Is it just me or has our lake really boomed!

[Jmax]

It seems that every tournament is 20 something on a five fish or in the doubles on a three fish. A low win on a three fish is (only) 11 pounds or so. I remember not too long ago that 11 lbs was really good. Now that is just o.k. and lucky no one did well. emoScratch Did well????? you get that....you win with 11 lbs on three fish and the comment is, "you are lucky no one did well." emoDoh Five years ago that was,"doing well."

I for one am really glad to see the chick turn on. The bass fishing can compete right now with the G almost any day of the week. The weights in this years CBAs have been 20 lbs or better just to get a low check. It has been 23 and more to win. emoEek All these posts of big bass and pictures..."how do you post a picture? I got a big one to share." is an every day happening. It use to be a five or six would get an applause and a pat on the back...now it is so common it is just a "good fish" comment. emoBigsmile I love this. It would seem every day there is an eight or nine caught by someone on here.

The Chick is alive and well. All that stink about the grass last year getting sprayed and it would seem to me it was like pissing on a forest fire. emoEvil Might of cooled it off right there but overall it made no impact at all. The cost of doing the whole lake is so high that it will not be happening. That is a good thing. If some home owners association get together to spray their area that is fine by me. If I owned a home on the water as much as they cost I would want it sprayed around my dock so I could swim too. What little that would cover would not matter overall anyway. I think the TVA and the TWRA has done a great job overall in this. The TWRA has been coming to the weigh ins at the CBA for all except the last one. They have been researching the bass and staying on top of helping keep them where they are.

I would like to send out a thanks to all who has voiced their opinions as to the overall spraying of our lake, the helping of getting it to where it is today and those who have helped in that happening. emoThanks Jmax

 

[jim4596]

I agree that the lake is in good shape, but i think last year was the best year i remember in a long time. I think there were 2 or 3 bags over 30 lbs weighed in at the CBA's. this year i dont recall seeing many over 26 lbs. but I dont think we can compete with the Big G just yet. the key word being "yet."
I definitely think it is directly related to the grass coming back. it just gives the fish so much more cover. Thats why some of us argued about the spraying so much. and i dont know if you were here or not during the 80s Jmax, but it was the dead sea. i remember me and dad fishing all day and we couldnt catch a 12" fish. Now the limit is 15".

 

[Jmax]

Yep, great comment, that is what I have been told. I was not here then but have had many a person share my boat and have mentioned that. I feel it is a combination of a lot of stuff. "Stuff" defined....grass, catch and release, efforts to educate the public, other ways to control grass, efforts on bass clubs and people to protect our resource, controlled spraying/ key word there is "Controlled", better efforts of tournaments to keep fish alive and released, TVA doing a better job of controlling the lake levels so that there is more of a slow rise and fall, TWRA stocking of big strain LM bass into the Chick, ....and the list goes on.

The big weights over 30 last year were caught by a couple teams that found the mother load right before the spawn. This year with the warmer winter they were not there when the tournaments happened. However there is no doubt in my mind that they are still in our lake. Judge it by the numbers of big bass that have been consistently weighed in so often this year at almost all the tournaments. They were spread out this year earlier. emoThumbsup Jmax

 

[BulletTJ]

I do agree the lake is doing great. But, regardless of how well the bass population is doing, I still have issues with dumping poison in our waters. I don't think we know the long term effects of dumping that has been going on.

 

[churly]

Its not just you Jim, and it did not happen by accident. I saw a pic that was sent to me yesterday of gentleman with about 20 bass laying on the drive way between 3 and 8lbs dead.(dont think its a CFF member) but the guy had sent a friend a text saying he whacked em on shiners on a community hole Sunday. If people dont abuse the resource, we should be able to enjoy it for a long time, but I am nervous about the future. This year's spawn was weird, and I have not seen the first ball of fry. Usually around HBSP there a wads of fry all in the shallows and I havent seen them. Also, anyone notice the shellcrackers disappearing? according to the twra biologist, it is due to the water being too low when they spawn. basically their traditional spawning grounds have been high and dry when its time. The flood of 2003 is what really helped the bass population, but it also caused tva to back their "full pool date" up by a month and I am worried we will start seeing adverse effects in the next few years. That being said, I am happy to see the lake where it is now and I believe the average size bass is as good as its ever been and I think a lot of it has to do with the amount of forage in the lake. Never seen so much bait in all my days!

 

[Jmax]

It may be true about the long term effects of pellets and spraying but with the very small areas being sprayed that is very small compared to what goes into our lake through run off. The controlled spray really had little effect last year in the short run. The areas hit, by summer end you could not hardly tell it happened.

