OHBT Sat, March 31st...

We struggled today. The shallow fish were non existent, so around mid day we backed off and slowed down with jigs and rigs and managed three little keepers for 5.58 lbs. On to the next one.

Last two weekends- Center Hill Weekend Series & Cumberland Bassmasters openers...

3-17- Center Hill; ABA Bassmaster Weekend Series- Very tough for me- 2 keepers for 6 lbs and 34th place. Let's move on- enough said.

3-24- Percy Priest; Cumberland Bassmasters inaugural club tourney- Our new club kicked off our season on Priest this past Saturday. We had 6 boaters and 6 non-boaters show up at Hurricane Creek ramp at 6:15 am. My partner for the day was Steve Ahern.

My plan was to run some chunk rock transition banks for the first couple of hours to make sure we had a limit of 12"+ plus fish and then move off the bank and try to upgrade for the rest of the day. The plan did not pan out, as we struggle early to catch much of anything. By 10:00 am I only had 4 fish in the 12-12 3/4" range. The clouds started to roll in around 11:00 am, so we went back to our starting spot in a cove near the bridge, and I was able to land a nice 18.5" smallie on the shad rap.

I now had a limit good for around 7 lbs. I decided to finish the day off of the bank, fishing wind blown flats and points in the Four Corners area. On the fisrt stop we each caught a small keeper. Then, we moved to the south side of an island near Four Corners and I landed another good smallmouth that just missed the 18" limit. This fish put me up near 10 lbs. We kept moving around, but time ran out.

I ended up with 9.77, which was good for first place.

It was a tough day, but it's always good to start the year off with a win.

On to Old Hickory next weekend for our first Old Hickory Bass Trail event.

Later,

RBK

Center Hill pre-fishing 3-3-12

Carl and I hit the lake around 6:15. We launched on the lower end of Center Hill and spent the first hour and a half bouncing around a major creek trying to get a fish to eat. It just wasn't happening.

I pretty much eliminated the lower end from consideration for my Weekend Series event in two weeks. Around 9 am we put the boat in the wind and headed back to my normal waters in the mid lake area. Carl caught our first fish on a familiar bluff on the blade, but that was the only fish we would catch doing that deal all day.

We eased around the corner into a small creek arm near Floating Mill and I had a good bite on the second cast on the heavy Eakins Jig. I had her hooked for a couple of seconds and she came off. I'd have loved to have seen her, as I imagine she was big and brown. We caught two nice smallmouth on the same bank- one on the jig and one on a blade. From here we idled across the creek into a gravel filled drain and landed two nice fish on a blade in the off colored water. The key to getting bit on the spinnerbait all day was wind and off colored water. Many of the gravel bank drains we fished also had bait in them, which obviously was a big deal. This pattern might just play in two weeks on these pre-spawn fish.

Next, we moved across the lake to a larger creek near the bridge and I landed the one pictured here on the jig plus another nice largemouth that was around 15".

We decided to head home around 2 pm.

Not a bad start on my practice. Next weekend will be key to getting a pattern dialed in and committing to an area. I know the lower end is out, so now I'll start mid lake and head up a bit.

Totals for the day- 8 fish caught with four keepers for around 8 lbs. Water temps ranged from 47-54 degrees all day.

Until next time- keep them lines tight.