I decided to change things up a little today and put in at the bat cave - hadn't been over there for a few months and Blazer reminded me that the fishing could be pretty decent in that part of the Nick. I backed down the ramp across from Macedonia Church at 10:00AM with the air registering 34 degrees and a stiff 10MPH breeze blowing from the northeast. The water wasn't much warmer at 44.3 and the wind and rain from last night had it stirred up and looking ugly.
Still, I was determined to shake the smell of Monday's skunking out of the 17 1/2 foot Billet, so I broke out the arsenal and began to throw to various cover inside cave lake. After an 90 frozen minutes without a knock on the door, I decided to run out to the main lake and fish the railroad bed with jerkbaits. To make a cold story short, I cast my butt off out there and stayed with the wind blown chop for another 90 minutes changing from a Pointer 78 to a Pointer 100 to a red Rattle Trap and back to the jerkbaits with no more success than earlier.
At 1:30pm, I pulled the sheet metal wonder back out of the waves and went home for lunch.
I almost decided to bag the day and do some desperately needed work organizing my gear, but then I came to my senses and headed back out there. It was 2:45PM when I put in the second time in the familiar waters of MCP. I was happy to find the surface temperature up to 46.6 degrees and the wind had lost some of its bite. I dropped the 50HP Merc and ran out to the point on the south side of the Rte. 24 bridge where Nickajack Angler had turned me on to some rolling underwater terrain last week. The bottom was just as NA had described it and I picked up a Rapala DT 10 in Silver and began casting into the wind and raking the bottom with the crankbait. It felt great and almost immediately I hooked a decent fish that put up an unexpectedly wild fight for the conditions - I would have bet this fish was a good smallmouth had I not seen it jump twice - unfortunately, it tossed the plug on the 2nd jump and left PG still covered in stink.
I moved back onto my favorite bank, switched to a shallow running Lucky Craft CB100 in American Shad and started chunking the laydowns and tree tops while moving back up river on the trolling motor. It was 4:15PM when I finally got off the schnied. The fish was just over 15" and weighed 2lbs on the nose, but I sure was glad to be back in the game !!
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</p>
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">15+ 2.0lb. Ice breaker !! (Thanks, I needed that.)</font></u></p>
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</p>
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">I bet you all can guess where this spot is...</font></u></p>
I guess the fishing Gods had just rang the dinner bell because over the next 2 hours I absolutely slaughtered 'em with that diminutive crankbait. Fish number two grabbed it within 3 feet of the bank in the middle of a snag of logs and put up a spirited battle before finding its way to the deck of the Tracker. This one weighed 2.9 lbs and nearly touched the 17" mark on the Golden Rule.
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</p>
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">Gettin' better all the time - Just short of 17" & 2.9 lbs !!</font></u></p>
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</p>
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">Nice fat belly on the pre-spawn beauty.</font></u></p>
The 3rd time was definitely a charm as I made a perfect cast between two parrallel laydowns and got the CB100 close enough to the bank to get the ground wet. The rod instantly turned into a candy cane as a bruiser smoked drag into deeper water. Luckily, she was button holed as I fumbled the net at boatside and wound up falling head over hind end into the bottom of the boat before getting my act together enough to lip the nice Hawg. She hung over the end of my 18" tournament board and pulled 4 lbs on the money on the Berkely scale !!
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</p>
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<u><font size="4">That's the one we were after !! 19" and...</font></u></p>
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</p>
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">4 lbs. even on the Berkely digital scale. Sweet !!</font></u></p>
My 4th keeper of this surprisingly awesome afternoon came on the very next cast and was about 1/2" away from being a twin to the previous toad. This fish sucked in the CB100 when I paused it in open water and also gave a very good account of itself. These fish were obviously up shallow and actively feeding despite the cold front conditions and I sure was psyched to be there with 'em !!
<p align="center">
</p>
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">Another snorter measuring 18+ and tugging 3.8 lbs on the scale !!</font></u></p>
Keeper #5 was a reality check as this one just made it to 15" and couldn't quite get to 2lbs on the scale. Still a ton of fun and a solid fight from the stocky little bigmouth, but by no means a "wall hanger".
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</p>
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">15" Football had just enough gut to get to 1.9lbs.
</font></u></p>
I suddenly remembered losing that Vibrax Spinner the other day because I failed to retie after a good brawl with a 4 pounder and decided to not let that happen again (lucky that I hadn't already lost the crank!). After retying and taking a few more casts, I bagged the final fish of a great, great afternoon on the water. The nightcap measured better than 16" and sported a nice pot belly that drew a 2.7 on the scale. That last largemouth made the total of the best five fish 15.4 lbs. Not bad for a brisk afternoon in late January.
