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.

Springtime Cotton Port Bass

4.5 lb Largemouth

Scott with a healthy 4lber

Scott, Ethan, and I fished out of Cotton Port today.  We started fishing some shallow water in the back of Goodfield Creek where we quickly picked up a couple of small bass (on an X-Calibur jerk bait - parrot colored).  The back of the creek gets kind of narrow with lots of marsh type areas which had a great variety of beautiful birds.  We saw a couple of Prothonotary Warblers and I'm almost positive I saw a couple of Common Yellowthroats.  They were slightly smaller than the Prothonotary's.  I will NEVER fish down in this area again without taking my binoculars - UGHH!  I could have gotten a positive id on a new bird species.  Anyways, back to fishing...We then fished out in the secondary creek feeding into Goodfield Creek near where it enters the main river.  Scott and I both lost a bass on a  Choo Choo spinner bait.  I was throwing bleeding chartreuse with with gold blades, and Scott was throwing an ecstasy with gold blades.  We then ran down river to Barley Brance and fished a cut that runs parallel to the main river between Barley Branch and Crawford Branch.  The wind was pretty strong so we were limited to modifying our tactics to work with the wind.  We allowed it to blow us down the shoreline, the water color was stained but good (not muddy), 65-67 F, and the skies were overcast, so conditions were text book for the Choo Choo spinner bait.  I caught a drag squealing 4.5 lb sow (full of eggs) that fought like a ton of bricks.  We then moved a little deeper into Mud Creek - focusing on finger feeders - Scott and Ethan each picked up stocky keepers on spinner baits, and I broke Luke's Castaway Skeleton casting rod (oops! thank goodness for the lifetime replacement guarantee.  It pays to buy the best!).     The Choo Choo spinner baits really got it done today.  As the day progressed, the skies began to clear a little and the sun began to shine, so we switched to crankbaits (lipless XR-50 X-Calibur, and XCS100 X-Calibur shallow diving crankbaits).  Ethan and I threw XCS100s in sexy shad and Scott was throwing an XCS100 in Tennessee Shad.  We worked the back of one bay with a nice gravely bottom (traditionally a great shellcracker and bluegill bedding area) and Scott picked up a nice 1 lb. 14" black crappie.  As we moved out toward the main creek shore we rode the wind and picked up several other keeper largemouths - Scott picked up a really nice 4 lber.  He then hooked into a monster, brought it to the boat only to discover it was a ~5' gar. Once it saw the boat it took off breaking his line taking his XCS100 with it- Ouch!  We worked this stretch of bank over and over picking up a fish or two with each pass.  We also picked up a few other odd balls - Ethan fooled a channel cat, I finessed in a nice drum, and Scott's panfish skills earned him another keeper crappie.  One of our last stops was back along the parallel cut that coughed up my 4.5 lber.  As we started our progression down the shore line I lost a nice fish and then picked up a really healthy 3 lb largemouth on the foxy shad XCS100.