Chickamauga 4-9

[RangerRob]

Launched from Grasshopper at 10AM. Water temps ranged between 57 and 60. I hit three main lake pockets and put the boat on the trailer at 1 (I'd only planned to fish for a little while anyway). 7 bass caught, all shallow. Two were on flats and five were under docks. Largest was 3.5, caught on a T-rigged worm in blk/red. Two others caught on a DJW firetiger SB that were 2.5 each. The rest were slicks. All of them were hungry ... they were eating that SB whole. I had a trailer hook on it, but it wasn't needed.

The water is definately comin' up. It was pretty windy yesterday as well ... much more so at the lake than it was when I left the house.

RR

 

[jason]

Did you mean to say that temps were between 67 and 70? Or is the water that much cooler than on the Hiwassee?

 

[RangerRob]

It's funny you say that Jason, cause when I started reading the other reports w/ their temps I started to wonder. I just assumed the rain on Friday nite had really dropped the temps ... maybe BOTH my Garmin's are off, but I've never had a problem with them before emoScratch .

 

[jon the fisherman]

I have an Eagle and a Garmin, and the Garmin is always about 4 degrees colder than the Eagle. I usually just average the two for temp, but maybe the Eagle is right and the Garmin is off. I guess it could be the other way around also.

 

[Fishheadspin]

i fished saturday and sunday the lake only cooled off 1 degree in most places over night saturday. But sunday it cooled down as much as 10 degrees in some places with the 40 degree night and all the wind we had. most of the lake was 57-61 but did actuallt see some 53 water sunday and as high as 65 saturday

 

[RangerRob]

Ahhh-haaa ... I'm not crazy and my Garmin's DO work. I thought it would have been a bit warmer, but the rain had me thinking that it really could've cooled that much.

Thanks fishhead.

 

[Fishheadspin]

sounds like they are working fine it is just spring time cool nights, wind, fish moving around everywhere! never in the same spot two days in a row!

 

[jason]

The temp differences from one day to the next are shocking...nearly a ten degree drop. Within a day or so, they are right back up in the mid 60s. It took over a month to get from the high 40s to low 60s. I wonder how much effect current has on water temp when the surface temp is dropping drastically. Does it essentially "flush' out the warm water and replace it with cooler water from upstream?

 

[fisherpal2k]

jason the Hiwassee river was a lot warmer than the Tn river and the current pulling the water out does cool it down some. The wind is what hurt the most as it churns the water up and releases the heat that is built up in the water. That churning and the temp drops really changes things out on the main lake.

 

[jason]

Good observation...the wind never crossed my mind. Now it makes sense.

 

[RangerRob]

...Yippers ... and the wind was h-o-w-l-i-n-g on Sunday. That had to be it.

 

[jason]

That's how it was on Saturday. I started with a T-shirt while there was a mild breeze but by late afternoon it turned gusty and cold enough to require a hoodie.