Watts Bar - Shady Grove

I fished today by myself out of the Shady Grove launch from 1:30 to ~4:00 p.m.

The weather was overcast all day and very cool for this time of year (low 60s) with a cool breeze 5-10 mph with gusts higher.  The cold front has definitely arrived.  The water temperature was 71F.

I began by fishing an XCalibur XR75 lipless crankbait (Color:  royal shad) over some shallow flats looking for areas where the bass may be bedding or coming off the bed.  I also chunked a 1/2 ounce Choo Choo spinnerbait with gold willow leaf blades (color: citrus) at any brush I came across as I worked the shoreline.  Nothing showed any interest so I moved into the mouth of the next creek down from Shady Grove, and found some great looking gravely bottom terrain gently sloping to about 8' of water. I decided to make a change to an XCalibur XCS200 square lip crankbait (color: Bruiser - deep blue with a black back).   The wind was blowing pretty hard into the left arm of the creek so I was working the shoreline a little faster than I wanted.  A nice largemouth (~3 lbs) crushed my crankbait, and about half way to the boat he soared out of the water and slung the crankbait out of his mouth.  So with that I decided to drop anchor and work the shoreline a bit slower.  I made probably 15 more casts (working a gravely area around a private residential concrete boat ramp) and a really nice 4 lb largemouth engulfed my XCS200.  She wore obvious signs of recent preparations for spawning; bloody tail and egg filled belly.

Early Morning Cotton Port

Ethan, Ian, and I went to Goodfield Creek early this morning - we got up at 4:30 a.m. to arrive at the launch by 5:45 a.m.  We got to our spot just as the first light was visible.  We started at the pads in Crawford Branch. I lost one and caught one (~2 lbs) on a Choo Choo spinnerbait (1/2 oz. Sexy Shad - gold willow leaf blades) right off the bat.  Ethan caught one on a shad colored fluke.  Ian got 6 or 8 blowups on a top water buzzing frog, but couldn't get a hook in one.  I had a Texas rigged Berkley Power bait worm tied on and would cast at the blow-ups Ian missed but could never get a follow up bite.  After a while we noticed several gar hanging around near the surface under lily pads and Ethan actually caught one on a fluke, so we deduced that most of Ian's blow-ups were probably gar.

Ethan caught a couple of largemouth on an Xcalibur XCS 100 Foxy Lady square lip crankbait as well, along with a white bass, so it didn't take me long to follow suit and change my cran kbait color.  Shortly after my change, I picked up a few bass on the XCS100 Foxy Lady. 

For the day, I caught 5 bass (best one was 2 lbs) 1 on the Choo Choo, 1 on a white jig (the jigshadcraw - Ethan and Ian will know what this is :-)), and 3 on an XCalibur XCS 100 Foxy Lady square lip cran kbait. 

Weather was overcast - warm to cool breeze (low 70s) a cold front is blowing in today

We fished from 6:00 a.m. to 11:30.

Cotton Port Bass & Trash

Scott, Ethan, Ian, Emma, and I fished out of Goodfield Creek today

Fished from 7:30 to ~1:00

Totals: ~10 bass; best fish ~2.5 lbs

Caught 5 on a Texas rigged Berkley Power Bait curly tail 7" worm

And 2 on an XCalibur XCS 200 Foxy Shad square lip crankbait

Water Temp 77 F - weather was warm (high in low 80s) back and forth between overcast and sunny - around 1:00 p.m.  the weather turned bad; a lighting storm drove us off the water

In the middle of the day as the sun started beaming and it got hot, we saw gar coming to the surface (gulping air?), so we started sight casting at them with jerk baits.  We had several bust our baits, but struggled to keep one hooked.  Finally, Ian caught a 15 lb longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus) on a Rapala husky jerk.  It was quite a fight!  Lots of fun for the trash can king!

Cold Front @ Cotton Port

Sir Charles with a Cotton Port keeper

Stuart Row, Charlie Shields, and I fished out of Goodfield Creek today for largemouth. We fished my usually spots down near Barley Branch and Crawford Branch with crankbaits, spinnerbaits and plastic lizards. Stuart started out with a Carolina rigged YUM pumpkinseed lizard with a chartreuse tail, and quickly picked up two nice keeper largemouth, Charlie added another keeper on a chartreuse and white spinnerbait.I finally got into the game with a healthy keeper on a Choo Choo bleeding chartreuse spinnerbait. We then went over to the lily pads and I picked up one largemouth on the Choo Choo. We went back into the back of Barley Branch (right fork) and caught a couple more good largemouth on the point at the back fork of the branch. Stuart had a nice bass on and had it come off half way to the boat - it put up a serious fight showing us some pretty good swirls, but we never got a good look at it - it made me sick when it came off. This could have been a trip making fish. Shortly thereafter, I delivered a 100 mph X-Calibur XCS100 to Charlie's forehead from a hook-set after a bass took a hit at it. It drew a little blood, but he had no time to lick his wounds because just as he got nailed by my bait, a bruiser carp sucked his lipless crankbait down and he had his hands full fighting the bugle mouthed monster. He got it all the way to the boat giving us a good look at it right before it made a final run and broke his line. I'd say it was easily a 20 lber - very impressive trash fish. Overall, we caught 7 bass (6 would have probably kept) and lost at least 4 others. The water was slightly more stained than Sunday and was at about the same level if not just a hair lower. We had a tremendous front come through last night, with a bunch of rain and cold temperatures. This afternoons temperature was in the low 60s with a wind (5 -10 mph) out of the north, so long pants and long sleeves were the uniform for the day. Tonight it's supposed to get down to 38 F!!! Yes it is May 4^th. I was very pleased with our catch this afternoon considering the front that's moving in could have made things much tougher.

More Springtime Bassin' on the Tennessee River

Scott, Ethan, Ian, and I fished out of the Goodfield Creek launch near Cotton Port today.  We started by going into the back of the creek fishing a variety of baits, wanting to see if the bass had moved far back into the backs of creeks yet.  We didn't catch any bass, but we saw several beautiful Prothonotary Warblers (Protonotaria citrea) and another bird that at first I thought was some type of warbler, but after more investigation I think was a 1st year male Orchard Oriole (Icterus spurius).  It was sitting high up on a lone branch just blasting out it's call.  It did not hop around a bunch like a warbler, it was predominantly yellow with two distinct wing bars, a black face,  a very pointed beak, and I thought it was a little larger than the Prothonotaries we just saw.  When I got home I consulted my Sibley's field guide to look at an Orchard Oriole (because we saw several mature males throughout the day), and I looked for a warbler with a black face and the 1st spring male Orchard Oriole really looks like it matches what we saw.  I had no idea the 1st year male Orchard Oriole was yellow, that's really cool - I've learned a lot today

Back to fishing...we basically fished the same areas that I wrote about on 4/23/11.  Today though was quite a bit different than last Saturday - there wasn't hardly any wind, it was a little warmer, and the water level was probably 2' lower - it was predominantly overcast most of the day, but no rain, and no wind. The water temperature is ~65 F and slightly stained. At one point, Ethan broke out the crappie rig and noodled a couple out of the back end of Barley Branch - Ahhh... just like his uncle he loves a mixed bag.  It was a great day of fishing.  Thank you Lord for a beautiful day.

Total - 15 bass, best fish ~3lbs.