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.

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

Classic November Smallmouths

5 .5 lb Smallie

4 lb Bronzeback

4.5 lb Smallmouth

4 lb Smallmouth

Scott and I got up with the chickens this morning and navigated the pre-dawn fog to partake in the first light striper top-water bite on Watts Bar this morning.  The lunar calendar was in our favor and said fishing should be excellent today - especially from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Boy was it ever right!  The moon was full last night, and will actually be at peak tonight. We started in "Row" Cove looking for packs of silver kings cruising the shallows for shad.  The minnows have been congregating in the backs of coves recently in search of the warmest water they can find.  The surface water temperature was around 58 F, prime for stripers roaming around like a pack of wolves looking to put the feed bag on.  There was a little bit of surface action, but nothing significant - just an occasional largemouth or white bass chasing minnows near the shore line.  We worked our way into the very back of the cove where we saw feeding fish working some shad minnows over.  I was throwing a 9" redfin and picked up an extremely aggressive 1 1/2 lb largemouth (talk about your eyes being bigger than your stomach!), and then a nice 2 lb white bass on a shad colored Excalibur lipless crankbait.   At about 8:30 a.m. we decided to get bait and start looking for smallmouth.   We headed over to the rock pile at Thief Neck Island.  I pretty much always fish a float when using live bait in this area because of the jagged rock bottom.  Fishing on the bottom here will almost always guarantee a hang up.  Right away we started getting bites and boating smallmouth.  The fish were aggressive and feeding. The rig of choice was a standard bobber with a 3' 4 lb test flourocarbon leader on 10 lb test Power Pro and a 1/0 Owner Mutu Light circle hook.  This rig was delivered on my new 7' Temple Fork Outfitters ML matched with my Shimano Stella 4000 FB.  We caught a 5 1/2, a 4 1/2, two 4's, a 3, and multiple 2 lbers. All tolled we caught over 20 smallmouth.  The best 5 weighing a total of 21 lbs!  This easily the best bunch of smallmouth we've ever caught in one trip - A great way to break in my new TFO rod!

Tornado Smallies

The National Weather Service had issued a Tornado Warning for the Roane County area  as I drove south on Hwy 58 to fish below Watts Bar Dam, and the Emergency Notification System interrupted the music on the radio and announced that severe weather was in the area and everyone should remain in doors - I thought for a minute about whether I should go or not...the thought might have lasted a minute, but I seriously doubt it - more like 10 seconds.  I did decide that it was probably a good idea to go below the dam since it would provide the best wind break I could find.  Needless to say when I arrived at the launching ramp I got the closest parking spot because there was no one else in sight.  At about 4:30 p.m., I headed up river.  The wind was blowing straight up the river out of the southeast and about 1/4 mile downstream of the dam the fast flowing water (rushing down river) met the wind blowing the top surface of the water and formed some huge 3-4' waves that were quite a force to be reckoned with when traveling to the dam.  Once I was up close to the dam the wind wasn't too bad.  There was a nice school of shad minnows running the west shoreline, so I got a good batch of bait fairly easily.  The rig of choice was a poppin' cork with a 3' 10 lb test flourocarbon leader and a 1/0 Owner Mutu Light circle hook.  I drifted down the west shoreline offering the 3" gizzard shad along the chunk rock bank. In about 3 hours I boated 8 bass, the best being a 4 lb. smallmouth shown above, a nice 2 lb Kentucky spotted bass, and a 2 lb largemouth completed the day's East TN Bass Grandslam.

Tellico Bronzebacks

I ran over to Tellico tonight to see if the smallmouth were on the canal point yet.  I first launched at Center Farm on Watts Bar and got minnows and then loaded up and drove to the Tellico launch at the canal between Tellico and Ft. Loudoun.  The smallmouth were not quite as thick on the two points as I have experienced in the past, but I still caught ~12 smallmouth in about 2 hours of fishing.  I spent a fair amount of time playing around with my new fly rod - an 8 weight Temple Fork Outfitters - hoping to catch one on that, but had no luck.  The best smallmouth was about 2 lbs, but I lost one that would have pushed 4 lbs – I got it half way to the boat and it came loose after I got a good look at it.  Nice evening - tonight reminds me that it's nice to occasionally spend some time alone in the boat with the Lord.

