Hiawassee & Grasshopper Area

[jason]

Great site! I just found the board while searching for local fishing reports. Most seem to focus on Chickamauga Lake but I'm looking for info covering the TN river from Dayton to Cleveland. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[polo-dog]

What do you like to fish for? What boat do you have? What maps do you have? Have you fished the area before?

 

[jason]

Bass, bass, bass! Have a boat and maps. We only go out on a Saturday or two a month and it would be nice to avoid spending 3/4 of the day putting a pattern together.

 

[polo-dog]

I haven't fished the area much but I know from looking at the maps in the past that there are lots of good looking areas. The last time the B.A.S.S. tournament trail was in town in the early 90's Rick Clunn fished the Hiwassee area and caught large numbers of fish but the size was small. I think that the upper lake grass is coming back and so there is a good chance that there may be some shallow fish even if the water warms up alot in the next few days/weeks. I'm at work but I'll look at my maps and I'll get back with you. Of course you know that almost all of the big tournaments on Chickamauga are won in the northern parts of the lake. Fish there are less pressured and the grass is so much better there.

 

[polo-dog]

I apologize for not getting to my maps yesterday but life is busy. I will plan to get back with you tonight.

 

[polo-dog]

I was able to look at some of my maps to a degree last pm. I would expect that you are putting in at the Grasshopper Creek or the Hiwassee brige ramps. If you put in the Hiwassee near Hwy 58 you are fishing a bit different water. In grasshopper it looks like there are some nice points that are near the creek channel. There is an area not too far into the creek that is a slowly tapering area that is really a small flat or very rounded point that should have a lot of stumps on it. There is also another rounded point just inside of the creek that should have a lot of stumps on it, both of these areas are on the northern side of the creek. The creek channel that runs from the mouth of the creek(the bank) to the river is pretty straight and should have some stumps along it. The cuts made by the creeks that run through the flats along the main lake can be real thick with fish especially once the water gets a bit warmer. I would expect until the water is in the mid 80's that alot of the fish won't be on that pattern but I may be wrong. The main lake humps that are on the other side of the river could hold a bunch of fish too but I don't know if they have anything coverwise on them. The tip of the point that is on the northern end of where Sale Creek meets the river really looks good but I don't know if there is any cover on that structure. Grasshopper used to have a lot of grass from what I've heard and any point or bank that comes up close to the creek channel would potentially hold a bunch of fish especially if they are pulling water. I will have to look at the Hiwassee tonight to try to see what I can see there.
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[jason]

Typically we put in at the Hiawasse Bridge and run downriver towards the intersection with the Tennessee. There are several good coves that are starting to get grassy and all have good deadfalls in them. However, lately I get the feeling that we should quit pounding the bank and search for spots closer to the main channel. Figuring out where to start in all that water is the tough part.

 

[polo-dog]

When you say"Hiwassee bridge" I assume that means the Hwy 58 bridge. Or is that the I-75 bridge? Anyway, I did some lookin' at the Hiwassee and it looks like a great area. When I fish riverine areas I always look for eddie areas and just above or just below bluff areas. There are a couple of those areas down stream from the Hwy 58 bridge at Jewell, Goodner and Powell bluffs. There also is an interesting feature not too far from the bridge it's self, a "stock pond" that is very near the shore but about three hundred yards from the bridge. There are also many cuts from small creeks that run through the shallow flats and fishing these where they meet the main channel and a few hundred yards back from the channel could hold lots of fish. There are also some springs that look very interesting to me. When the water gets really hot, the water coming from the springs in this area is always around 54 degrees. The fish, whether it be bass, 'gills, stripe, or catfish really love that cool water. There is a cut that comes out to the channel that is just up stream from Birchwood creek that has two springs in close proximity to one another that calls me there. I don't know how much flow comes from the springs, sometimes when there are springs on the maps it's just a trickle and sometimes the flow is enough to clear the water for a huge area, the best time to check them out is in the winter when the water's down and you can really see the difference in water color. There are also good looking switchbacks on Gunstocker creek channel that could have some great drops and stump rows. Those are the areas that look best to me. Let me know if any of that helped.

 

[jason]

Thanks...maybe my father-in-law and I can check out some of those spots on Saturday.

 

[polo-dog]

Did you find the areas that I spoke of? Do you have the maps that show the springs? These can be fantastic if you know right where they are.

