Nickajack, Chickamauga, and Tims 12-29 & 12-30

Tims Ford 12-26-11 pics

Nickajack 12-19 & 12-20

Tims Ford USA Bass Open 12-17-11...

Fished the USA Bass Trail tourney today on Tims. We struggled and only landed two keepers, pictured here. The larger one was 21" and weighed over 4, and the other one was 19" and was around 3 lbs. It took almost 20 lbs to win. Always fun to tussle with the big brown bombers.

RBK

Chickamauga Tues 12-13-11

Tim's Ford Monday 12-12-11

Saturday Morning tourney (12-3-11)...

The weather was perfect today, so i decided to try my luck with the Fate Sanders boys (by myself). We blasted off at 8 am, and I ran to a flat off of a bluff just upriver from Fate Sanders. I caught 3 quick short largemouth on the little Shad Rap and then I hooked a good one that ran straight under the boat. The fish flashed right under me, and it was a solid 3 lb class bass. As usual, the spinning rod / buggy whip offered no assistance in keeping the fish out in open water. She ran under the boat and promptly came unbuttoned- argh!

I then ran to the next bluff upriver where we had caught them last weekend. The fish were nowhere to be found, so it was decision time. Run downlake and try to catch 5 keeper spots or run upriver and go for broke? I opted to run down and made the long run to the Elm Hill bluffs where Billy and I had caught a few the week before. I only managed one small keeper Spot here, so I started heading back up lake. I eased over to Suggs to continue fishing a jig on the bluffs. I landed a fat 14" large head and that was it.

I moved down to a transition bank across from Hole in the Wall island and proceeded to catch 5-6 fish here. Of course I lost the biggest spot while fumbling for the net, but I did add a 13" keeper Ky bass here.

I moved to the Long Hunter State Park area and caught the biggest keeper of the day here- a nice 3 lb largemouth that whacked the jig.

I fished around Bryant's Grove and Jones Mill, but the largemouth I landed were just shy of 15". I ended the day back on the joggle bluff past Fate Sanders and with 10 minutes left I pulled a nice 14 3/4" fish over the rail.

I ended the day with 3 keepers for around 5 1/2 lbs, so I threw them back and put her on the trailer. If I'd have landed the two other keepers, I would have had around 9 1/2 lbs- oh well.

For the day I caught around 12 fish and enjoyed the nice weather.

Tight lines,

RBK

Thanksgiving weekend- Percy Priest...

I was off Friday, so I met Billy Harris (visiting from NC) at the ramp around 6 am. We planned to fish the Saturday am tourney together, so Friday was about practicing and locating some fish and / or a productive pattern.

We started near the Weakley Ln bridge and Billy caught a keeper spot off the bat at the end of the bluff on a jig. We eased down past the ramp and chunked shad raps on the flat. We caught 5-6 short fish here. Next, we ran to the next bluff heading upriver, and we caught a couple more on a jig, but no keepers. We decided to run down lake and fish our way back. We caught a bunch of small spots and smallmouth on the point past Long Hunter and the bluffs at Elm Hill. We ended the day back on the bluffs just up from Weakley Ln, and we found our pattern- "joggles" on the bluff walls. We landed four more keepers here, and at 2 pm, we headed home.

Saturday, we put in at Stewarts Creek, and we scouted the area before heading over to Fate Sanders to register. We decided to start back in Stewart's, but no luck, so we headed up to the Weakley Ln area. We struggled early, but I was able to land 3 keepers on the joggle pattern by around 10 am. Due to the honking south wind, we scrapped our main lake gameplan. We would bounce around upriver most of the rest of the day, and we caught several short fish but no keepers. With time running down, we ran to a bluff just down from Fate Sanders to finish the day. Billy caught our fourth keeper, a 12" spot with 15 minutes to go.

We ended up with 6 1/2 lbs which was good for around 12th out of 40 boats. Fun weekend all in all. The 25 MPH south wind really hurt our chances to contend on Saturday.

RBK

Big G Alabama Riggin- Saturday, Nov 12 2011...

I headed down to Guntersville Saturday to try my hand at the perhaps the biggest lure craze to hit the bass fishing world since Mr. Creme invented the plastic worm. The new bait is called the Alabama Rig (really just a castable umbrella rig). Ever since Paul Elias and most of the top 10 smashed the bass on Guntersville three weeks ago in the FLW event, it has been a mad scramble by lure designers to make them and a feeding frenzy among fisherman to get their hands on some.

I found mine by calling the owner of Sworming Hornet Lure Company in Georgia, who supposedly had a good replica of the original, and I wouldn't have to wait 6 weeks to get them. Since the 5 bait version is illegal in TN, I needed to go to AL or KY to try it out. The wind was going to be considerably stronger in KY, so I opted to head to Big G.

