Here are two of the better ones today on KY Lake. Good day. Caught around 25 with 7 keepers. Best five around 17 lbs.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
F3 Club May tourney- some days it all comes together...
Fished our May tourney today on Priest. I had practiced on Friday and caught a bunch of fish but mostly dinks. The good thing is that I had several areas located that were holding fish and shad.
My goal for the day today was to catch a limit in the first two hours, and then go try to upgrade with some larger ones.
We blasted off at safe light (around 5:15), and we headed to a mid-lake flat where I had caught a few on Friday. We started with topwaters and crankbaits. The fish were fairly shallow, and I opted to throw the crankbait. Good call for sure. In the first 45 minutes I caught three keeper fish, and all of them were in the 3-4 lb class. I rounded out my limit on that spot around 6:30, well ahead of schedule.
From there we hit a couple of other flats in the area, but all of the fish were small. I upgraded ounces here.
By 7:30 we were heading downlake to a major creek where smallmouth live. We weeded through around 10 fish on a tube and jig, and then I had a bite that felt very different. The fish slammed the tube, and took off running, leaping, and cavorting. It was a nice 18 1/2 " smallie. That fish replaced a pound and a half largehead, which was a nice upgrade. By now I figured I had around 14 lbs on five fish, with one little one left to cull. We hit a couple of roadbeds downlake, but no takers. I was still confident that I could catch a good one on a roadbed, so we kept moving back downlake.
We pulled up on a roadbed near the bridge, and once my Carolina Rigged Lizard came over the road in the magic depth, WHAM. The fish took off for deep water, and I knew it was a good un. It turned out to be the smallie pictured here, which measure 20" on the button. This fish culled the last small one, so I now had 5 fish for 18.01 lbs.
My goal now became to hit the 20 lb mark, but it didn't happen. My non-boater only had two keepers by now, and I decided to go to our first spot again to see if we could get his limit. We ended up catching around 15 more fish, but no more big ones. Duke added one keeper to his bag, and that was the end of the day.
All in all, it was a great day.
Until next time, tight lines, and sore thumbs!
RBK
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
High water bassin.....
The unusual Spring of 2009 has brought high water to Middle TN, and the fishing has been excellent through the middle of May. Percy Priest has been anywhere from 3-7 ft high for the last three weeks, and the fish have been in the flooded trees, vines, bushes, and other stuff that usually lives well above the water line.
Two weeks ago, I caught a solid limit of around 16 lbs. on PP anchored by two four pounders. The fish were on the edges of the trees anywhere I could find green leafy trees submerged in 2-5 ft of water. It didn't seem to matter what you threw at them, as long as it was either a jig or soft plastic. The best baits were a Lake Fork tackle Tube Craw, GYBC Creature Bait, and a Tight Line 1/2 oz jig and plastic trailer. the creature fish came flipping and pitching directly in the brush, while the jig fish liked a swimming presentation. I'd swim the jig up to the target, kill it beside the bush, and then swim it back to the boat.
I was very confident that we could do well in the Inner City Ministries Big Fish / Black bag event held on Saturday, May 16th out of Fate Sanders. my only concern was that the lake level had been brought down two feet from the prior weekend, but it was still 3 1/2 ft above summer pool, which is plenty to keep the fish in the trees.
We started on a couple of spots that my partner wanted to hit with no bites, and then, about 7 am we went to my flipping spots from the weekend before. We pulled into the first cove, and whack! we caught around 8 fish in the same places I had caught them the week before. Out of the 8, four were solid keepers, but none of them were over 3 lbs, so no need to weigh them in. At this point, we felt good about the pattern, and the fish appeared to be in the same places as last weekend.
We moved on to my second cove and flipped up three or four more, but again, no bigguns. we kept flippin for another couple of hours, but the bite seemed to die as the day went on, so we decided to go looking for some fish out off the banks. We hit a flat mid-lake where I had been catching them good before the water came up, and we had 5 or six here on a c-rig, but they were all small. Then we went way down lake to a flat where the fish have been stacked, but again, we only caught dinks. I had one more cove to flip down lake, but the water had muddied up since the prior week, and we did not get a bite.
As time was running down, we went back to the first cove of the day, but the fish were nowhere to be found. We noticed that the water had dropped at least half a foot since the morning, and I'm sure that had a lot to do with the bite dying off during the day.
For the day we ended up with around 20 fish and 6 or seven keepers, for around 12 lbs. Fun day of fishing, but no pay back for all the hard work.
The lake is back to near summer pool now, so it's back to conventional post spawn tactics. Our club is fishing our second event of the year Saturday on Priest, and I'm fairly confident that I will do well. This is my favorite time of the year to fish, as the fish are off bed, hungry, and extremely willing to eat a c-rigged lizard, jig, and hopefully a top water plug or two. I'll report back after Saturday.
Tight lines,
RBK
Two weeks ago, I caught a solid limit of around 16 lbs. on PP anchored by two four pounders. The fish were on the edges of the trees anywhere I could find green leafy trees submerged in 2-5 ft of water. It didn't seem to matter what you threw at them, as long as it was either a jig or soft plastic. The best baits were a Lake Fork tackle Tube Craw, GYBC Creature Bait, and a Tight Line 1/2 oz jig and plastic trailer. the creature fish came flipping and pitching directly in the brush, while the jig fish liked a swimming presentation. I'd swim the jig up to the target, kill it beside the bush, and then swim it back to the boat.
I was very confident that we could do well in the Inner City Ministries Big Fish / Black bag event held on Saturday, May 16th out of Fate Sanders. my only concern was that the lake level had been brought down two feet from the prior weekend, but it was still 3 1/2 ft above summer pool, which is plenty to keep the fish in the trees.
We started on a couple of spots that my partner wanted to hit with no bites, and then, about 7 am we went to my flipping spots from the weekend before. We pulled into the first cove, and whack! we caught around 8 fish in the same places I had caught them the week before. Out of the 8, four were solid keepers, but none of them were over 3 lbs, so no need to weigh them in. At this point, we felt good about the pattern, and the fish appeared to be in the same places as last weekend.
We moved on to my second cove and flipped up three or four more, but again, no bigguns. we kept flippin for another couple of hours, but the bite seemed to die as the day went on, so we decided to go looking for some fish out off the banks. We hit a flat mid-lake where I had been catching them good before the water came up, and we had 5 or six here on a c-rig, but they were all small. Then we went way down lake to a flat where the fish have been stacked, but again, we only caught dinks. I had one more cove to flip down lake, but the water had muddied up since the prior week, and we did not get a bite.
As time was running down, we went back to the first cove of the day, but the fish were nowhere to be found. We noticed that the water had dropped at least half a foot since the morning, and I'm sure that had a lot to do with the bite dying off during the day.
For the day we ended up with around 20 fish and 6 or seven keepers, for around 12 lbs. Fun day of fishing, but no pay back for all the hard work.
The lake is back to near summer pool now, so it's back to conventional post spawn tactics. Our club is fishing our second event of the year Saturday on Priest, and I'm fairly confident that I will do well. This is my favorite time of the year to fish, as the fish are off bed, hungry, and extremely willing to eat a c-rigged lizard, jig, and hopefully a top water plug or two. I'll report back after Saturday.
Tight lines,
RBK
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)