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!

Rainbow Bass

Todd Moore and I went fishing on Watts Bar above Long Island tonight from about 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.– I got good sized shad minnows (mostly gizzards ~2.5-3.5’) in the Center Farm Cove. The surface water temperature is about as high as I ever remember seeing it, 89F. We first tried the spot near the TWRA access on the northwest side of the island for stripers and didn’t get any bites.  We then moved to the uppermost end of the island near the osprey nest.  I caught a 2.5 lb smallmouth and the next cast lost a bigger one (~3.5 lb), then I caught the 5 lb largemouth shown in the picture above. Notice the rainbow - Todd took this picture with his cell phone and getting the rainbow was just an accident.
Todd then caught a ~2.5 lb largemouth.  All these bass were with the boat sitting in about 17’ of water on the drop off upstream of the Long Island flat casting into ~5’ of water near the osprey nest.  We then moved  up on the flat at about 8:30 because the white bass started surfacing.  We caught ~15-20 white bass on white rooster tails and Spro buck hair jigs (shad color).  It was a very successful trip, and it was a real blessing getting to spend some time with Todd.

Doubling Up on Personal Bests

Kate, Karoline, Adam Doughty, and I went fishing on Watts Bar (upper end of Long Island) tonight.  I got our bait (gizzard shad) in the Center Farm cove.  All of the bait was large (7 -10”).  We fished from ~6:30 to 9:00 p.m. and caught several blue catfish, ranging in size from 1 lb to 10 lbs.  Kate also caught a nice 14 lb rockfish (the best fish of her life), and Karoline caught a 5 lb largemouth bass on about a 6” gizzard shad!  That's quite a hawg for a 12 year old.  This was by far the best bass she’s ever caught.  Two personal bests in one evening - awesome!  Thank you Lord Jesus for all your many blessings!

Bassin' with Stu

Stuart Row and I fished on Watts Bar this morning. (7:00 – 11:00 a.m.).  We went in Stuart’s Hurricane deck boat which he already had in the water at his dock at his lake house.  We fished around Thief Neck Island and up the lake all the way to Lake Harbor.  We caught ~12 largemouth bass on various baits – Texas rig plastic lizard, crank bait (Lucky Craft; shad colored shallow running), drop shot worms.  The best fish was about a 2 lber. It was a great morning, getting to spend some quality time with Stuart - he has definitely become a great friend in a short amount of time.  It's amazing to me how the Lord can unite folks so quickly and strongly that have shared common beliefs and interests. 

Guntersville Bass

Luke and I traveled down to Scottsboro, Alabama today to fish Lake Guntersville.  We had this weekend blocked out for the trip in advance so when the weather turned bad, we opted to stay with the plan and see if we could still find some of spring time Alabama hawgs.  We launched at Goose Pond and fished hard all day in cold windy rainy conditions.  The air temp was in the high 40s so we pretty much froze all day.  We blew across huge sparse grass flats in Norht Sauty Creek.  The bites were few and far between, but we each caught nice 4 lb largemouths on spinnerbaits.  Overall it was a great day of hard fishing.

Thief Neck Island Bass

Luke and I went out on Watts Bar today to try to catch some bass around Thief Neck Island.  We launched in the afternoon at the Shady Grove launch off River Road.  We made the run across the lake to the rock pile on the east side of the island near the cut through. Luke always loves throwing a spinnerbait and I had recently been catching a few nice fish around this rock pile on crankbaits and spinnerbaits, so he was chunking a chartreuse and white Terminator with gold willow leaf blades.  I was throwing a similar spinnerbait and a Lucky Craft shad colored 3.5 crankbait.  Luke caught a couple of scrappy largemouth and I caught a smallmouth.  Always a great time when I fish with Luke.