Here's a quick run down of the tackle set up:
7 1/2 ft extra heavy Allstar Flippin Stick
Large capacity Curado 200 6.3:1 reel
65 lb Power Pro braid
Sworming Hornet Swarm castable Umbrella Rig (Ark Shiner head- pictured above)
(5) 3/8 oz Big Hammer Hammerhead jig heads
(5) 4.5" Strike King Shadalicious swimbaits - a real key is to glue the baits to the head.
Two items I did not have with me that I would recommend are velcro tennis shoe soles to keep you in the boat as you try to sling this awkward deal 30 yards into the wind and some Ben Gay rub to apply to your wrist and shoulder when you finish. This rig is not for the faint of heart or those with soft tissue injuries in the upper half of their body.

Since I knew most of the fishing pressure on Guntersville is usually mid-lake to Goose Pond, I opted to head down to the town of Guntersville. I launched the boat at the public ramp in Big Spring Creek and ran out to the deeper bridge heading toward the main channel. My friend Russ who finished 3rd in the FLW event at G'ville gave me a good idea of what to look for (big balls of shad suspended in 15 ft over 30 ft in the creeks). I idled under the bridge, and just as I cleared the pilings the screen lit up with huge clouds of bait 12-18 ft down in the 30 ft channel- perfect. I put down the trolling motor, and began lobbing the chandelier.

I stayed on the shad balls in Spring creek for 2 hours, but I never had a bite. I did watch another boat catch a 5 lb class fish on the other side of the bridge, so I was on the right deal. I decided to move down to Brown's Creek to try the same pattern, and it was obvious that there were shad in the creek due to the hundreds of sea gulls working over the creek channel. I ran to within 100 yards of the bridge and started idling back out toward the main lake. The creek channel ran from 22-30 ft deep, and the shad schools were everywhere on the graph. A fish would break the surface every now an then too. I felt pretty sure that this was the place. I kept on the trolling motor and threw at every shad ball and breaking fish I saw. I stayed in the area for an hour and a half, and I caught three nice hybrids but no bass. The bite on this rig is fantastic. It reminds me of a smallie crushing a spinnerbait at night.

Next I ran up to Siebold Creek to see what I could find there. I idled around in the mouth of the creek in the deeper areas and found a few shad schools, but I never had a bite. It was almost lunch time now and I needed to regroup. I trailered the boat and ran up to Waterfront for lunch. Due to the number of trailers at the ramp, I opted to drive up to Comer Bridge and fish up there for the second half of the day. One funny sight when I was driving north- when I drove over the North Sauty bridge I looked down, and there were five boats lined up within 40 yards of the bridge, and they were all slinging the rig toward the pilings.

As luck would have it, I met a local guide when I stopped to use the restroom in Scottsboro. He said that he had caught 30 bass on Friday on the A-rig in the Comer Bridge area. He told me about a secondary channel that runs under the bridge on the West side of the river and suggested that I fish there. I easily found the ditch and started firing the rig thru the deepest part (9-12 ft). I landed my first bass and a double in the first 30 minutes. I worked my way north on the ditch and was able to catch 5 more bass before I left around 3 pm.

I never caught the big fish that Big G and the A-rig are known for, but it was a fun day, and I learned a lot about the new technique. I'd say any time that the fish are on a shad bite and hey are deeper than 5 ft, the A-rig will be effective.

Tight lines y'all.

RBK

Saturday, 10-29-11- Mike's Sat am tourney- Priest...

I decided to fish the weekly tourney out of Fate Sanders today. The day started a bit crazy. First, I left my tackle box at home, so I had to turn around and hustle to Smyrna to make it on time. Next, when I got to the ramp at Stewarts Cr, my GPS unit would not operate, and considering the fog bank I launched in, I would have a tough time getting across the lake to the take off. I asked another fisherman if I could follow him, but when we got out in the channel, his GPS cut out, so it was now the blind leading the blind. After 45 minutes of idling in circles, I finally found my way to the marina. Chris Meyer, my partner and highschool classmate, had already checked us in, and since the fog was so thick they started us late anyway.

We idled to the back of the cove at Fate Sanders to fish and wait for the fog to lift. I pulled up on a random bank, and on about the 10th cast with the squarebill, wham, fish on! It was a nice 3 1/4 lb largemouth- bonus fish for sure. We stayed in the cove for another hour, and I landed keeper #2 on the Fat John- a nice 15 1/2 " fish. We also caught three or four short fish in the area.

At about 9:45 the fog lifted, and we raced up the river. We spent an hour and a half up the forks looking for a bite to no avail, so we ran back down river to a flat where I had caught them schooling the week before. The shad were stacked in there, and the fish were chasing them. We caught five or six fish in the area including a nice 17" fish that was tricked by the Red Eye Shad. Chris caught a 12" spot on a rattle bait too.

