Took a day off today to head to Preist for a little fishing. Hit the lake around 8:30 am and headed down-lake to fish a deep bluff. Fished there for 1 hour- nothing, nada, zilcho.
From there I eased over to one of my favorite early Spring transition banks. Threw a jig for 30 minutes and landed two beautiful smallies. The largest was 18" and around 3 lbs.
Met up with a fellow fisherman on that bank, and he said he'd been catching a few on a shad rap, so I threw that for the next hour or so, and caught a 2.5 lb largemouth and two healthy spots.
Caught two more fish on a jig on another bluffy bank.
Then I fired up the Yammyhauler, shot the gas, and BEEEEEEEEP. The warning buzzer was going off, and the boat wouldn't get on plane. Figured I'd better limp back to the ramp to avoid any damage to the engine, so I put it on the trailer around noon and headed straight to Team Marine to drop the boat.
Good news is the service manager said he thinks it's just a clog in the oil filter or line, which is making the small tank on the motor read low. Should be a fairly easy and cheap fix (I hope).
All in all a good day. 4 keepers on 7 fish.
Until next time.
RBK
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
4th place ain't bad....
Fished the new Saturday tourney out of Fate Sanders on Priest today. I got there early to register and got boat #8. None of my regular partners could fish, so I was going solo vs. 2 man teams, but as tough as the fishing was reported to be on PP, I still felt like I had a chance.
Headed straight up the East Fork of the Stones River (a brisk 20 mile run). I set the boat down on one of my favorite stretches of wood upriver, and started throwing a buzzbait at the cover. Problem was the water was a chilly 56 degrees! Too cold for a topwater bait.
When it was clear the topwater deal wasn't going to happen, I committed to slowing down and making hundreds of pitches at wood and rock in both forks of the river.
I moved around for a couple of hours, and lost a decent fish on a shaky head worm around 10:00 am. Then, on the next bank, I hooked a solid 1.75 lb spotted bass on a small creature bait. I stayed in the same area of the E. Fork for another 45 minutes, but no other takers. The front had pushed out of Middle TN by now, and I knew it was just going to get tougher. My plan and fishing technique are ideal for post frontal conditions, b/c up that river the fish will stay shallow and move to cover when the barometer rockets upward. It was tough, but I was still confident in what I had planned.
Around 11:00 am I moved to the West Fork and headed as far up as I could and still float the Bumble Bee. I found three huge groups of shad and tried fishing shad imitations for 15 minutes or so, but I knew I needed to slow down. I hit three deep banks in that area with no luck. Then I fired up the Yamaha and ran about 3 miles back toward the lake. The first channel bend bank I hit held my second keeper, which was a solid 17" Largemouth, just shy of 3 lbs.
By now, I had run out of prime banks up the river, and only had 1 1/2 hrs left until weigh in. Decision time! This is where these things are won or lost, and I think I made the wrong move. Instead of staying a re-fishing the upriver banks, I decided to run into the main lake, and try to catch a couple of spotted bass, since they only have to be 12". I ran to the mid-lake area and fished 2 long bluffs and never had a sniff.
Made it back to the marina on time, and bagged up my 2 passengers for the weigh in. I though I was sunk when I walked up to the scales and heard 12 lbs was leading. The tourney director said he had a 5 fish limit, so I knew 3rd was best possible finish for me.
Good thing is that only one other team had more weight than yours truly. My two weighed in at 4.52. I got my money back, and earned some valuable points for the trail if I decide to fish more of them.
Considering that I hadn't been on the lake in 3 months and I went it alone, I was fairly pleased.
Until next time.....
Tight lines.
RBK
Headed straight up the East Fork of the Stones River (a brisk 20 mile run). I set the boat down on one of my favorite stretches of wood upriver, and started throwing a buzzbait at the cover. Problem was the water was a chilly 56 degrees! Too cold for a topwater bait.
When it was clear the topwater deal wasn't going to happen, I committed to slowing down and making hundreds of pitches at wood and rock in both forks of the river.
I moved around for a couple of hours, and lost a decent fish on a shaky head worm around 10:00 am. Then, on the next bank, I hooked a solid 1.75 lb spotted bass on a small creature bait. I stayed in the same area of the E. Fork for another 45 minutes, but no other takers. The front had pushed out of Middle TN by now, and I knew it was just going to get tougher. My plan and fishing technique are ideal for post frontal conditions, b/c up that river the fish will stay shallow and move to cover when the barometer rockets upward. It was tough, but I was still confident in what I had planned.
Around 11:00 am I moved to the West Fork and headed as far up as I could and still float the Bumble Bee. I found three huge groups of shad and tried fishing shad imitations for 15 minutes or so, but I knew I needed to slow down. I hit three deep banks in that area with no luck. Then I fired up the Yamaha and ran about 3 miles back toward the lake. The first channel bend bank I hit held my second keeper, which was a solid 17" Largemouth, just shy of 3 lbs.
