Grandslam.

Scouting Trip

Stuart Row and I went out on Tuesday evening from about 4:30 to 6:30 to see if we could spot any stripers working minnows in his cove or to see if we could hook up with an easy smallmouth.  When I arrived at Stuart's place on Watts Bar, he had already got our bait - which is extremely plentiful this time of year - we headed out in his 24' Hurricane.  Although we didn't see any feeding stripers, and we didn't locate any smallies, I did show Stu a thing or two about trash fishin'!  Being the trash king I snaked out two of Watts Bar's fiestiest drum. It was one of my greatest showings so far - NOT!  Either way it was great getting to spend some time with Stu, he is always encouraging and good for plenty of thought provoking conversation. Thanks Stuart.

October Smallies

After an early morning run down to Chattanooga to pick up Kimberly's new car (2004 Volvo S40) Scott, Ethan, Ian and I fished the Clinch for a few hours for smallmouth.  The smaller (2 - 3") shad minnows are bunched up in big schools in the main channel, so it was a one throw bait day.  We started down the Clinch in town just across from Byrd field where Ethan and Scott caught a couple of small bass.  Ethan kept the Barnett "trash fish" tradition alive and boated a respectable drum.  Next we hit the bluff side of the main channel just downstream of the discharge from TVA's Kingston Steam Plant.  Ethan caught the smallmouth of the day (2 lbs - Boca certified).  Scott added a spunky Kentucky Spot, and I missed a couple of fish - I think I was having redfish withdrawls from the Destin trip - I was definitely not on my A game today. We then headed up river to try the bluff on the right just up from the Center Ferry bridge.  Ethan added a couple more smallmouth to the day's total, and I think I may have accidently landed a game fish that was attempting suicide.  Overall, it was another beautiful fall day on the water with some of my favorite fishing partners.