The fish shut off around 2 pm, and we had to be in at 3:30 for weigh-in. We headed back to the starting spot, and I caught a short fish right off the bat, but that would be it for the day.

We weighed in our four keepers, and they totalled 8 1/2 lbs, which was good for second out of about 30 boats. We missed first by 1/4 lb to a tough local team.

We needed one more keeper, but it was a fun day, and we got a little folding money out of the trip ($260).

See you soon. Tight lines!

RBK

KY Lake last two weekends 10-15 and 10-23-11...

I headed over to the TN portion of KY Lake the last two weekends to try my luck on some largemouth:

Trip 1- Two weeks ago, I woke up late and had a leisurely morning in Nashville. The kids were both away, and the wife had to work on a school project. What is a boy to do?- certainly not watch the Vols get destroyed by LSU. I was hesitant to go due to a recent back injury, but the idle time combined with the perfect Fall weather was too much to take. So, around 9:15 am, I hooked the Bee up to the Landcruiser, and I was West bound on 40. I arrived at Big Richland Creek around 11 am, and I decided to try to pick the creek apart and resist the temptation to run around.

I idled out in the back 1/3 of the creek, and I started looking for bait and hopefully fish chasing them on top. There was bait everywhere on top in the back of the creek, but there was hardly any schooling activity. After idling around near the marina for 20 minutes or so, I decided to move out to the mouth of the Little Richland arm where I have had a lot of success in October before. It was fairly obvious that this was the spot, as three bass boats were weaving in and out of the cove chasing the schooling action. There was one adjacent area that was not being fished, and I figured it would be a likely place to catch a bigger bass (chunk rock and pea gravel bank with a decent depth change that sat closest to the creek channel).

I eased up on the flat within casting distance of the gravel bank, and I just waited. Within minutes fish started herding schools of small threadfin shad up against the rocks. As soon as it would start, I would lob the 1/2 oz Red Eye Shad into the chaos. They wouldn't bite it every time, but when a fish would hit the rattle bait, it was a good quality keeper. I caught four off of this bank, and lost two more. So, after an hour, I had four keepers for around 11 lbs. The fish quit chasing the bait against the bank, so I needed to figure out how to catch them.

In the past I had had luck in the same area on a small jigging spoon in open water, so I eased out toward the channel (100 yards or so from the bank) and the graph lit up with balls of bait and fish. I caught a variety of fish including white bass, yellows, and skipjack. I also hooked three keeper largemouth (only landed two). Of course the one I lost was over 4 lbs! I now had around 13 1/2 lbs on my best 5. The schooling action all but died in the cove around 1:30, so I decided to run south to check a couple of other spots.

I started in the Eva area, but the low water had moved the fish from the shallow pockets where they had been. I then ran across to Trace Creek to see if the fish were still in the first third of the creek. I could not find any bait or fish, so I ran back to Richland to see if the schooling action had resumed. I caught a few more white bass and skippies on the spoon, but it was clear that the easy pickings were gone. At around 4 pm, I put her on the trailer and headed home.

Trip 2- A friend of mine who has a house in Richland Creek called me during the week to see if I might want to go back to KY Lake on Sunday. His boat lift was out of commission, so we would need to trailer my boat. I was happy to take him, and I was confident that we would have some success. We put in at his private ramp on the other side of the creek, and we headed straight to the cove at the head of the smaller creek arm where I had caught them the week before. We pulled in and the shad were flipping but the only fish chasing were whites, so after catching three or four of them, we decided to move.

John suggested a flat across the creek with a couple of subtle ditches running out from the bank. He said that the ditches had some stumps on them, and he had done well here in the past. I set the boat well out off of the bank in about 5-6 ft, and we started combing the flat with rattle baits. Sure enough, when we got to the two little drains, I caught two nice keepers in the 2 1/2- 3 lb class on the Red Eye Shad. He suggested that we stay on the flat and keep moving toward the creek mouth. When we got down to a couple of private docks, I landed our third and fourth fish, and one of them was another solid keeper. We now had 3 keepers for around 8 1/2 lbs. We decided to run back to the schooling cove where we started.

The fish were not chasing bait up on to the gravel bank like the week prior, but the activity had definitely picked up. The white bass, skipjack, and an occasional largemouth were tearing up the shad. We landed ten or so whites, and I then I made a few casts toward the rock bank just to check it. I hooked a solid 3 to 4 lb bass here on the rattle bait, but he came unbuttoned half way back to the boat. We trolled out off the bank to try for the suspended fish in deeper water. I quickly nabbed two keepers on the 1/2 oz War Eagle spoon, so we now had our limit of around 13 lbs. As it had done the week before, the bite seemed to die, so I decided to make a run North to check another creek where I had done well in the past in October.

