31airborne
Well-known member
Knocked out one more impoundment on the TN River system this weekend as my best friend (Jerry) and I executed bucket list trip #2. Spent 2 days on the lake, mostly on the upper (dam) end. Weather was warm but windy. 20-knot sustained winds kept us off of the main lake/channel. We did find some relatively protected areas in a couple of the larger feeder creeks. Had a good drive down - traffic was light and cooperated for the most part. Was able to link up w/ daughter #2 for lunch. That alone made the trip worthwhile.
We stayed at Pickwick Landing State Park (Counce, TN). The cabins there are nice - two good sized bedrooms, two bathrooms, a decent kitchen, and a magnificent view of the lake. There are two boat ramps in the park, both with ample parking and tie-off space. There's also a large lodge w/ 200+ rooms and all of the amenities you might want or need. Magnificently appointed and perfectly located, again looking out over the lake.
Day 1 - The TVA site (updated within a few hours of us checking) said water level was down approx 2 feet. Nope. Was more like 6 or 7 feet. Water temps were right on the edge - 54-55* everywhere. We ventured into the main channel to make a short run to a smaller feeder creek Jerry had done some homework on. Much of what I would've considered prime spawn areas were out of the water. We spent some time scanning and after about 30 mins were able to find some fish holding on deeper breaks and submerged brush/rock. Water was heavily stained in this creek so there was no way of visually scouting the shallow areas without getting right up on them. Didn't see any signs of spawning activity in the sections we checked out so we eased back out to deeper water, targeting breaks and cover in the 4-8' range. Had a couple solid bites but they all shook off. Some of this was caused by the wind. I didn't do a very good job of keeping my line tight. In other instances we simply weren't paying attention to the fishing part because we were so consumed trying to take in everything we were seeing along the shoreline and on our electronix. The wind finally got the better of us and chased us back to the state park. We fished a small feeder creek along the boat ramp/marina area without any success. With that we called it a day. No fish but we learned enough to stoke our confidence for the following day.
Day 2 - We trailered down to a large feeder creek (Bear Creek) and put in at a private ramp right at the mouth. As we idled out of the launch area we could see the main channel. It was a wreck. Four footers (easily) screaming up the channel. There were a couple of brave souls out there running it. Didn't look like a fun ride. We turned into the creek and headed to a series of secondary points about mid way back. Started marking fish almost immediately holding in about the same places/depths we saw the previous day. No takers. As the wind picked up it made our series of points a challenge to fish so we idled over the opposite shoreline to work a series of sharp swings in one of the secondary channels. Two of these swings butted up against a large, rocky flat. We noticed the tops of several brush piles as we eased in so we started working these w/ c-rigs, t-rigs, and a shakyhead. Didn't take long to hook up. Fish #1 was a nice smallie, my PB brown fish - 4-12. That bite told us a lot about how and where the fish were holding. All of this was in that same 4-8' range we targeted the day before. We made some minor adjustments to boat position and depth, then proceeded to whack'em for the next 6 hours. That rocky flat produced about 2 dozen bites, most of them smaller fish. Had a couple of solid keepers mixed in - ~2.5-3 lbs. After that flat played out we motored back across the creek and into a large bay that had a similar set-up w/ hard channel swings butting up against flats and off shore humps. It was a dream scenario, doods. We got bit on just about every cast. The wind was an interferent on hook sets but we quickly adjusted and connected on our bites. Again, lots of smaller fish but once you weeded thru them the better fish were right there. We boated several keepers up to 3 lbs off of one 50-yard stretch. A pretty non-descript piece of water as you looked at the chart but something down there was attracting and holding fish by the dozens. We eventually found the reason after getting hung up in it - it was a series of trees that had been planted there as cover. What I thought had been a series of rocks or stumps was in fact the trunks of these trees. The fish were holding tight to the lee side. As your bait came across the trunk they hammered it. We lost count of the fish we boated. There were at least 2X that number of bites we missed because of the wind or inattention. Our best 5 would've weighed ~16-17 lbs. A very average sack of fish for Pickwick but a most rewarding outcome for a couple of doods who'd never seen the place before. Was kinda cool piecing it together.
Observations: 1) WTs ranged from 54 to 58 and held steady overnite. The winds kept it from warming much beyond that. 2) Water conditions were heavily stained (~12" of viz) to mildly stained (~2-3' of viz). We caught all of our fish in the mildly stained water. 3) Pickwick has some unique structure to it. According to locals, the main channel off shore stuff is where TXs are won. Find a hump w/ new grass and some shell beds and you have a formula for success. This is kinda what we found in the back of Bear Creek. 4) Lots of stratified (layered) rock and much of it is perfectly horizontal. We marked all kinds of fish holding tight to this stuff. I know from other TN and Holston River lakes that smallmouth will spawn on this kind of structure. Definitely a jig fisherman's dream. 5) It's all about current on this lake. In our case, the wind provided the perfect amount of flow over the areas we targeted. 6) Wind blowing across the target area was better than wind blowing directly in on it. See comment #5 above on current.
