Fishing' with Fish

I took my ole buddy Fish fishing today for smallmouth. We launched out of Center farm and got bait pretty quickly. Once again the bait this year has been the absolute best threadfin's I have ever seen. They are perfect size, easy to catch, and good and spunky. Ran down to the transition flat at Marney Bluff to start our day action. After a good little bit of work I caught one decent smallmouth that was about a pound and a half and the fish man caught his first ever freshwater drum.

Early Wood Duck & Canada's

Ethan, Ian, Dylan, and I went duck hunting this morning hoping to cash in on Tennessee's early Wood Duck and Teal five day window. It also happens to be early Canada goose season as well. Before the sun came up we headed out to Long Island and beached the boat at the TWRA access point. We trekked across the island to the opposite side where we could access some of the pothole ponds. We dumped out six Wood duck decoys and took our positions, right at shooting time; half an hour before sunrise. The anticipation was thick, we just knew we were going to have the birds flying in any minute. We waited anxiously for the next hour or so but didn't see any birds. We did get to watch about six whitetail deer browse the shoreline on the island just in front of us about 100 yards away. It was really cool. What heard a lot of chatter from geese around us but didn't see many and then just as if they were wanting to commit suicide 12 Canada's flew over the top of me and Ethan. For some unknown reason neither one of us shot and then just as quick as they came they were gone. In just a bit 28 Canada's swam into our little pothole and sat out in front of us at about 50 to 75 yards. Just out of shooting range. It was killing us, we were hoping so bad that they would swim over just a little bit towards our decoys. We had visions of each of us limiting out in a matter of seconds. But instead they flew off in the opposite direction. All in all it was a fantastic morning even though we never pulled the trigger. Before we could even get the boat loaded up on the trailer we were are you talking about tomorrow morning's trip. That's how it goes when you're addicted!

Marny Bluff Smallies

I took Luke and Rodney Efferson smallmouth fishing this evening for a couple of hours after work. We got bait in the Center Farm Cove within the first 3 or 4 throws of the Cracker. And we didn't just get bait, we got the most absolutely perfect heavenly threadfins you've ever seen! This is God's finest smallmouth bait ever (with the possible addition of crawdads and hellgrammites). We armed ourselves with the usual rig: Shimano Stradic 3000 FJ on a 7' medium light GLoomis rod spooled up with 20lb PowerPro and a 4-5' 8lb Seaguar fluorocarbon leader and a Gamakatsu or Owner circle hook size matched to our bait. We started our search by fishing the gravelly transition flat just immediately up river from Eagle Bluff. The very first minnow in the water scored Luke a gorgeous 4# bronzeback! I quickly followed suit and boated a scrappy 1.5 pound smallie. Both of these fish were working the flat in about 6' of water adjacent to good deep water.

Late Evening Flatheads

Crystal, Kate, Kimberly and I went out cat fishing this evening for a couple hours. We got mediocre sized gizzards in the Center Farm cove with one throw of the net. Because we short on time I settled for these. We ran to the mouth of the ole Rebel cove and anchored up. Kimbo caught a nice flathead (10 lbs) soon into the trip. Crystal was next with blue and Kate wrapped up the evening with another smaller flathead. All the fish came in about 25' of water on cut shad. The weather was nice - air temp was in the low to mid 70s. Surface water temp was in the low 80s.

Hot Water

Luke and I launched on the Clinch this afternoon behind Food City to see if we could find some smallmouth. The surface water temperature right at the launch was 94°F! Just a few hundred yards up the river and the temperature was 77°F. There was an abundance of very small threadfin shad all over the river out in the main channel. We got a nice batch of bait and proceeded to start working the bluff just on the right as you head upstream under the bridge. I fished a live minnow under a floating cork and Luke fished a finesse rig on the bottom to see if the fish had a preference. We lost five fish within the first 10 casts. I don't know what the heck was wrong with us unless it was the fact that I haven't been fishing and over four weeks! Luke finally got the hang of it again and boated three nice bass but I never did seem to get my head on straight. His biggest smallmouth was 19 inches long but was very thin. It probably weighed 2 1/2 pounds but had the frame of a 4 pounder. His other smallmouth was a football shaped pound and a half to 2 pound scrappy fish. He also added a nice 2 pound largemouth to his catch. He got one other small small mouth while I stood there and spectated. There were large groups of fish breaking on the surface periodically but you could never really get to them in time to catch anything. They looked like schools of bass more than likely. Overall it was a fantastic evening I always love spending time with Luke.

Long Island White Bass

Kate and I went fishing with Bryan Terrill tonight. We caught about 12 white bass (Morone chrysops) and BT caught his first catfish and his first double. We had a beautiful night to enjoy.

Schooling White Bass

I've been getting reports of schooling white bass on the upper end of Long Island. So tuesday evening (7/3/12) I had about an hour so I ran and launched the boat and raced to the island. Fish were breaking as I arrived (~8:20 p.m.) and I caught several fish on a Heddon Zara puppy and a silver Castmaster spoon.

Poplar Creek Stripers

 

I decided to make an exploratory trip this evening to see if the rockfish were pushing minnows up on the shallow flats up the clinch turning into a subsequent surface bite.  I called on my comrades Ethan and Ian to check it out with me.  We launched at Food City and ran up to Dead Mans cove to get bait - one or two throws and we were in business. We graphed a couple of spots along the way heading up stream, but didn't find any fish.  I thought that it might be worth a look at the mouth of Poplar Creek since its always a good idea to check major thoroughfares (areas where moving baitfish have the possibility of getting corralled).  We stopped outside the mouth of Poplar Creek and the first drop resulted in a beast.  From then on it was on like Donkey Kong! We boated several nice fish all in the 10 to 15 pound range, the best being Ian's. He really mopped up tonight - I think he had 5 by himself.