I have seen balls of fry this year in several of the areas I have been in. emoThumbsup I saw a lot of spawning going on this year and felt it to be pretty good. It is always better when we have high water and it stays up but this year we seemed to have done O.K. from what I saw. I think often when there is flooding the fry have a better chance to make it, when the water does what it did this year and they hatch with less cover there are more that become food for the small fish in our lake. emoAngry However I still see a lot of small shad and fry in the lake now so I feel it will be a decent year as far as that goes. emoSmile Jmax

 

[Fishin Fool]

You hit the nail on the head about the shellcrackers. They have disappeared in the areas that they normally are seen in. I went on a specific hunt for them a couple of weeks ago, in 4 different places, and only found a few very small ones. I think the water levels have a lot to do with it, but I also think aging of the lake has something to do with it also. Aging like this means silt build up. The areas that I fished had one thing in common many years ago; actual spiky grass that grew in the water down from the bank, and slowed down the wash of mud and debris into the water. I can recall wade fishing these areas and in the grass, it would be muddy, but out from it, you had a clean gravel bed for fish. Not now. In addition, those very waters that I used to wade, and sometimes get chest deep in, are so silted and muddy they are less than knee deep now. The grass was slowly killed off and the natural filtration systems of the lake have been destroyed. Mud, dirt and runoff flows freely into the system. I think it has a ton to do with past spraying and chemicals in the water killing plants, and more and more of the battleships making huge wakes and degrading the banks, and washing tons of mud into the water. TVA allowing development along the water front hasn't helped either. I also agree about the balls of fry. Have not seen it this year, just scattered fry. Strange. As a matter of fact one the strangest years I have ever seen for spawn and fishing. I DO say that we don't need poison in the water. After the king of the sprayers came on and told everyone how safe it was, there have been several more reports across the nation indicating that it has long term issues in causing birth defects. No doubt we have a very good fishery right now, but as Churly said, that can certainly go away if we aren't careful.
</p>

</p>

</p>

churly - 5/23/2012 9:30 AM Its not just you Jim, and it did not happen by accident. I saw a pic that was sent to me yesterday of gentleman with about 20 bass laying on the drive way between 3 and 8lbs dead.(dont think its a CFF member) but the guy had sent a friend a text saying he whacked em on shiners on a community hole Sunday. If people dont abuse the resource, we should be able to enjoy it for a long time, but I am nervous about the future. This year's spawn was weird, and I have not seen the first ball of fry. Usually around HBSP there a wads of fry all in the shallows and I havent seen them. Also, anyone notice the shellcrackers disappearing? according to the twra biologist, it is due to the water being too low when they spawn. basically their traditional spawning grounds have been high and dry when its time. The flood of 2003 is what really helped the bass population, but it also caused tva to back their "full pool date" up by a month and I am worried we will start seeing adverse effects in the next few years. That being said, I am happy to see the lake where it is now and I believe the average size bass is as good as its ever been and I think a lot of it has to do with the amount of forage in the lake. Never seen so much bait in all my days!

</p>

 

[BulletTJ]

I do agree that there are accidental chemical run offs that gets into our water supply. I would like to see that decrease but not really sure how that could happen. That just makes the deliberate dumping of poison in our waters that much worse. Harvest it and make fertilizer or use mats around private docks. The mats were proved to be very successful. If I was a water front land owner I would use the mats. If the poison settles to the bottom and kills the grass, my family would be walking around in the crap while they were swimming. It could be absorbed through the skin, like a nicotine patch works. I have also be concerned with the drastic water fluctuation during the spawning time. I guess only time will tell if there are effects from that. For now I will just be thankful for the great fishing we have.

 

[jim4596]

good post bullettj and churly. actually good posts from everyone on this.
I havent paid attention to the shellcrackers. but i can damn sure catch a pile of those warmouth or red eyes or whatever they are called. emoLaugh
I can fish a 1 oz jig and catch those little bitty fish. emoLaugh emoLaugh
you gotta be a damn good fisherman to be able to gob a big ol jig in their little bitty mouth. or at least thats what i tell myself. emoLaugh

 

[swamp]

1972 or 1973 I won a club tx on chickamauga out of H.B.S.P.Ten fish that weighed twelve lbs. and some ozs.
three or four years ago I caught two bass,about fifteen minutes apart that weighed the same twelve lbs and some.
Caught them from the same shell bed on the edge of the river channel.The chick has always had some big fish in it,but until the grass started growing (again) it was hard to catch several four lb plus fish in a days fishing.I believe not only the grass,but the absence of the chemicals used to kill it, has allowed the entire ecosystem to flourish. The grass also pulls the fish shallower and makes them much easier to find.Whatever the reason ,I`m glad to see it and hope it last.

 

[jbone1380]

You mention that those people with the expensive homes might want to swim around their dock, but notice how many of those homes have a swimming pool or are owned by older, possibly retired people that are not going to swim around their dock. They just want the grass gone because it is there.