Nauticman
Well-known member
Nauticman, Upper Nick., ., Striper, Bass Bream, etc., Catch-Up Report after Computer Crash, Friend R
My computer crashed about 10 days ago, so I haven't been able to post anything during that time. Now that I have it back, I've got a couple of comments and some fishing reports and pics. Sorry I couldn't comment on all the great reports that were made.
About Labman selling his boat to Drumking: When Norman called me last week and told me he had sold his boat to DK, I was saddened, because of what this indicated about Norman's state of health. However, Norman expressed a very positive state of mind and indicated that he fully plans to fish again when he gets the right signals. He and I have had some great times on that boat and I've caught several personal bests on it. Thank you, Norman! Now it couldn't be in better hands than DK's, congrats on getting a fine fishing machine DK, enjoy it! Best wishes to you, Norman, hope you can go fishing soon, there are plenty of CFF folks that want to take you and I am certainly one of them!
Now for some fishing reports:
5/15: TVA had closed the flood gates on 5/14, so I tried the area between the dam and the R?R bridge with 45K cfs flow and about 64 degrees surface temp. I got a 14 lb. striper and a decent spot on jerkbaits and a real nice 17.5 in. spot on a tube. Later I got a keeper largemouth in some slack water on a jig/pig. All fish released.
5/16: I took my fishing buddy of almost 5 decades, Russ, bream fishing out of Grasshopper Creek. Before I picked him up there, I just had to shoot a couple of docks for crappie, but only got a few small ones and one keeper. I did get a nice 19 in. smallie and also a 15 incher. Russ wanted about 30 bream to take home, he took 31 and so did I. We caught them from 2 beds on crickets, using up all 150 that we had. Missed strikes and throwbacks made up the difference. We scaled the fish in a "Rock-It" fish scaler towed behind the boat (see pic). The bream were a mixture of bluegills and shellcracker, but mostly bluegills. The size was smaller than we were used to, only one nice 10 in. shellcracker. I am posting a pic of Russ with a shellcracker from an earlier trip. We found surface temps from 64-71 and the flow was 45Kcfs.
5/21: I went bream fishing with about the same results as the 5/16 trip. Bluegills were still full of eggs. Lots of logs on the water, level too high for shooting docks.
5/25: Pete Jr. (FirstLight) and I fished out of Riverpark and caught a great variety of fish. I started out with 3 gar on jerkbaits above the R/R bridge. We chatted with Richard Simms, who had a party with him, saw shsimons and customer and what looked to be another guide boat up there. We caught several non-keeper smallies, several channel cats, about a 10 lb. blue cat, a couple of drum, a couple of meanmouth, a couple of redeyes, a Tenn. River tarpon, one non-keeper sauger (out of a deep hole), a white bass and more than anything, some nice spots. Pete and I each kept 3 spots for the table. 2 of my 3 were full of eggs! No pics, we were too lazy and too busy fishing to take time out for pics, so its just a fish tale, but you have my word on it. The flow was 45Kcfs, the surface temp was 66 or so. All fish caught on artificials, mostly jig/pig and Gulp. All fish released except the 6 spots we kept.
My computer crashed about 10 days ago, so I haven't been able to post anything during that time. Now that I have it back, I've got a couple of comments and some fishing reports and pics. Sorry I couldn't comment on all the great reports that were made.
About Labman selling his boat to Drumking: When Norman called me last week and told me he had sold his boat to DK, I was saddened, because of what this indicated about Norman's state of health. However, Norman expressed a very positive state of mind and indicated that he fully plans to fish again when he gets the right signals. He and I have had some great times on that boat and I've caught several personal bests on it. Thank you, Norman! Now it couldn't be in better hands than DK's, congrats on getting a fine fishing machine DK, enjoy it! Best wishes to you, Norman, hope you can go fishing soon, there are plenty of CFF folks that want to take you and I am certainly one of them!
Now for some fishing reports:
5/15: TVA had closed the flood gates on 5/14, so I tried the area between the dam and the R?R bridge with 45K cfs flow and about 64 degrees surface temp. I got a 14 lb. striper and a decent spot on jerkbaits and a real nice 17.5 in. spot on a tube. Later I got a keeper largemouth in some slack water on a jig/pig. All fish released.
5/16: I took my fishing buddy of almost 5 decades, Russ, bream fishing out of Grasshopper Creek. Before I picked him up there, I just had to shoot a couple of docks for crappie, but only got a few small ones and one keeper. I did get a nice 19 in. smallie and also a 15 incher. Russ wanted about 30 bream to take home, he took 31 and so did I. We caught them from 2 beds on crickets, using up all 150 that we had. Missed strikes and throwbacks made up the difference. We scaled the fish in a "Rock-It" fish scaler towed behind the boat (see pic). The bream were a mixture of bluegills and shellcracker, but mostly bluegills. The size was smaller than we were used to, only one nice 10 in. shellcracker. I am posting a pic of Russ with a shellcracker from an earlier trip. We found surface temps from 64-71 and the flow was 45Kcfs.
5/21: I went bream fishing with about the same results as the 5/16 trip. Bluegills were still full of eggs. Lots of logs on the water, level too high for shooting docks.
5/25: Pete Jr. (FirstLight) and I fished out of Riverpark and caught a great variety of fish. I started out with 3 gar on jerkbaits above the R/R bridge. We chatted with Richard Simms, who had a party with him, saw shsimons and customer and what looked to be another guide boat up there. We caught several non-keeper smallies, several channel cats, about a 10 lb. blue cat, a couple of drum, a couple of meanmouth, a couple of redeyes, a Tenn. River tarpon, one non-keeper sauger (out of a deep hole), a white bass and more than anything, some nice spots. Pete and I each kept 3 spots for the table. 2 of my 3 were full of eggs! No pics, we were too lazy and too busy fishing to take time out for pics, so its just a fish tale, but you have my word on it. The flow was 45Kcfs, the surface temp was 66 or so. All fish caught on artificials, mostly jig/pig and Gulp. All fish released except the 6 spots we kept.