By now, I had run out of prime banks up the river, and only had 1 1/2 hrs left until weigh in. Decision time! This is where these things are won or lost, and I think I made the wrong move. Instead of staying a re-fishing the upriver banks, I decided to run into the main lake, and try to catch a couple of spotted bass, since they only have to be 12". I ran to the mid-lake area and fished 2 long bluffs and never had a sniff.
Made it back to the marina on time, and bagged up my 2 passengers for the weigh in. I though I was sunk when I walked up to the scales and heard 12 lbs was leading. The tourney director said he had a 5 fish limit, so I knew 3rd was best possible finish for me.
Good thing is that only one other team had more weight than yours truly. My two weighed in at 4.52. I got my money back, and earned some valuable points for the trail if I decide to fish more of them.
Considering that I hadn't been on the lake in 3 months and I went it alone, I was fairly pleased.
Until next time.....
Tight lines.
RBK
Friday, October 24, 2008
Been laid up in dry dock....
Haven't been on the lake in three long weeks, and that trip was pretty much a bust on OHL. Had 2 keepers in our last club tourney of the year. Put me in 2nd overall for the season.
I'm planning on heading to Priest this Saturday to fish a local tourney. I'll be fishing blind, since I haven't been out there in over two months, but I've got some good info from late October the last couple of years to fall back on.
Plan on running to the uppper end and looking for off-colored water and fishing shallow early, then working my way back down lake later on if the up-lake thing doesn't pan out.
I'll report back, but I'm cautiously optimistic, and frankly just happy to be fishing!
I'm planning on heading to Priest this Saturday to fish a local tourney. I'll be fishing blind, since I haven't been out there in over two months, but I've got some good info from late October the last couple of years to fall back on.
Plan on running to the uppper end and looking for off-colored water and fishing shallow early, then working my way back down lake later on if the up-lake thing doesn't pan out.
I'll report back, but I'm cautiously optimistic, and frankly just happy to be fishing!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
September fishing
Haven't been in two weeks. Last trip was to Priest and it was TOUGH.
F3 Bassmasters are having our September tourney this Saturday on Old Hickory. I haven't been out there in over three weeks. I'm hoping that the summer patterns are still holding up from August. The good thing is that I was on a shallow bite then, and with the air and water temps cooling, that deal should only get better.
I feel like if I can find the bait I know how to catch em on OHL. Spent a bunch of time out there this summer, and I have 7-10 areas that were holding some decent groups of fish, but we'll see what happens Saturday.
I'm in second place in the points, trailing the leader by 6 1/2 lbs with two events to go. So, it's now or never. To have a chance to win the points, I need to beat him by at least three pounds to have a legit shot to take it in October on Priest.
I'm optimistic on Priest in October, b/c I was on a really good bite there last year in the fall. But I need to get within striking distance by sacking them good this weekend. It's unfortunate I couldn't pre-fish OHL the last week or so, but we'll just see if we can locate them.
I'll report back next week.
RBK
F3 Bassmasters are having our September tourney this Saturday on Old Hickory. I haven't been out there in over three weeks. I'm hoping that the summer patterns are still holding up from August. The good thing is that I was on a shallow bite then, and with the air and water temps cooling, that deal should only get better.
I feel like if I can find the bait I know how to catch em on OHL. Spent a bunch of time out there this summer, and I have 7-10 areas that were holding some decent groups of fish, but we'll see what happens Saturday.
I'm in second place in the points, trailing the leader by 6 1/2 lbs with two events to go. So, it's now or never. To have a chance to win the points, I need to beat him by at least three pounds to have a legit shot to take it in October on Priest.
I'm optimistic on Priest in October, b/c I was on a really good bite there last year in the fall. But I need to get within striking distance by sacking them good this weekend. It's unfortunate I couldn't pre-fish OHL the last week or so, but we'll just see if we can locate them.
I'll report back next week.
RBK
Saturday, August 16, 2008
OHL F3 club tourney 8-16-08
Had 7.6 lbs on 5 clones (all around 14"). All keepers caught on wacky worm around marina slips.
Finished second.
Tough day, all in all, but at least I had a limit.
Finished second.
Tough day, all in all, but at least I had a limit.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
8-9-08 Pre-fish OHL
My non-boater partner for next week, Carl A, and I went out to OHL this morning to try to find some more groups of fish for our club tourney next weekend. We actually wore sweatshirts this morning, as it was around 60 degrees when we hit the lake.
We threw topwater baits on some shallow wood early and had no luck, so we went to some docks that have been holding a lot of bait and fish the last few weeks. the fish never came up like they have been, but we did manage two small fish off the docks on a wacky worm, one of which was a 14" keeper.
