J-Dub
Well-known member
Went to Melton Hill this weekend. First time in a couple of years I'd been out there. Usually fish Loudon since it's closer to me and the fishing is usually better for me there too. Didn't feel like fighting the battle cruisers on Loudon though. Satuday launched at Carbide Park up by Oak Ridge. Water temp. read 65 (?). Water did warm up as a went further down to the dam though. Slow start but I finally found some dumb hungry bass around the reactor bend. Got them on a small jerkbait, finesse worm and tiny torpedo. It was a lot of fun but not any with any size at all. I boated 15 and not one fish would have gone over the 12" size limit. Now that's just sad and wrong on many levels. The fish were on clay points with some rip rap and they were shallower than I would have thought, about 4-6 feet. The lake is clear so I figured they'd be pushed deeper. Shad schools dotted the lake and stripes could be seen busting them periodically. Always out of reach from me though. On Sunday I figured I'd do some chores and pay my weekly stipend to Wal Mart so fishing would probably be out of reach. Around noon I decided to go again. This time I launched at the dam and had a little better success. I still boated 15 but 7 would have kept. Still nothing with any good size but a keeper's a keeper and I was doing a little re-familiarizing with the lake because I've got a club tourney there in late September. The biggest 5 would have only been around 7 lbs., maybe. Thing was on both days the fish were roaming in packs. A lot of times when I got one on if I looked in the water there would be several other fish with mine trying to get the lure away from the hooked one. In typical fashion for me, everytime the smallest one of the bunch was the one that I had hooked too. I did have two on at the same time on the jerkbait but their flailing around managed to knock each other off the bait before I got them in. Oh well. Beautiful days on the water and there were hardly any other people fishing too. I saw 3 or 4 on Saturday casting and zero on Sunday. It was a good relaxing, recharging little trip for me.