We made the 20 mile run to Hurricane Creek, and the shad were in there thick. There was occasionally schooling action, but it was hard to coax the fish into hitting. It was probably a timing issue, as I knew they were there with all the bait (and boats) in the creek. I did manage to catch a solid keeper on the Red Eye, and it probably would have culled our weight up by half a pound or so. It was now around 1:30, and John needed to run into Waverly to grab a prescription, so we headed in and drove back to Nashville.

It was an almost identical trip to the week prior, and I had a lot of fun. I did not uncover a pattern capable of winning any money, but it's always satisfying to catch a limit.

Until next time,

RBK

F3 Classic KY lake 10-1-11

Headed over to the big pond this morning for our first ever year end Classic. 5 boats made the trip, and it was going to be a nice Fall day, EXCEPT....15-25 MPH North winds and we were on the back side of a major cold front.

Oh well, enough for the excuses. We took off at 6:30 from New Johnsonville, and since the main channel was rolling with 3 footers straight out of the North, we cut our run down significantly. We ducked into the creek that houses Pebble Isle Marina, and since Noah had located some fish at the mouth of the creek, I eased back a ways inside the creek to stay out of his way. I was chunking a 5/8 oz Yozuri Rattle Vibe in chrome TN Shad, and the fish were there and willing to eat. I caught the fist club keeper in the area, and then I proceeded to hook and lose three fish in the 3 lb range in the span of 30 minutes- Ouch! I also caught 5-10 short fish.

We kept banging around in the creek until around 8 am, and then we followed Noah over to the creek channel that leades into Eva. He had a good little stretch in there, but I fished one other area, with no luck. It was really too windy to fish most of the places I wanted to hit there, so we ran back to Trace Creek. I was able to add club keepers number two and three here. David nabbed a nice 2 lb keeper here on a shallow Bandit crank too.

The wind was so bad by now that we very few options. It was around 10 am, and I decided to seek shelter and finish out our day on the south side of the hwy 70 bridge near the ramp. It was protected from the wind, and it turned out to be a good decision. David caught another 2 lb keeper here, and I was able to finish out my limit by 11:00. The fourth keeper would win the big fish pot for the day. It was a chunky 18" largemouth that smoked the Red Eye Shad. I also lost another 3 lb class fish on a worm. I probably lost 12 lbs of keeper fish on the day, and I should have weighed in 15 lbs.

We checked in at noon, and I won the Classic with 7.7 lbs and also took the big fish money.

It was anoter fun year with F3, and I was happy with my consistency (just missing quality bites most of the year).

RBK

September F3 tourney- schooling fish over 97 ft of water!

It was a beautiful morning weather wise. When we arrived at the ramp, it was around 57 degrees with a breeze coming out of the southwest at 5-15. I was happy with the cool weather, but the wind was not what I needed for my topwater pattern.

We eased out of the state park around 6:00 am and started on a main lake point just down from LHSP. I caught a nice 14" smallie on the popper, and lawrence landed a 13 1/2 " brown fish on a 1- crankbait. We missed a couple more here, but I had other places to hit before the sun killed the bite. We eased down lake to hole in the wall island, and I caught one short fish, but that was it.

We moved over to the bluff end across the lake, and one other short fish came over the gunnel rail.next we moved down to the next pocket down lake, only to find Noah had already hit the stuff I wanted to fish. I did manage a couple of small club keepers here, but it was time to move. Next, we fished a cut in bear Island that as still holding some shade. I nailed a keeper spot and a 15" largemouth on the spook here.

I now had 5 club keepers in the boat. We bounced around a lot in the lower end. On our first stop by an island near the dam, I hadn't even put the trolling motor down yet, and a huge school of fish cam up schooling over 97 ft of water! I started throwing the fluke, and LW chunked a trap. We landed 3-4 fish here, and I was able to upgrade once.

It was now around 10 am, and we fished with no success for another hour, and then Noah called. He was dead in the water, so we ran down lake and towed him back to the ramp. That ate up most of the rest of our time, and we didn't land anything else.

I ended up with 5 fish for 6.5 lbs, which was good for first place, and I closed out the AOY title.

Tough fishing, but I was happy to have 5.

RBK

Saturday 8-20-11 J. Percy Priest....

Headed out to Priest this morning to try my luck. After being on Old Hickory since May, I was looking forward to seeing some clear water and rocky shore line.

I ran a couple of miles upriver from Long Hunter State Park to check a cove where the fish tend to school in the Summer months. I could see several balls of shad roaming and an occasional blow up here and there, but I only managed to catch one 12" spot here. Next, I ran down lake to the end of a deep main lake bank near the big bridge to try the topwater deal. I had 12-15 blow ups on the Spook on this bank and landed about 10 of those. Most of them were smaller spots and smallies, but I did have 2 really nice spots that were over 13" and I lost a keeper largemouth at the boat.