From there, we just went looking. We hit some deep stuff for around 30 minutes and each caught a fish, with mine on a worm being a solid 2 lbr. Then we went to a cranking spot in a creek, but the only taker was a solid 2 lb white bass.
After that we headed back in a shallow creek arm down lake and found tons of shad fry and some schooling action. We caught around five in that area, but these guys didn't have their training wheels off yet (dink city).
From there, we went back to one of my best ledges in a creek mouth, but no takers.
By now it's around 11:00, and we decided to go flippin for the last hour. We caught around four more flippin shallow wood and called it a day. For the day, we had 3 or 4 14 " + keepers for not much weight.
Tough day, but we did eliminate some water, and confirmed some of the patterns that have been working lately. We'll see how it pans out next week.
Later-
RBK
We threw topwater baits on some shallow wood early and had no luck, so we went to some docks that have been holding a lot of bait and fish the last few weeks. the fish never came up like they have been, but we did manage two small fish off the docks on a wacky worm, one of which was a 14" keeper.
From there, we just went looking. We hit some deep stuff for around 30 minutes and each caught a fish, with mine on a worm being a solid 2 lbr. Then we went to a cranking spot in a creek, but the only taker was a solid 2 lb white bass.
After that we headed back in a shallow creek arm down lake and found tons of shad fry and some schooling action. We caught around five in that area, but these guys didn't have their training wheels off yet (dink city).
From there, we went back to one of my best ledges in a creek mouth, but no takers.
By now it's around 11:00, and we decided to go flippin for the last hour. We caught around four more flippin shallow wood and called it a day. For the day, we had 3 or 4 14 " + keepers for not much weight.
Tough day, but we did eliminate some water, and confirmed some of the patterns that have been working lately. We'll see how it pans out next week.
Later-
RBK
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Recent fishing on Old Hickory Lake
I've spent the last month on OHL trying to pattern fish in the dog days of summer.
The Army Corps of Engineers has not been generating any current, so the ledge fishing has been spotty at best.
A friend of mine and I fished PBF on Old Hickory two weekends ago, and all I can say is, what might have been. He broke off a 4 lbr right at the boat, and 30 minutes later, I lost an absolute pig in the 6-7 lb class. Those were the only two fish we lost all day, but they were the ones we needed make a run at first place. We ended up with a limit just shy of 9 lbs, which put us in 23rd place. With the two we lost, we'd have had between 16-17 lbs (good for 2nd or 3rd and big fish pot)- OUCH!
The patterns I have working now are as follows:
1. Early morning bite around docks and marina slips (tons of shad fry).
2. Shallow cranking bite on flats in the major creeks in the mid-lake area (3-5 ft).
3. Deeper cranking secondary drops half way back in the same creeks (6-12 ft).
4. Creek channel drops with slow moving baits (6-15 ft).
5. Dirt shallow flipping bite way back in the creeks in the shade.
The good thing is I'm on multiple patterns in a relatively small area, so I don't have to waste a lot of time running around. The bad news is the bait is moving day to day, and the fish are moving with them.
We have our August F3 tourney on OHL on 8-16, and I am fairly confident that I can catch a limit of 14" fish. The wild card, as always will be the key big bite, and whether I can actually get the good ones in the net.
Heading back out to pre-fish this Saturday, and I will report back on what I find.
Tight lines,
RBK
The Army Corps of Engineers has not been generating any current, so the ledge fishing has been spotty at best.
A friend of mine and I fished PBF on Old Hickory two weekends ago, and all I can say is, what might have been. He broke off a 4 lbr right at the boat, and 30 minutes later, I lost an absolute pig in the 6-7 lb class. Those were the only two fish we lost all day, but they were the ones we needed make a run at first place. We ended up with a limit just shy of 9 lbs, which put us in 23rd place. With the two we lost, we'd have had between 16-17 lbs (good for 2nd or 3rd and big fish pot)- OUCH!
The patterns I have working now are as follows:
1. Early morning bite around docks and marina slips (tons of shad fry).
2. Shallow cranking bite on flats in the major creeks in the mid-lake area (3-5 ft).
3. Deeper cranking secondary drops half way back in the same creeks (6-12 ft).
4. Creek channel drops with slow moving baits (6-15 ft).
5. Dirt shallow flipping bite way back in the creeks in the shade.
The good thing is I'm on multiple patterns in a relatively small area, so I don't have to waste a lot of time running around. The bad news is the bait is moving day to day, and the fish are moving with them.
We have our August F3 tourney on OHL on 8-16, and I am fairly confident that I can catch a limit of 14" fish. The wild card, as always will be the key big bite, and whether I can actually get the good ones in the net.
Heading back out to pre-fish this Saturday, and I will report back on what I find.
Tight lines,
RBK
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