Clinch River Striper Fishin'

I took Stuart Row and Christian Allen up the Clinch this evening for a few hours in hopes of finding a few stripers. I got bait between the Hwy 70 and I-40 bridges. We started out at the routine spot across from Rick Klein's house and didn't find any. We then ran way up the river (~13 miles) to Grubb Island. We floated shad under a poppin' cork along the shore line, and right away I caught one that was about 8 lbs. We stayed another 15 minutes or so and then headed back down river until we saw rockfish breaking across the river from the mouth of Clary Foote's place. Another fisherman was closer to the breaking fish and got the slip on us, blocking our line of casting – we sat there and watched him catch a couple and then out of utter frustration, we moved on downstream. We returned to the spot across from Rick Klein's house and almost immediately saw fish breaking in front of Rick's dock. We quickly motored across the channel and hooked up two nice stripers – Christian caught one on a free line shad and I caught one on a 10" redfin – I missed another couple on the redfin.

Striper Fishin' the Clinch

Today I had the good fortune to take Jack Britt and Dan Hurst striper fishing on the Clinch River from 7:00 a.m. to ~12:00 noon.  We were also joined by some of our other good buddies, Charlie Shields, Stuart Row, and Stuart's son Ben - they fished from Charlie's Ranger.  We concentrated on the same general areas that I had been finding fish in the past few weeks, but since it was the morning and Melton Hill Dam wasn't generating we were in a very different situation.  I got good sized (6 - 8") gizzard shad minnows for bait up on the flat between the Hwy 70 and I-40 bridges.  We fished a couple of hours with no action and then decided to run up the river and try some other spots I had luck with in previous outings. Just as we were ready to head up river we checked in with Stu and Sir Charles and noticed Stu was hung (or at least I thought he was judging by his rod being doubled over to a non-moving object), as we got closer we realized the non-moving object was beginning to slowly budge.  As the fight ensued we each speculated as to what the monster may be...water soaked log? a turtle? possibly - if he's lucky a drum? - well as usual I was shown up and to the water surface came a beautiful 18 lb flathead cat!

After all this excitement we continued up river and here in a minute the river started flowing, and Dan caught a nice 11 lb striper up around the Gallaher Bridge on the flat near the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Site.  I was hopeful that the fish would turn on, but it wasn't meant to be today.  We ran back down river again and finished out the day where we started out, and Jack's patience finally paid off with a small blue cat and a beautiful 18" sauger - which turned out to be my lunch!  One extra added treat was that we saw a mature bald eagle fly down to the water surface and pick up a dead fish (probably one of ours).  This happened on two different occassions this afternoon and got to get a terrific view of him - really a beautiful and majestic creature.  Overall, it was another great day on the water spent with two of the guys I admire most. 

Striper Fishin' the Clinch

Mike Walker and I launched on the Clinch at the Food City Launch to rockfish.  We got good sized gizzard shad minnows between the Hwy 70 and I-40 bridges just downstream of the Steam Plant on the flat on the left side.  We went up and fished the 1^st bend in the river above the Emory/Clinch confluence but got nothing.  We then went up to fish the shore line just down from the entrance to Dead Man’s and got nothing.  We then ran further up the river around the 3^rd bend and saw some rockfish breaking on the surface.  We proceeded to catch eight rockfish between 10 and 20 pounds on free line live gizzards (~6” ).  The water temp was ~75F and was crystal clear so I watched several of the fish come up and take my bait – it was awesome!  Thank you TWRA for your wonderful striped bass stocking program.

Storms had passed through the area earlier in the afternoon, and I had actually cancelled our trip for the evening because I thought the wind and rain was going to be horrific.  But at about 5:00 p.m. the weather seem to calm down and so I called up the guys and in a matter of minutes we were back on target.  I took Christian Allen and Will Tullock out in search of big stripers tonight on Watts Bar. We gathered up our bait at the usual spot this time of year - Center Farm Cove for 6 - 8" gizzard shad.  The water temperature remains in the mid to high 80's so it's tough keeping the bait alive for very long.  Once we had an adequate supply of bait we ran up the river to the northwest side of Long Island to look and see if any rockfish were staging at the drop off just near the TWRA tractor loading area of the island.  Right away Christian hooked into a drag squealing striper that he fought for a couple of minutes but somehow it came loose.  That's not too common when using the circle hooks I like to use.  We continued to allow the current to drift us around a little and here and in just a bit Christian had another hook up.  This time he landed the big boy - a 20 lb striper.  His personal best - we were all pretty psyched up.  We continued fishing for the next couple of hours, but things just seemed to be dead.  We caught a couple of small blue cats, but nothing else for the night.  Either way it was an excellent trip and Christian was very glad he had gone.  Once again I vow to never change my plans based upon the weather forecast.

Ft. Loudoun Dam Tailwaters

I went below Ft. Loudoun Dam for about 2 ½ hours this evening.  I got bait easily below Tellico Dam, good sized (2.5 – 3.5”) shad minnows – threadfins, gizzards, and alewives/bluebacks.  The pictures above show the differences in the four types of shad minnows.

I caught a 15 lb drum (got to love those trash fish!) and a few small catfish – I fished the end of the wing wall coming off the lock side of the dam, caught one small largemouth. I never located any stripers - oh well, that's what keeps me coming back, always trying to figure 'em out.