When the sun came up over the horizon, the fish went deep, and so did I. I went into Suggs Creek and fished a bluff wall with a jig. I landed three keeper spots here. I ran a few other deeper banks in the lower end, but I couldn't find any fish. The sun was high, and the wind was dead, making for tough conditions.

I decided to run the lower half of the lake to look for bait and possible schooling activity. I stopped at the big bridge to see if anything was happening there, and the fish were schooling sporadically over deep water (20-30 ft). I managed to catch one keeper largemouth on a fluke, but I got tired of waiting for them to come back up, so I moved on. I couldn't find anymore schooling fish, so at 10:00, it was time to let the pleasure boaters have the lake.

It was not a bad day, all in all for August. I caught around 15 or so fish, with a few small keepers. In hindsight, I wish I'd have run the topwater pattern earlier, instead of waiting for those elusive schooling fish on the first stop. I think I have an idea of what I will do in our September club tourney, as the areas I caught them in today should only get better if it cools off.

Until next time.

Tight lines y'all.

RBK

August F3 Club toruney Old Hickory - sucked!...

I scratched out 4 club keepers including 2 legit OHL keepers for a whopping 5.4 lbs. It was good for 3rd place. Only caught 4 all day. I'm hapy to say OHL is behind me for 2011!!!!!

F3 OHL 7-16-11....tough on me...

We headed out of Davis Corner right at safe light and eased across the river into Station Camp to throw topwater early. I was not able to run down lake to where I had been catching them because my buddy Chris was fishing a money tournament, and I didn't want to get in his way.

We started on a major creek point up shallow on the grass edge. I caught a 12 1/2" fish on the second cast on a buzzbait, but that was the only fish I caught. Sam managed to land two decent club keepers behind me on a worm.

We moved back to the marina slips to try and catch a few before the sun got too high. I zeroed here, and Sam added his third of the day on the worm (hello- message to Rob- they're not chasing today!).

We moved around to a couple of other spots in the creek, but nothing doing. Since I was struggling with my plan to get five small ones early, I decided to ease out to the main river and go for a big one. We threw worms along the river channel on some deep wood just upriver from Spencer Creek. I missed on fish here, and that was all that bit. Ughhhh- really was wishing I could be down lake on my best stuff.

We made a move down lake and hit two ledges near Avondale, and I was able to catch my second small club keeper of the day, and Sam rounded out his limit, but the bite was really slow. Eventually, I threw in the towel, and we ran back up to Station Camp to finish the day on the point where we started. I worked the boat out to the sweet spot on the point that has a good bit of brush on it, and we commenced to getting bit. Sam upgraded three or four times, and I was able to scratch out a pitiful club limit of 5 1/2 lbs. I had reserved 30-45 minutes to hit the main lake wood before weigh in, and I told Sam that once I had five we were gone.

Just as soon as I caught my 5th, Sam jerked back on a solid 3 3/4 lb fish on the worm, so I decided to just stay on these fish and hope for another good bite or two. It never happened, so at 11:49 we ran back to the ramp to turn in our weights. I ended up with 5.6 lbs, which was sixth out of 9 anglers; my worst performance of the year by a long shot.

Sam had 4 real keepers and one 14" one for around 9 1/2 lbs.

Sorry day for me, but there will be another day.

RBK

Struggled on the big pond- TBT July event KY Lake...

After two pre-fishing trips to KY Lake I had found a grand total of 3 potential schools of fish for DD and I to work on Sunday.

We launched at Buchanon Resort near Paris, and when our number was called, we did a quick U-turn and fished the marina slips for 15 minutes. Dwayne lost a keeper on a blade, and I landed a solid keeper on a big worm.

Next, we made the long 35 mile run South to a cut near the Hwy 70 bridge where I had found some fish the day before. They never came up schooling like on Saturday, but we were able to catch 5-10 fish here on a jig and rig, but only two of them would keep.

Around 7:00 am, we headed upriver three miles or so to a big bay near Eva boat ramp and looked for a ditch running off of the creek channel that a buddy of mine had told me about. We found it without too much trouble, and we cast down the West side of the ditch, fishing it for 75 yds or so. Once we got to the Northern most end of the ledge where it started to turn to the East, we got into a nice school of fish on the rig and big worm. They were sitting just on top of the flat, and we stuck around 12 fish here in a matter of 30 minutes or so. The problem was they were all just a little too small. Most of them were 13-14 1/2" long, which is short of the 15" limit. Rather than sitting on that school and milking it dry, we opted to head out to the main channel and fish our way back North.

