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.