Stripers & New Friends

Stuart Row brought a friend of his along today as we headed out and attempted to get him hooked up with a nice striper, a fish he had never caught before. Dave is quite the accomplished fly fisherman, but apparently has done much lake fishing for stripers. We started at the barge tie up on the southwest side of Long Island. Stuart caught a pair of nice rockfish right off the bat, and missed another - but then the bite shut down.  We moved up to the top of the island to try the southern most drop off near the Osprey nest, but no stripers were showing up on the graph.  Earlier, when we were getting bait, I got a nice batch of threadfins that I just could stand to throw out, and man am I ever glad I didn't.  Since we were up near the Osprey nest I decided to rig up my Stradic 3000/7' St. Croix rig with a live bait Carolina rig - 1st pitch laid a perfect 3" yellow tail up on the shallow flat next to the big stump that sits at the base of the Osprey next and no sooner had it entered the water and wham! a beautiful 4.5# smallmouth crushed it.  It was a fantastic fight on that lighter tackle.  I caught another smaller smallmouth (~1.5#) on the very next cast. We then moved down around the east side of the island and Dave finally got to experience the ferocious fight of a rockfish.

Dualin' Stripers

A first for Dave

4.5# Bronzeback

Stripers and Storms with the Rows

Stuart Row and his brother Rob and his son went with me up to Long Island this afternoon to see if we could catch a striper.  The bite has cooled off considerably since a couple of days ago.  We started near the barge tie up and found a few fish on the graph, missed a fish or two right away but didn't boat anything.  Next we went up to the top side of the island and fished the west drop off.  Rob hooked up with a nice 14# rockfish as shown in the picture.  At about 4:00 p.m. Luke hooked up with us and we ran and picked him up at the Windy Hill ramp.  shortly after we picked up Luke a pretty nasty storm blew up and it started lightening - I think the Row's saw more lightening than they care too and we ended up running them back to the boat launch for the end of their trip.  Good ole Luke and I decided to take our chances and see if we could find some more fish. We got another batch of bait in the Center Farm cove and as I was throwing the 10' Cracker in 19' of water I caught a 5# largemouth.  We went back up to the west side of Long Island and I ended up catching a 20# blue cat. If you notice I'm soaking wet in the picture, that's because when I got the cat in it started flippin' around on the deck and knocked my Costas in the water and I had to dive in to save them. It was a real clown show for the boats fishing the island.                                          

More Long Island Striper Mania

Scott, Ethan, Ian, and I went back to Long Island again tonight for some more striper action.  We caught several nice fish again - not quite the bite as the night before but the fish were definitely there. The surface water temperature is in the low 80s. Here is Scott with a nice 14# rockfish.

Stripers

Scott, Ethan, Ian, Dylan Holt, and I went rockfishing up around Long Island. We caught several in the 8 to 15 pound range on nice gizzards.

Long Island Stripers

Ethan, Ian, Dylan Holt and i went up to Long Island to see if the rockfish had moved in yet. We fished the southwest side near the barge tie up and concentrated on the drop off into the channel as it runs NNW. We caught several nice stripers in the 10 to 15 lb range.

Watts Bar Crappie

Scott, Ethan, Ian, and I went crappie fishing on Watts Bar today. We launched out of Bell Cove and fished Angler's Cove. We fished with grubs (smoke, shad, and chartreuse), with floats about 3 to 4' deep. The map below shows where we caught the crappie in the order of our progression. We caught a couple of keepers off spots #1 and #2 within the first few minutes of starting the day. Spot #3 was the real hot spot of the day - we probably caught 5 or 6 keepers of the pylons of this dock. It has great depth (~6') and numerous double pylons, so it's like a monstrous stake bed. Spot #4 was a downed tree that held a few fish and spot #5 marks where Scott caught the big fish of the day (on a shad rap) trolling across the open water heading back out of the cove. Spot #6 is the one to remember, it is about 10 new bamboo brush piles that someone placed about 25 yards from the dock shown in the map below. We caught a few crappie here, but when the lake is up 3 - 5' these will not be visible but will definitely be worth checking out for bass and crappie. Over all we kept 11 crappie, and fried them up this evening.

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Springtime White Bass

I went up the Emory River this afternoon to check and see if the white bass were making their spring run up the river to spawn. I started about 1:00 p.m. and drove the boat as far as I could up the river to the shoals (~1 mile up from the launch at Flour Mill Flats). I used 1/8 ounce lead head with a mister twister chartreuse grub double rigged. I hit several spots picking up one white bass every now and then, but never finding good numbers of fish stacked up in one area. By 2:30 p.m. I had 10, but still couldn't find any concentrations of fish. I figured they just weren't up the river in large numbers yet and was considering loading up and heading down to Watts Bar to crappie fish. As I was firing up and heading down river to the ramp, I saw one more spot I thought I would give a try - it was a stretch of sandy shoreline with down timber. I picked up a nice fish right away, then another, then another, before I knew it I had 30 fish off two down trees in 20' of shoreline. The boat was in about 10' of water and I was casting all the way up to the bank slowly bringing it back. The graph was showing a pretty sharp drop off from ~4.5' to 10' with a great concentration of fish on the drop. Over the next two hours I proceeded to catch fish pretty much constantly, many two at a time. Many of the fish were males, discharging sperm all over my boat, and the others were females stuffed with eggs - its obvious these fish are in the height of their spawn.  I kept the best 4 white bass (14 - 16") for our next fish fry. Kimberly had just gotten home from a spring break cruise with Alex's family so I had to leave earlier than I normally would but I wound up with at total of 101 white bass for the day. I guess they have decided to make their spring run...