We hit around 15 different drops between New Johnsonville and Paris, and we never landed another fish.

It got so hot by 1 pm, that we gave up and headed back in. Since we are not in the points race, we just let the 3 keepers go, and headed back home all hot and tired.

It was a very disappointing day. I'm sure if we'd have stayed on our first two spots that we would have weighed in a limit, but we were fishing for the win, and the quality did not seem good enough in that area.

Until next time.

RBK

June 25th OHL- Realtors' Assn tourney....

I fished a tourney today with my regular team partner, Dwayne on Old Hickory. We had a solid plan to hit some marina slips early, where we felt fairly certain we could catch a limit. I had smacked em pretty well in there last weekend. The problem was that the event didn't blast of until 6 am, a full one hour past safe light, and we had a long run down lake.

We made the trip down to the creek, and we had no problem getting on the marinas. We did, however have a big problem getting a single bite. The bait was gone, and we knew it wasn't going to happen. So, around 7 am, we went into scramble mode. We fished down near Dupont and Lock 3, but we only managed a couple of short fish there.

We moved around, working our way up lake all day, and DD landed the first small keeper at the mouth of Drake's Creek around 9:00 am. At around 10:00 we stumbled on to a group of fish inside of Cedar Creek on a secondary ledge near the park. We were able to add 3 more keepers here, but they were all small. We moved over to another secondary ledge in the mouth of the creek behind small island, and we caught two more, including our limit fish. By 11:30 we had a small limit of around 8 lbs, so it was time to move and look for a couple of kicker fish. We eased into Station Camp, and we were able to cull on small keeper on a round point near the marina, but it only upgraded us by ounces.

As time started winding down, Dwayne moved us slightly further out of the creek to a bank that the creek channel ran near, and on the second cast, DD stuck a good one that weighed 4 1/2 lbs on the rig. We stayed on that bank for the remainder of the day, but that was all we could catch.

We weighed in 10.75 lbs, which was good for around 9th place (35 or so boats).

It was a decent day, but not what we had hoped for.

Until next time.

RBK

June F3 tourney Sat. 6-18-11...

Omar and I headed across the river to a major creek at first light and I caught the first keeper of the morning on a buzzbait. Then, we moved to the marina slips and I caught 2 more keepers on a spinnerbait. We then eased over to a round point and deeper flat adjacent to the marina, and we caught 4-5 on a crankbait, and by 7:15 I was culling fish. One of the crankin fish was the biggest of the day at 16 1/2".

We moved out to a major creek point off of a duck blind, and I caught a nice 15 3/4" largehead on the rig, but no one else was home. We bounced around in the creek for another hour or so, but we couldn't find them.

We eased down river to Cage's Bend, and I was able to upgrade a small amount flipping wood and grass, but by now the weather was turning nasty. We ran quickly down to Cedar Creek Marina and waited it out for an hour or so. We fished a awhile in Cedar, but the fish did not bite well after the thunder and lightning.

We ended our day back in the creek we started in, and Omar was able to add his third club keeper of the day off of the marina slips.

On the day, I had four legit keepers for around 8 lbs, and 5 that counted in the derby for 9.4 lbs. I ended up second to Bill, who had over 10 lbs.

It was a tough day, but not too bad all in all. If Omar and I had been in a team tourney, we'd have had around 11 lbs on our best 5.

Later

RBK

TBT June at Barkley....

DD and I had to go into this one blind since neither of us could get away to pre-fish on Barkley. Dwayne does not have much history on Barkley in June, but I do, so I planned our day around some topwater in the early hours and then ledge fishing for most of the day.

We ran down river (North) from Dover and pulled up on our early hole around 5:40 am. The water was stained to muddy, so I figured we may struggle here. I threw a frog and buzzbait, and Dwayne chunked a spinnerbait. he landed a solid 2 lb LM early on on a point with bushes and grass. We had a couple of other bites but could not hook up. We moved further North and went into a bay near the waterfowl refuge to try a hump and some creek channel drops. The water in Ford's Bay was much cleaner, and we nailed about four fish here on the rig and added one keeper here.

Then we spent the balance of the day jumping from main lake drops to creek mouths and cuts off the main channel. We scraped together a limit of cookie cutter 15-16 inch fish and culled a couple of times. We landed about 20 on the day. We ended up with 9.4 lbs and finished 13th on the day. It took 16 lbs to win.

Next we're off to Old Hickory for our rescheduled club tourney.

Tight lines.

RBK

6-4-11 OHL with Omar D......

Had a fun morning on the water on the lower end of Old Hick today. Omar and I hit the water right at 5 am and headed over to a pair of islands to try the topwater deal. We only caught 3 small fish here, so we moved into Drakes Cr to try the marina slips. That was not working at all, so we moved into a cove with a lot of bank grass. I had a few half-hearted blow-ups on a frog, and Omar caught a few small ones on a lizard.

