Chickamauga 10/14

[polo-dog]

Got out at about 8am. Caught a few small ones over the shallow grass. The lake was down about 6 inches overnight. There just wasn't anything happening over the shallow flats so fished the drop to the channel outside the flats. Caught a couple more out there, still small. No schooling activity anywhere. Fished a small slough that was covered in small baitfish jumping unmolested on the surface, no bites. Went over to Harrison Bay State park and fished a couple of old faithful fall sloughs, good water color and lots of bait but nothing turned on. Decided to catch some bait and have some fun. Went out to the river and fished for bass initially but it had gotten really windy so anchored over a huge number of fish on the bottom in 25 to 35 ft. Caught 5-10 2-8lb blue cats and a bunch of spotted bass. Had a lifetime first, caught a blue cat and a spot on one drop. Two hooks of course. Have had lots of double catches before but they are usually of the same species. The shallow bass just weren't turned on today, not even the slicks. I would expect it was the drop of the water as we had had two days of water coming up prior. I spent most of my time trying to cram topwater baits down the bass's throats rather than figuring out where/what to do. Sometimes I guess I'm just out for fun and if they don't want it the way I want it I just miss out. All of the topwater bites were on the chug bug with much of the silver worn off. I need to change it out one of these days.

 

[RangerRob]

Don't change that chug-bug out, polo-dog. If the paint's coming of that means it's just now getting good and broken in! One of my fav top water plugs has NO paint left on it.

Did you try burning a trap in those coves? When the shad scatter and I can't buy a tw bite, I always do well burning a trap or a spinnerbait with downsized blades. Last Sunday, Freebird and I were just drifting at the mouth of a cove talking (we were in seperate boats) and he was fan casting a trap to no particular targets and caught two. Put the tm on high and let 'er rip!

 

[polo-dog]

I did try a spinnerbait but it had a #5 willow- probably too big. I did try a trap but the type of grass that the fish seemed to be in was to the surface in much of the area and was of a type that I couldn't get off once I got into it. I do need to have a couple more spinnnerbaits made up with different configurations. I tend to use the spinnerbaits more in the spring and tend to use them in the 5-10 foot range or deeper. It seems that in my end of the lake I rarely catch shallow fish on spinnerbaits. Maybe I'm wrong but I think that a spinnerbait seems to have a negative effect on them. Too many being thrown for too long.