DHaun
Well-known member
My buddy Jeff and I got on the water at 11:00am and headed straight for the boils with some redfins. All the turbines were churning and the rockpile was not visible. There was a lot debris and the water was dingy from all the rain. Water temp was 47. We trolled redfins and threw shad lures & spoons - nothing, so we trolled crankbaits for smallies and moved down stream - still nothing.
We went downstream to a few of my favorite holes and started marking some fish in 18-25 feet of water on the drops. We spoon jigged up 7 yellow bass, 7 bream, 1 smallmouth and 1 largemouth. 2 of the bream were really nice - pic of the biggest. I also caught a small skipjack which I promptly cut up and threw out. After about 20 minutes the reel started singing & I caught a hard-fighting 23lb blue cat. Bonus for the day! Oh yeah - This is the second time this has happened in one of my fishing reports so I know for sure now that I always catch more fish when I leave my fly open
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After things slowed down I noticed the water level had decreased so we went back up to the Dam to see what was happening. Just as I got past the RR bridge I marked a few fish, stopped, and jigged-up a channel cat. As we headed to the wingwall we talked to a friendly young angler fishing...said he had caught a few shorts...said he thought he recognized us as the guys he had been reading our reports on the internet, but has yet to join the forum - in school in GA I think he said. Maybe he will join and let us know how he did today.
At this point only the 2 turbines closest to the bank were on and the rockpile was showing so I went to the boils, threw out a redfin and started to drift back towards the wingwall...reeled it in and made a second cast & after a couple jerks WHAM! Big Rockfish throwing up water on the surface...fought him for several minutes and all the herons flew over on top of the fish, he made 3 good runs pulling drag and then pulled off when he was about 20ft from the boat just slowly swimming away from us at the surface. My heart skipped a beat when I saw that plug come loose and that fish disappeared into the current - Thinkin back, I hope I didn't horse him too much...emoBang.
I saw the stripes and how fat it was, it was one of the biggest Rockfish I have ever hooked...I figure easily over 20lbs. It would have made the perfect ending to the day (exclamation point to the day as Jeff said) to land that fish, so after producing a few mandatory expletives I kept on casting trying for another one. We made about 7 more drifts and apparently that was the only rockfish willing to eat my redfin today. We left around 4:00pm. I am disappointed about losing that fish but it was still a great day to be on the water. All fish safely released except the skipjack. Man, I sure love this River! Hopefully I'll be able to make it back for more next week!
We went downstream to a few of my favorite holes and started marking some fish in 18-25 feet of water on the drops. We spoon jigged up 7 yellow bass, 7 bream, 1 smallmouth and 1 largemouth. 2 of the bream were really nice - pic of the biggest. I also caught a small skipjack which I promptly cut up and threw out. After about 20 minutes the reel started singing & I caught a hard-fighting 23lb blue cat. Bonus for the day! Oh yeah - This is the second time this has happened in one of my fishing reports so I know for sure now that I always catch more fish when I leave my fly open
.After things slowed down I noticed the water level had decreased so we went back up to the Dam to see what was happening. Just as I got past the RR bridge I marked a few fish, stopped, and jigged-up a channel cat. As we headed to the wingwall we talked to a friendly young angler fishing...said he had caught a few shorts...said he thought he recognized us as the guys he had been reading our reports on the internet, but has yet to join the forum - in school in GA I think he said. Maybe he will join and let us know how he did today.
At this point only the 2 turbines closest to the bank were on and the rockpile was showing so I went to the boils, threw out a redfin and started to drift back towards the wingwall...reeled it in and made a second cast & after a couple jerks WHAM! Big Rockfish throwing up water on the surface...fought him for several minutes and all the herons flew over on top of the fish, he made 3 good runs pulling drag and then pulled off when he was about 20ft from the boat just slowly swimming away from us at the surface. My heart skipped a beat when I saw that plug come loose and that fish disappeared into the current - Thinkin back, I hope I didn't horse him too much...emoBang.
I saw the stripes and how fat it was, it was one of the biggest Rockfish I have ever hooked...I figure easily over 20lbs. It would have made the perfect ending to the day (exclamation point to the day as Jeff said) to land that fish, so after producing a few mandatory expletives I kept on casting trying for another one. We made about 7 more drifts and apparently that was the only rockfish willing to eat my redfin today. We left around 4:00pm. I am disappointed about losing that fish but it was still a great day to be on the water. All fish safely released except the skipjack. Man, I sure love this River! Hopefully I'll be able to make it back for more next week!
