Chickamauga 10/22

[polo-dog]

Jmax was nice enough to pick me up and fish for a few hours today. He said that he had caught a few fish before he picked me up and the fishing was about how I would have expected with the water temp dropping from the 78 degree range to the 70 degree range in Wolftever creek. There were shad still in the same areas that CCSM and I fished but they were unmolested for the most part except near a deep hole in the mid creek area. We left the creek hoping to find more active bass and as could be expected, the water in Harrison bay was still warmer at 73 degrees and there were more active fish. We saw lots of activity in one slough in HBSP(Harrison Bay State Park) but we couldn't get a hit there. When CCSM and I were in the same area a few days ago, there was lots of bait but no activity, strange turnaround for the area. We went to another slough in HBSP and there was lots of bait in the back of the slough in the stumps but no bass bothering them. Did catch one fair fish off a drop in the back of one slough where the water dropped from about 8ft to 16 or 17 feet. I thought that there would be more fish on the drop, and did have a few more hits there but couldn't hook up. Went to the shallows just before dusk and had a couple of topwater hits but no hookups. Most of the fish that I caught were on a worm and only one on a spinnerbait. Jmax, what did you think of your/our outing? Thanks again for your hospitality! How many did we catch?

 

[Jmax]

I believe we ended up with eleven total. Not all that bad for about a four hour outing but compared to about three weeks ago with 70 and 55 that was very slow. I believe the bass are trying to school up and do their thing for the fall but with the degrees dropping like it is and the water level yo yoing up and down they seem to be somewhat scattered from what I could tell. With the exception of one fish they all came off drops where the water made a quick change and the bass had access to deep water near by. I think this may have been the key. They have pulled back and are holding on the deeper drops but still within stiking of the shad at the shallow water areas. I feel if the water will stabbalize before too long the bass will move in shallow again and we will see a good top water bite if it will just happen before it gets too cold. If not we will have to resort to C-rigs and deeper patterns on points and drops. Polo-dog I enjoyed the company and always enjoy taking folks to learn from them what they do.emoCool Jmax