 

[jason]

After putting in at the Hiawassee Bridge we went downriver and to the left in Gunstocker Creek...the narrow channel is hard to find in a sea of open water. We fished it for about an hour with no bites and then started to head further downriver. Before heading out, we hit the tiny cove just below Gunstocker creek and I nailed a 3lb spot on a Carolina rigged lizard. The water was muddied by the wind and the mudline cleared at about 5-6ft, which is where I caught the fish on a crappie brushpile. Going on a hunch we headed downriver to a flat that came right off an outside bend and had deadfalls reaching from the bank to about 6-8ft of water...right on the same windblown mudline. To make a long story short, after narrowing down our presentation to an Arkansas Shiner soft jerkbait, we had the best outing so far this year...the ones where you stop counting fish. The spots, all in the 2-3lb range, were in a feeding frenzy on the shad that were being blown onto the flat. The bass were using the mudline as an ambush point and the larger ones were positioned right on the tips of any wood that hit the line. We got so caught up in the fishing that we never made it more than 2 miles from the boat ramp. On Sunday (Father's Day), we'll hit the water again and do a little more exploring.

One thing we noted was that the spotted bass were all pale grey...anyone know the reason for this? Also, we did not catch a single largemouth, only spots. If your like me, I'd rather catch spotted bass vs. largemouth. They are more aggressive and their brute strength blows me away sometimes.

 

[polo-dog]

Great post. What was the length of your jerkbait? Spots are one of my favorites too. I tend to catch more of them than Lg. mouths in the spots that I fish most. They tend to be more aggressive and fight harder than the Lg. mouths. They also will come to hit topwater baits even during the day and so they suit me just fine. I wish that I knew more places to catch smallies on top as I've heard that they are the same way. I think that up north they stay shallower longer as the water temps are much cooler but here they tend to be a river fish and tend to be deeper. I don't know why the spots were a grey color, usually they are pretty stark white on the belly anyway. It could have bee the color of the water that made them change their color. I know from experience that largemouths in clear water tend to be much more "brite" than in stained water where they tend to be more "dull". They can change their color to a certain extent. I'm glad that you caught fish. Sometimes those channels are silted to a certain degree, but the outside bends tend have better drops on them. I would expect that if you watch your electronics and use some marker bouys that you could get on those cuts.

 

[jason]

3X ZTOO...I think they only come in one size.

 

[DHaun]

Great Post Jason - It's great to get on a bunch of feeding fish like that emoBigsmile. Congrats!!!

 

[polo-dog]

It being a 3X did you weight it in any way? When I fish the 3X I love the way they never get torn. I think though I need to take them off the hooks before I store my rod as they do get stained by the hook if it rusts at all. If the fish will come up to the top, I fish the 3X's by themselves but if the fish want it a foot or two below the surface I find that I have to either use a swivel and a bullet weight or just a split shot above to get it down. Either that or I just go back to the cheaper(and shorter lasting) soft jerk baits that I have. They really are great baits for multiple species, anything that will eat a shad, if you present it right, will eat a soft jerkbait!

 

[jason]

I used a swivel with about an 8" leader and one BB size split shot just above the head. I rigged the hook, a 4.0 Strike King bleeding hook, fairly close to the head so that the ZTOO would dart upwards when twitched. In relation to another thread, "fishing the jumps", these fish were jumping as they fed.

 

[polo-dog]

Fishing active fish is such a BLAST! Literally.

 

[JC1]

I like the look of these baits but haven't fished one , yet. How exactly are you putting the hook in the lure? Is it similar to a texas rig? I'd like to give them a try! Thanks! JC1 emoQuestion emoCool

 

[polo-dog]

When you put the hook in the worm it is very much like a Texas rigged worm except for a couple of things. You need to be sure that you use worm type hooks that are straight, in that if you use the "true turn" variety the random movement that you get with the bait is not the same. The biggest trick in rigging however is to get the bend of the hook just in the right place to make the bait stay straight on the hook. If you don't the bait tends to spiral in stead of "walking" like you would a zara spook. The way I do this is after I've brought the hook through the head of the bait I pull the hook all the way through until the bend in the hook is in place with the hook eye just barely inside or just barely sticking outside the tip of the lure. Be sure that you brought the hook out of the lure right in the middle as any asymetry will throw things off too. Once you get the head part right then lay the hook beside the bait and take hold of the bait with your thumb and index finger right where the end of the bend hits the bait. Then take the hook point and stick it straight up through the bait at the exact spot where your thumb and index finger marked the bend of the hook. Once you do it wrong a few times and the bait won't run right you'll figure out how to do it right.

 

[JC1]

Thanks for the info, I'll be giving it a try! JC1 emoCool