Watts Bar Tailwaters Action

Arnold Cagley and I went below Watts Bar Dam today to fish the tailwaters.  We caught a few of the usual  tailwater type fish; small cats, drum, smallmouth, and largemouth.  The most interesting find of the trip was an american eel (Anguilla rostrata) I found in the boxes up in the dam. I looked up american eels on the internet and they are pretty fascinating creatures. Here is what The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website has to say:

American eels begin their lives as eggs hatching in the Sargasso Sea, a 2-million-square-mile warm-water lens in the North Atlantic between the West Indies and the Azores. After hatching, the buoyant eel eggs float to the ocean surface and hatch into small, transparent larvae shaped like willow leaves. These larvae drift with the Gulf Stream and other currents, taking about a year to reach the Atlantic coast. By this time, the larval eels have developed fins and the shape of adult eels. In this first phase, the juveniles – called glass eels – are without pigment and still transparent. In the second phase, juvenile eels develop gray to greenish-brown pigmentation and are called elvers. Juveniles slowly develop into yellow eels, the sexually immature adults that are actually yellow-greenish to olive-brown.

Tellico Smallmouth Fishin'

Joe Whedbee and I went smallmouth fishing at the canal between Tellico and Ft. Loudon lakes. We first launched at the new launch below Tellico Dam, and I drove up directly below the dam to get bait. It has recently cooled off a considerable amount and the humidity is much lower than normal. There was very little bait fish activity visible on the water surface. I threw the net several times below Tellico dam and finally got a few (20 or so) little alewives. They were absolutely perfect size - about 3 to 4". I couldn't get any more so we loaded up and re-launched at the canal launch. We went to the usual point and the first cast for both of us produced extremely scrappy smallmouths. Within the first 5 minutes or so, Joe had boated a 2 lber and a 4 lber. When he had his 4 lber on I also had a 2 lber on for a double! It was awesome. We stayed on the point, catching or losing a fish on every single minnow, until we ran out of bait. I then went to a slew on the right side as you go up the river into Ft. Loudoun to get more bait. I got a nice mess of 3" gizzard shad and we headed back to the point. We fished another hour or so catching a total of about 30 smallmouth. It was a fantastic evening.

On the way home I took Highway 95 and as I drove by White Oak Lake I noticed ducks on the pond so I stopped and got my binoculars out. I counted 78 male and female wood ducks - absolutely beautiful!

Back in Business

Arnold Cagley and I fished the point at the canal between Ft. Loudoun and Tellico - We got bait pretty easily and caught 25 smallmouth - the best one was 2.5 lbs.  It is amazing how things turn back on after the weather stabilizes a little bit. I did really well in this spot on 8/21 and 8/25, a cold front arrived on the night of 8/25, and I tanked it on 8/26.  The weather settles down and here on 8/31 we cash in on them again.

Cold Fronts Change Everything

Scott Pastor a.k.a Fishy and I smallmouth fished at the point at the canal between Tellico and Ft. Loudoun today after work for a few hours.  The weather has changed very drastically recently.  It probably has rained in a month and yesterday a major cold front moved in and it rained a couple of inches.  So, fishing conditions are very different compared to hey days of 8/22 and 8/25.  Fish and I worked for nearly two hours just trying to get bait.  The minnows were essentially completely gone from the cove I had previously been getting them.  We got ~20 minnows and fished the point on the canal between Loudoun and Tellico and caught about 5 smallmouths, none of which were anything to brag about. Lesson learned:  Things can change fast, so if you're on the fish you better take the day off work and stay on 'em!

Smallmouth Fishin’ the Canal

Mike's 4 lb. Brozeback

Mike Walker and I fished with shad minnows at the point at the canal between Tellico and Ft. Loudoun. We got shad minnows in the first cove on the left heading upstream on Loudoun from the dam. We caught 26 smallmouth. It was amazing – we caught a couple of 3 pounders, a couple of 2 & ½ pounders and a couple of 2 pounders. Mike caught a 4 lber on the opposite point (on the launch parking lot side).

Tellico Smallmouth

I fished the point at the canal between Tellico and Ft. Loudoun today for a couple of hours. I caught 14 smallmouth, the best of which was 21" long and weighed about 3 lbs.

Summertime Smallies

Van Shubin, Mike Walker and I took to the water this afternoon to try to located some Watts Bar smallmouth.  We got a good bait tank full of shad minnows and fish ed the rock bluffs just up from Long Island.  We caught several nice smallmouth in the 2 to 3 lb class.