We moved out to a primary point at the creek mouth, and we nailed 3 solid keepers on a rig and football jig. Next we eased down to a flat near Lock 3 , and I nabbed the one pictured here on a Series 5 Crank in about 6 ft of water. That was the only one in the area, so we moved back up to the points in Drakes Cr.

We caught around 10 more fish here, with 5 or so being solid keepers. Most of them came on the C-Rig in 7-10 ft of water.

On the day, we landed around 20 fish with 9 or so keepers. Our best five would have gone around 13-14 lbs.

On to Lake Barkley next weekend for the TBT tourney.

RBK

Memorial day- JPP...

We caught around 15 fish today on Priest despite the Memorial Day traffic. Most came on plastics on roadbeds and points in 5-10 ft of water. I lost an absolute giant on a spinnerbait in the marina slips early this morning. It snapped my 15 lb line like it was sewing thread. Picture is the best of the day that Jeff caught on a grub on a hump near the LHSP ramp. I was his personal best smallie.

Back to OHL next weekend.

RBK

OHL 5-15-11- best bag of the year in TN....

I met my buddy Chris at the public ramp in Drakes Creek, and we headed out for a half day trip. We started on on some marina slips, but no takers here (too early in the year). We tried the shallow bank grass in between the 2 marinas, but it was not working. As I trolled out of the grass cove, I decided to chunk the Zell Pop on the point, and a nice 2 1/2 lb keeper loaded up. From here, we eased out toward the mouth of the creek to a point on the upriver side. Chris caught our first fish of the day here on a crankbait, and he landed another one here too. One of the fish was a solid 3 lb class fish. We worked the area for about 30 minutes, and Chris nailed another solid keeper on the C-rig here.

We then ran upriver to the 2 foot cove, but we did not have any luck here. Next, we moved across the lake to Bluegrass cove. We fished a drop in the back of the creek, and Chris caught a really solid 3 lb class fish on the rig.

Next, we eased up to a narrow cut past Avondale, and we caught 4-5 more fish on a chatterbait and spinnerbait in the grass and around some docks. 2-3 of them were keepers but no big ones.

We went back down to a cove near the Avondale ramp, and we nailed two more fish there on plastics. One of them was a solid 2 lb keeper.

We decided to finish out the day in Drakes Creek fishing out off the bank more with a rig. We targeted points near the creek channel, and it was a good decision. On the first point near a concrete wall, I caught the big one of the day, which is pictured here. We also caught another solid keeper fish here.

We continued to run the pattern for the next 30 minutes, and we nabbed 3 or so more keepers, including another 3 lb class largemouth.

For the day, we landed around 12 keepers, and our best five would have gone around 15-16 lbs.

Great day on the water.

RBK

F3 Club tourney OHL 5-7-11...

Due to the high water on Priest, we decided to move the May tourney to Old Hickory. My partner for the day would be Steve Becker. We had 4 boats fishing today.

We headed out of Spencer Creek and made a long trip down lake to a small cove down lake and across from Bluegrass and started covering shallow water around some docks, shore grass, and scattered wood. I caught 2 club keepers in the cove and lost a giant that just pulled off.

We then moved up to Bluegrass, and ran the same pattern, but we only caught a couple of fish here.

Next we ran up lake about 3-4 miles to a cut near Avondale. We pitched plastics and spinnerbaits to wood and grass. I was able to round out my limit on this flat, but I did lose a nice 3 lb class fish here.

We checked one spot in Cedar Cr, but no takers here. We now had about one hour left to fish, so we decided to fish in Spencer Creek, near the ramp. I caught my largest fish of the day, which was a chunky 18" largemouth, on the lizard with about 15 minutes left to fish. The fish was sitting ounder a deeper lay down in 3-5 ft of water.

I finished first, and tied with Sam for big fish of the day. It was a nice day on the water. For the day, Steve and I landed around 12 fish.

Tight lines,

RBK

Boat is back in business...

Bee is back in business! Picked her up from repair shop today. Starting the break-in period and fishing the Lion's Club Fishing For Sight on Saturday.

TBT Trail- Center Hill 4-17-11- Ouch that hurt!...

Wow, did we ever suck on Center Hill Sunday! I was not able to find much in practice last weekend, but the one decent bite I found did pay off early, when Dwayne stuck a 2 3/4 lb LM on the spinnerbait deep on a bluff. We felt pretty good to have a solid keeper in the first hour, but nothing happened for the next four hours at all. We bounce around from deep to shallow to in-between. We threw crankbaits, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, jigs, rigs, and worms.