So, with bucket list trip #2 in the books we're already focused on trip #3. Jerry has listened to me talk about Kerr for years. He wants to see it for himself. We'll be out there this fall. For those of you thinking about a trip down South keep Pickwick and the other TN River lakes in mind. Def worth the effort. And the hospitality can't be beat.
peace,
B
We stayed at Pickwick Landing State Park (Counce, TN). The cabins there are nice - two good sized bedrooms, two bathrooms, a decent kitchen, and a magnificent view of the lake. There are two boat ramps in the park, both with ample parking and tie-off space. There's also a large lodge w/ 200+ rooms and all of the amenities you might want or need. Magnificently appointed and perfectly located, again looking out over the lake.
Day 1 - The TVA site (updated within a few hours of us checking) said water level was down approx 2 feet. Nope. Was more like 6 or 7 feet. Water temps were right on the edge - 54-55* everywhere. We ventured into the main channel to make a short run to a smaller feeder creek Jerry had done some homework on. Much of what I would've considered prime spawn areas were out of the water. We spent some time scanning and after about 30 mins were able to find some fish holding on deeper breaks and submerged brush/rock. Water was heavily stained in this creek so there was no way of visually scouting the shallow areas without getting right up on them. Didn't see any signs of spawning activity in the sections we checked out so we eased back out to deeper water, targeting breaks and cover in the 4-8' range. Had a couple solid bites but they all shook off. Some of this was caused by the wind. I didn't do a very good job of keeping my line tight. In other instances we simply weren't paying attention to the fishing part because we were so consumed trying to take in everything we were seeing along the shoreline and on our electronix. The wind finally got the better of us and chased us back to the state park. We fished a small feeder creek along the boat ramp/marina area without any success. With that we called it a day. No fish but we learned enough to stoke our confidence for the following day.
Day 2 - We trailered down to a large feeder creek (Bear Creek) and put in at a private ramp right at the mouth. As we idled out of the launch area we could see the main channel. It was a wreck. Four footers (easily) screaming up the channel. There were a couple of brave souls out there running it. Didn't look like a fun ride. We turned into the creek and headed to a series of secondary points about mid way back. Started marking fish almost immediately holding in about the same places/depths we saw the previous day. No takers. As the wind picked up it made our series of points a challenge to fish so we idled over the opposite shoreline to work a series of sharp swings in one of the secondary channels. Two of these swings butted up against a large, rocky flat. We noticed the tops of several brush piles as we eased in so we started working these w/ c-rigs, t-rigs, and a shakyhead. Didn't take long to hook up. Fish #1 was a nice smallie, my PB brown fish - 4-12. That bite told us a lot about how and where the fish were holding. All of this was in that same 4-8' range we targeted the day before. We made some minor adjustments to boat position and depth, then proceeded to whack'em for the next 6 hours. That rocky flat produced about 2 dozen bites, most of them smaller fish. Had a couple of solid keepers mixed in - ~2.5-3 lbs. After that flat played out we motored back across the creek and into a large bay that had a similar set-up w/ hard channel swings butting up against flats and off shore humps. It was a dream scenario, doods. We got bit on just about every cast. The wind was an interferent on hook sets but we quickly adjusted and connected on our bites. Again, lots of smaller fish but once you weeded thru them the better fish were right there. We boated several keepers up to 3 lbs off of one 50-yard stretch. A pretty non-descript piece of water as you looked at the chart but something down there was attracting and holding fish by the dozens. We eventually found the reason after getting hung up in it - it was a series of trees that had been planted there as cover. What I thought had been a series of rocks or stumps was in fact the trunks of these trees. The fish were holding tight to the lee side. As your bait came across the trunk they hammered it. We lost count of the fish we boated. There were at least 2X that number of bites we missed because of the wind or inattention. Our best 5 would've weighed ~16-17 lbs. A very average sack of fish for Pickwick but a most rewarding outcome for a couple of doods who'd never seen the place before. Was kinda cool piecing it together.
Observations: 1) WTs ranged from 54 to 58 and held steady overnite. The winds kept it from warming much beyond that. 2) Water conditions were heavily stained (~12" of viz) to mildly stained (~2-3' of viz). We caught all of our fish in the mildly stained water. 3) Pickwick has some unique structure to it. According to locals, the main channel off shore stuff is where TXs are won. Find a hump w/ new grass and some shell beds and you have a formula for success. This is kinda what we found in the back of Bear Creek. 4) Lots of stratified (layered) rock and much of it is perfectly horizontal. We marked all kinds of fish holding tight to this stuff. I know from other TN and Holston River lakes that smallmouth will spawn on this kind of structure. Definitely a jig fisherman's dream. 5) It's all about current on this lake. In our case, the wind provided the perfect amount of flow over the areas we targeted. 6) Wind blowing across the target area was better than wind blowing directly in on it. See comment #5 above on current.
So, with bucket list trip #2 in the books we're already focused on trip #3. Jerry has listened to me talk about Kerr for years. He wants to see it for himself. We'll be out there this fall. For those of you thinking about a trip down South keep Pickwick and the other TN River lakes in mind. Def worth the effort. And the hospitality can't be beat.
peace,
B