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</p>
<p align="center">
<u><font size="4">The capper - 16 1/2" 2.7 lbs filled out a 15.4 lb. winter limit !!</font></u></p>
Ain't it good to be alive and be in Tennessee !!
Changing trebles,
PG
Still, I was determined to shake the smell of Monday's skunking out of the 17 1/2 foot Billet, so I broke out the arsenal and began to throw to various cover inside cave lake. After an 90 frozen minutes without a knock on the door, I decided to run out to the main lake and fish the railroad bed with jerkbaits. To make a cold story short, I cast my butt off out there and stayed with the wind blown chop for another 90 minutes changing from a Pointer 78 to a Pointer 100 to a red Rattle Trap and back to the jerkbaits with no more success than earlier.
At 1:30pm, I pulled the sheet metal wonder back out of the waves and went home for lunch.
I almost decided to bag the day and do some desperately needed work organizing my gear, but then I came to my senses and headed back out there. It was 2:45PM when I put in the second time in the familiar waters of MCP. I was happy to find the surface temperature up to 46.6 degrees and the wind had lost some of its bite. I dropped the 50HP Merc and ran out to the point on the south side of the Rte. 24 bridge where Nickajack Angler had turned me on to some rolling underwater terrain last week. The bottom was just as NA had described it and I picked up a Rapala DT 10 in Silver and began casting into the wind and raking the bottom with the crankbait. It felt great and almost immediately I hooked a decent fish that put up an unexpectedly wild fight for the conditions - I would have bet this fish was a good smallmouth had I not seen it jump twice - unfortunately, it tossed the plug on the 2nd jump and left PG still covered in stink.
I moved back onto my favorite bank, switched to a shallow running Lucky Craft CB100 in American Shad and started chunking the laydowns and tree tops while moving back up river on the trolling motor. It was 4:15PM when I finally got off the schnied. The fish was just over 15" and weighed 2lbs on the nose, but I sure was glad to be back in the game !!
<p align="center">
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">15+ 2.0lb. Ice breaker !! (Thanks, I needed that.)</font></u></p>
<p align="center">
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">I bet you all can guess where this spot is...</font></u></p>
I guess the fishing Gods had just rang the dinner bell because over the next 2 hours I absolutely slaughtered 'em with that diminutive crankbait. Fish number two grabbed it within 3 feet of the bank in the middle of a snag of logs and put up a spirited battle before finding its way to the deck of the Tracker. This one weighed 2.9 lbs and nearly touched the 17" mark on the Golden Rule.
<p align="center">
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">Gettin' better all the time - Just short of 17" & 2.9 lbs !!</font></u></p>
<p align="center">
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">Nice fat belly on the pre-spawn beauty.</font></u></p>
The 3rd time was definitely a charm as I made a perfect cast between two parrallel laydowns and got the CB100 close enough to the bank to get the ground wet. The rod instantly turned into a candy cane as a bruiser smoked drag into deeper water. Luckily, she was button holed as I fumbled the net at boatside and wound up falling head over hind end into the bottom of the boat before getting my act together enough to lip the nice Hawg. She hung over the end of my 18" tournament board and pulled 4 lbs on the money on the Berkely scale !!
<p align="center">
<p align="center">
<u><font size="4">That's the one we were after !! 19" and...</font></u></p>
<p align="center">
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">4 lbs. even on the Berkely digital scale. Sweet !!</font></u></p>
My 4th keeper of this surprisingly awesome afternoon came on the very next cast and was about 1/2" away from being a twin to the previous toad. This fish sucked in the CB100 when I paused it in open water and also gave a very good account of itself. These fish were obviously up shallow and actively feeding despite the cold front conditions and I sure was psyched to be there with 'em !!
<p align="center">
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">Another snorter measuring 18+ and tugging 3.8 lbs on the scale !!</font></u></p>
Keeper #5 was a reality check as this one just made it to 15" and couldn't quite get to 2lbs on the scale. Still a ton of fun and a solid fight from the stocky little bigmouth, but by no means a "wall hanger".
<p align="center">
<p align="center"><u><font size="4">15" Football had just enough gut to get to 1.9lbs.
</font></u></p>
I suddenly remembered losing that Vibrax Spinner the other day because I failed to retie after a good brawl with a 4 pounder and decided to not let that happen again (lucky that I hadn't already lost the crank!). After retying and taking a few more casts, I bagged the final fish of a great, great afternoon on the water. The nightcap measured better than 16" and sported a nice pot belly that drew a 2.7 on the scale. That last largemouth made the total of the best five fish 15.4 lbs. Not bad for a brisk afternoon in late January.
<p align="center">
<p align="center">
<u><font size="4">The capper - 16 1/2" 2.7 lbs filled out a 15.4 lb. winter limit !!</font></u></p>
Ain't it good to be alive and be in Tennessee !!
Changing trebles,
PG
