polo-dog
Well-known member
I too fished today. Went out at about noon and the water in Wolftever creek was 54 if you can believe it. I flipped my "hole" for a big flathead and I think that they are gone for the year. I threw my cast net a few times in the creek near some springs and caught a couple of big threadfins, a crappie and a couple of golden shiners. Went out into Harrison bay and tried to find some small shad under the gulls but still couldn't get any. Saw a couple of big bait balls and some schools of larger fish but didn't get any small shad. Went back into a few sloughs to see what I could see on my electronics and saw lots of bait (that I couldn't net) on the fish finder over points in 5-10 feet of water and some schools of predators (not sure if they were bass, crappies or stripers but they were off the tips of the points and off the sides of the points in deeper water. Still no bait on top. Decided to take what I had and hope for a big cat or bass on the shad or shiners. TVA wasn't cooperating and a guy that I saw in the creek said that there wouldn't be any generation until after 6pm, and there wasn't. There was quite a brisk flow into Wolftever. Went to the river channel and as always there was tons of deep bait and fish on the "feeding shelf" and at the bottom of the bluff. I was determined to figure out what was down there and to make them bite. Threw the two shad until they got snagged and broke off. Then tried a minner(bought) and had a couple of bumps then a good sized bluegill. Went right to night crawlers and it was non-stop catching. They were on top of the shelf in 15-22 feet of water and thick down there. Easily seen just off the bottom with my depth finder. Caught one about every minute for an hour, I just like to catch bunches and only used 5 one inch pieces of night crawler. It seems when I get into a mess of good sized 'gills they swallow the bit of worm whole and don't peck it to bits like the little ones so I catch sometimes 10 to 15 on each one inch piece of worm. I do like efficiency. These were good gills, about ten of which I had trouble getting my hand around and all but four that would be easily cleanable. I let them all go but I know where to catch some for a fry. A buddy had given me an Accu-Vu camera for taking him fishing a bunch and I used it for the first time on the main lake, on a neat spot that has fish year round and when I saw the bottom I could see why. Tons of rocks, crags, clams, and bluegills everywhere. I never saw another species there however. I finally tired of those 'gills and went to a point that I catch stripe off of sometimes and found them on the deep side of a point where 30+ feet of water comes up close to the point. The point seems to be a soft clay point but does have stumps on the top and on the drop. I could once again see the fish just off the bottom with my bottom machine. I used minners to catch them and caught them almost as fast as the 'gills. They weren't really big ones but still were fun. I was hoping that one of the bigger sized schools or some whites would come by but they didn't. Got called home again but learned some good things: 1. Winter bluegills on rocky shelves in 15-20 feet of water and 2. Stripe on steep drops on sides of clay points. I had never fished this way in the winter before but I will again.