We finally stumbled on to an area holding some decent spots that was at the end of a bluff mid-lake. The spots were holding in 6-15 ft of water on a transition area. I caught a solid 13 1/2" spot on a blade, and DD nabbed a 12" one on a rig. We stayed on the spot for and hour or so, and then we decided to go try to run that pattern until weigh in. We were in all out speed fishing, scramble mode. We couldn't duplicate it anywhere else, so we loaded her on the trailer at 3 pm, and took our well deserved beating from the other anglers.

We ended up with 3 keepers for just over 5 lbs, and I'm sure we were close to last. We didn't stick around, but Dwayne did say that he saw an 18 lb and 14 lb bag in line.

Oh well- some days it's just not in the cards, and this one was obviuosly not our day.

Until next time.

April 2nd, 2011 F3 Club tourney- Priest...

Another tough day on Priest. My plan to run to a major creek down lake and catch a limit of club keepers didn't pan out. We only had two in there. Other than that, we just covered water with the little shad rap. I was able to scratch out a limit that weighed around 8.5 lbs, which was good for first place.
The key was finding big chunk rock, boulders, and flat rocks at the head of a spawning area.

Conditions: 38-67 deg air temp and mostly sunny; wind NNW at 10-20 MPH; 52-56 deg water temp (mostly clear).

Later-

RBK

March 20th, 2011 TBT Trail - Priest

Wow was it tough today. We ended up with 2 keepers for 3.86 lbs, which put us right in the middle of the pack, in 10th.

It only took 10 lbs to win.

The best fish came on a shad rap in 2-3 ft of water near Smith Springs, and DD cauht a keeper spot on the rig in Hamilton Cr.

On the day we caught around 15 fish, with little quality.

Conditions: Water level was at Winter Pool; 54-59 degrees. Weather was mostly sunny and warm, with highs in the low 70's, and SW winds at 5-15 MPH.

Until next time.

RBK

Saturday, March 12, 2011- F3 Club tourney....

Met Duke at the ramp at 5:30, and we headed up-lake a couple of miles to try some shallow cranking in the pockets across from a bluff. It didn't take long to find a wad of little uns. The fish were chewing a SSR Shad Rap in 1-3 ft on the flat points at the mouth of the pockets. Duke limited out pretty quickly, catching 5 "club keepers" from 12-13 1/2", and I caught two.

Around 7:15 the fish shut off, so we decided to run down lake to find some bigger ones. We eased under the big bridge to my favorite early Spring area near Smith Springs, and we only had one bite, but it was a big ole good un of a brown fish. The fish measured 18" and fell for my old standby #5 Shad Rap. The odd thing was she was inside the pocket, and the deeper 45 degree bank didn't pay off at all (no wind on it).

We moved down to Hamilton Creek, and I added two club keepers on the shallow banks on the Shad Rap. I needed one more, so we eased over to Suggs Creek and went back to chunkin and windin the little plug on the secondary points near the creek mouth. I caught two keepers here, and one of them was a nice 17 1/2" smallie.

We bounced around trying to run the shallow secondary point pattern, but we ran out of time.

All in all, it was a good day for the first trip out on PP. I ended up with 10.3 lbs; first place and big fish for the 18" brownie.

Conditions: mostly clear; low 36 and high around 60 when we left at noon; winds 10-15 out of the SSW; water temps 49-53 degrees.

Tight lines.

RBK

Guntersville TBT Sunday, 2-27-11....

Dwayne and I met in the Boro at 3:30 am to hit the road to Big G. We registered, and since we had sent in our entry early, we were boat #5, which was a good thing, since our first stop was a well known community hole.

We made the short run to our first stop, and we pounded that spot for about an hour and a half with only two fish coming over the rail, but one of them was a solid 4 lbr that I caught on a swimbait. From there, we eased into the back of a creek to check some staging areas adjacent to a series of large spawning flats. We started in the creek channel, and we hit a couple of brush piles that paid off. We landed our second and third keepers here, with one of them being a 5 3/4 lb fish. We stayed in the back of the creek for another hour or so, but we could not add to the creel.

We eased back to our first spot of the day, and Dwayne caught a nice 3 lb fish on the swimbait. We kept pounding the area, but nothing else bit. We now had 4 fish for around 16 lbs, but we needed number 5.

Since the back of the creek had warmed up we figured we'd ease up on the shallow flats and try the old pad stems. We ended up catching around 5 fish in the stems on a Chatterbait, and two of them were keepers. We culled one time and figured we needed another kicker to break the 20 lb mark.

We decided to go back to the deep spot and finish the day throwing the swimbait. Unfortunately, we didn't catch any more.

We weighed in 18.99 lbs and finished in 5th place (of course they paid 4!).

All in all it was a good day on the water.

Until next time.

RBK