Planned on going out on Tuesday during the day. Around 7:00 pm Monday it was really nice out so thought I would go out for 2-3 hours, mainly to play with my new electronics (StructureScan). Could not find the house key and wife worked the next day. Did not want to wake her up to let me in (she barricades the house at night when I am gone) so figured what the heck, grabbed my warm gear and figured I would just stay out all night. Shouldn't have but did give me plenty of time to play with my new toys - down side was turns out whenever I ran my trolling motor the interference was so bad you could not see the screen. Ended up messing with that for half the night, have not fixed the problem yet.
Stayed out until around 3:00 pm the next day.
Water temp ranged from around 48.9 degrees at the coldest to up to 52.5 degrees.
To be fair, I used a lot of my fishing time learning about a bunch of lures - how they look, seemingly best way to work them etc. During the summer I was buying everything I ever heard good reports about but never really worked them all that much. I just thought I needed to spend some time with some of them and see how i thought the best way to use them would be -
On a side note - I am sure I like them more than the bass do, but I love the action of swimbaits and have a bunch of different ones like the castaic catch-22, Sebile magic Swimmer etc........played around with them for a fair amount of time and turns out the one I think may end up being pretty productive in the right situation is the Lake Fork Live magic shad - about the cheapest ones I own, around $4.00 for 3 of them I believe. At least to my eyes, they are a really, really realistic looking lure no matter how you work them. I think what may really work well (hopefully anyway) is when I rigged them with a weighted swimbait hook. Swimming them a bit and then letting them fall - looked pretty realistic to me, just like an inujred bait fish.....I believe the castaic Catch-22 is my next favorite but for the price difference, unless it proves to be super productive, I will be buying the Lake Forks as I could get about 9-12 of those for one castaic. Will just have to wait and see what the fish like.
anyway.... I did learn quite a bit about a bunch of lures I had never really spent time with - hopefully will pay off dividends later.
Only caught 4 smallmouth the entire time, all of them around 13"
Mainly worked bluffs along the shore line. All 4 fish came on bluffs that had slopes leading to deep water - no fish on bluffs with steep drop offs. Caught 2 of them on a rapala dt6 and the "largest" of the 13" on a stand-up jig with a Yum wooly bug with a red and black skirt. I did 3 more hits on that but missed them.
last fish I caught was right after the sun had come up. Not a lot, but some fish were working the top so I threw out a rapala X-rap and caught one on that in minutes, but it proved to be the only one.
Don't know if it was I was just tired or more than likely just a bad angler, but after that one I didn't catch another bass all day. It was gorgeous out tho.
I was still semi playing with my Lowrance and going so I could record as much of the bottom as i could so I could review it later - so i was not always where I really thought i should be fishing. On my way in I was passing under Awalt Bridge and about 40 yards past it saw a school of about a dozen fish hanging out. Water was maybe 30' deep (I forget ) and they were suspended around 12' . Thought what the heck so grabbed a pole that had a slip bobber on it and put on a dry fly. Drifted back over the spot and caught a white bass. Wind had kicked up some and the current blew me thru the area pretty quickly, so made a couple more passes and caught one each time. Average size but at least i ended the day catching fish - plus catching them directly because of the StructureScan so i was happy.
There were quite a few boats out Tuesday. I did run across 4 people throwing Alabama rigs (not Tennessee rigs). That rig has sure caught everyone's attention tho the State may make some money in fines if they are not careful.
Oh, when I was taking a "break", I did rig up a Tennessee rig and trolled with it. It started life as an Alabama rig but I cut off 2 of the arms. Let it out about 100' behind the boat - I could read my StructureScan when the trolling motor was on high speed, so was really more about recording the bottom and just taking a break so needless to say i didn't catch anything, tho I did troll with it for a good half hour and actually thought I stood a good chance to catch something.
So, I guess the best thing you get out of this report is the water temp is still averaging around 50 degrees.
Next time out will be a lot less play and more getting serious.
I was really, really tired when i got home. Ironic part - stayed out so i would not wake up the wife - she ended up calling in sick - she never did go to work. Figures.
Stayed out until around 3:00 pm the next day.
Water temp ranged from around 48.9 degrees at the coldest to up to 52.5 degrees.
To be fair, I used a lot of my fishing time learning about a bunch of lures - how they look, seemingly best way to work them etc. During the summer I was buying everything I ever heard good reports about but never really worked them all that much. I just thought I needed to spend some time with some of them and see how i thought the best way to use them would be -
On a side note - I am sure I like them more than the bass do, but I love the action of swimbaits and have a bunch of different ones like the castaic catch-22, Sebile magic Swimmer etc........played around with them for a fair amount of time and turns out the one I think may end up being pretty productive in the right situation is the Lake Fork Live magic shad - about the cheapest ones I own, around $4.00 for 3 of them I believe. At least to my eyes, they are a really, really realistic looking lure no matter how you work them. I think what may really work well (hopefully anyway) is when I rigged them with a weighted swimbait hook. Swimming them a bit and then letting them fall - looked pretty realistic to me, just like an inujred bait fish.....I believe the castaic Catch-22 is my next favorite but for the price difference, unless it proves to be super productive, I will be buying the Lake Forks as I could get about 9-12 of those for one castaic. Will just have to wait and see what the fish like.
anyway.... I did learn quite a bit about a bunch of lures I had never really spent time with - hopefully will pay off dividends later.
Only caught 4 smallmouth the entire time, all of them around 13"
Mainly worked bluffs along the shore line. All 4 fish came on bluffs that had slopes leading to deep water - no fish on bluffs with steep drop offs. Caught 2 of them on a rapala dt6 and the "largest" of the 13" on a stand-up jig with a Yum wooly bug with a red and black skirt. I did 3 more hits on that but missed them.
last fish I caught was right after the sun had come up. Not a lot, but some fish were working the top so I threw out a rapala X-rap and caught one on that in minutes, but it proved to be the only one.
Don't know if it was I was just tired or more than likely just a bad angler, but after that one I didn't catch another bass all day. It was gorgeous out tho.
I was still semi playing with my Lowrance and going so I could record as much of the bottom as i could so I could review it later - so i was not always where I really thought i should be fishing. On my way in I was passing under Awalt Bridge and about 40 yards past it saw a school of about a dozen fish hanging out. Water was maybe 30' deep (I forget ) and they were suspended around 12' . Thought what the heck so grabbed a pole that had a slip bobber on it and put on a dry fly. Drifted back over the spot and caught a white bass. Wind had kicked up some and the current blew me thru the area pretty quickly, so made a couple more passes and caught one each time. Average size but at least i ended the day catching fish - plus catching them directly because of the StructureScan so i was happy.
There were quite a few boats out Tuesday. I did run across 4 people throwing Alabama rigs (not Tennessee rigs). That rig has sure caught everyone's attention tho the State may make some money in fines if they are not careful.
Oh, when I was taking a "break", I did rig up a Tennessee rig and trolled with it. It started life as an Alabama rig but I cut off 2 of the arms. Let it out about 100' behind the boat - I could read my StructureScan when the trolling motor was on high speed, so was really more about recording the bottom and just taking a break so needless to say i didn't catch anything, tho I did troll with it for a good half hour and actually thought I stood a good chance to catch something.
So, I guess the best thing you get out of this report is the water temp is still averaging around 50 degrees.
Next time out will be a lot less play and more getting serious.
I was really, really tired when i got home. Ironic part - stayed out so i would not wake up the wife - she ended up calling in sick - she never did go to work. Figures.
