55 Pound Watts Bar Flathead

I took Christian Allen and his girlfriend Stephanie catfishing tonight on Watts Bar. We met up about 5:30 p.m. after I had gotten a bunch of really good gizzard shad (~8") for bait. I don't believe Stephanie had ever been fishing before, so I was very hopeful we would be able to catch a few and maybe even a good sized one. We started by running up to the upper end of Long Island fishing in ~15 - 20' of water where it drops off from the island flat. We got a big goose egg there so we went over to the point @ the Round Island Daymark 572.8. I picked up the first blue cat (Ictalurus furcatus) of the evening - he weighed right at 12 lbs. We left this spot pretty quickly because we weren't getting many bites, so we ran down river to the bluff @ 569.4 but there were some kids swimming where I wanted to fish so we moved on down below the confluence of the Clinch and the Tennessee Rivers to the mouth of my old cove where the creek drops into the main channel. It's about 25' deep at this point, and we anchored up and put our three rods out. Just within a few minutes we started catching a few blues and flatheads - all around the 10 to 15 lb range. Stephanie had a couple of nice fish on but lost them before we could get them in, so the action was definitely keeping us on our toes. Then at about 8:30 p.m. Mr. Big slurped down a big ole gizzard, and after about 5 minutes of battling with the Ambassadeur 6000 on a Berkley flippin' stick and 50 lb test Ande monofilament, he was aboard the G3, a 44" 55 lb Flathead Cat (Pylodictis olivaris).
A little bit later Christian caught a 21 lb. blue cat to finish of a strong evening of cattin'. I say this won't be a evening Stephanie forgets anytime soon, I sure know I won't. Wow! Thank you Lord Jesus for your awesome creativity when you created big ole' cats.
Overall, we boated 10 cats - with the best one being 55 lbs.

The Stripers are Back

When the boat launch below Melton Hill Dam gets packed with center console striper boats, it is like a red flashing light with a siren saying "The stripers are back - go fishing!"  So I fished the Clinch today after work for just a couple of hours to see if I could locate any of the silver kings.  I launched at the Gallaher Bridge and got bait in the first inlet upstream and to the right. The water was 61 F and I've always heard this is kind of like the magic temperature at which the rockfish start running up  the river. I rigged up an 8" gizzard on a Carolina rig  with a 7/0 Owner Super Mutu Circle hook and started a float trip along the deep bank just out of Caney Creek (the one with the Soaring Eagle Campground in the back of it) and almost immediately a 12 lb striper hammered it.  I thought I was in for quite an afternoon.  Unfortunately, I got a good dose of how many stick ups and logs there are along that stretch of bank, so I ended up losing quite a few 7/0s and wasn't boating too many rockfish.  I did see quite a few fish on the Lowrance, but I spent more time getting hung than anything else.  It's all part of the learning process.  I ran up to Grubb Island to try a  different spot, and I picked up another almost identical 12 lb striper.  I began to get low on bait and so I called it a day after only about 1-1/2 hours, but I learned a lot and I can tell the stripers are up there and feeding - so just like the stripers...I'll be back another day, hopefully soon.

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.

Where Are The Fish? Where's the Milfoil?

I've spared you the pain of having to read multiple posts that echo the same theme - spring time bassin' where are the fish?  I've fished about 8 different trips on Watts Bar this spring from Buck Creek to Thief Neck and caught one fish here and there, but never like I figured it should be.  Most of the time the water temperature has been in the high 50s to low 60s.  There have been several cold fronts that have messed things up, but I think the biggest factor has been the way the lake levels have been jerked up and down.  For example, on Sunday 4/17 the water level was ~4-5 feet above full summer pool, and on the following Friday (4/22) the water level was about 2 feet below normal full summer pool.  While I'm whining I think I'll jump on my favorite soap box...I believe the biggest difference between Watts Bar and other lakes on the Tennessee River system is the absence of milfoil on Watts Bar.  Why won't TVA and TWRA wake up to the fact that the best possible thing that could be done for fish, aquatic wildlife, and waterfowl is to get milfoil back in Watts Bar?  It doesn't take a wildlife fisheries biologist to figure this out!  Just take a look at Guntersville.  You can't hardly book a hotel room in Scotsboro, AL in the spring because of massive influx of bass fishermen on Lake Guntersville.  It's time for TVA and TWRA to begin to optimize the aquatic habitat.

Humble Pie

The weather forecast is for a major cold front to move into the area on Tuesday afternoon - rains and dropping temperatures.  Still reeling (no pun intended) from the outstanding smallmouth bite on Saturday I decided that my best chance to duplicate was to go first thing this morning before the front arrived.  The rain was not forecasted to arrive until late morning, it was a balmy 60 F, and I felt sure I was in for an awesome morning.  I got on the water at about 6:30 a.m. before first daylight - I started in Rowe Cove, just in case the stripers wanted to surrender to a top water or two before I targeted the smallmouth.  The rockfish were breaking this morning better than Saturday, but were - as usual for this time of year - all over the place breaking once and then moving on.  I could never get one to notice my redfin, so I gave it about thirty minutes or so and then got bait.  I got my favorite freshwater bait - perfect sized thread fin shad (Dorosoma petenense) I was thrilled at the prospect that awaited me.  I ran over to the rock pile at Thief Neck armed with the rig of choice; a standard bobber with a 3' 4 lb test Seaguar 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. I fished the same stretches I fished just three days ago and only boated one smallmouth and one drum.  I lost 4 others, but the bite was just nothing like it was on Saturday. It just goes to show you as soon as you start thinking you've got it all figured out, it changes.  Nothing like a good day on the water to keep you humble :)

Fall Rockfish Are Making Me Crazy

After fishing down the lake this morning (see Humble Pie), I went to work for a few hours.  I just can't get these ferocious stripers out of my mind.  I talked with a friend of mine in church this past Sunday and he told me he saw them breaking in the back of the cove around Roane Co. Park.  So, after I got home from work and discovered that the girls all had something going on and Crystal had to work late, I decided to take a look at Roane Co. Park for myself.  I launched at Caney Creek, got good bait in one throw (shad minnows are all over Caney Creek right now) and headed over to the swimming area and public pier.  Right away I noticed healthy (10 - 15 lb) rockfish breaking on the monstrous schools of minnows.   I had a rod with a 9" redfin, and a rod with a poppin' cork and circle hook (for basic free-lining). The stripers were breaking with 25' of the boat every minute or so, but they would just do a ravenous roll and then be gone - several times I was standing cocked and ready to cast waiting for a fish to break and would cast right in the middle of the swirl within seconds of the roll and nothing - never got a bite.  It was very exciting, but exasperating at the same time.  Man...maybe someday  I'll figure out how to get stripers in this mode to bite.  It's part of what makes this whole thing so addicting to me.  I can't wait to get back out after 'em.

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!