Nickajack Angler
Well-known member
Nickajack Angler, 40th Birthday - Below Pickwick & our pond, Bass, Skippies & stripe, 7/19/08, Louie
I thought all week about how I wanted to celebrate my 40th birthday today and when I woke up at 5:30am and looked over at Mary, I knew she wasn't getting up on her day off. So, I layed there and waited until she woke up around 6:30am and said, "I think I'll go fishing for a bit...." I tried to wake Louie up but he would have nothing of it. Riding the new fourwheeler, swimming in the pool, playing basketball, and fishing at the pond everyday has worn him OUT! He wouldn't budge....
So, off by myself I went. Scouted around the state park and felt I'd pretty much worked that area with lackluster success in the past week. So, I headed below the dam to make a run at some smallies. Read online at TVA that they should have 4 pumps running from 6am til 9am, but they only had one running until 11am while I was there. I tried some shakyheads, fat albert chart grubs on 1/4oz heads, spooks, topedos, and finally a swimbait. I caught one stripe and that was it on the grub. I caught a bunch of small ones on the swimbait...
So, I changed locations and went down river a bit to where the first big eddy comes out from shore. Fish were busting the top there and I tried the entire box at them. Not one small spot, drum, SM or LM! I couldn't believe it. The water is 16 ft deep right off the bank and lots of rock and chunk along that shoreline. Bait was prolific and I felt that every smallmouth in the river would be up there with feedbags on, but no one was catching anything and I was NOT getting bit. Finally I put on a bue vibrex and caught me some skipjack (eat your heart out Spur....) There were people lining up to pick them up behind me. People here are keeping the ones this size and putting them in buckets with aeraeters on their buckets and saying they use them whole and live for big 'ol catfish. You would have thought since I was providing bait for them, they would have told me where when I asked, but they just walked off without a reply....
MAN IT WAS HOT!!!! I was soaking wet when I got finished and went home to spend the day with the family.
Mary and the boys took me out to a famous old restaurant in Savannah, TN. The Catfish Hotel. It was awesome and we all had a really great supper. Drove back looking at the small towns around where we live and Louie pipes up from the backseat, "Let's get home.... we've got bass to catch." He was all excited because I had made a Walmart run earlier in the day and picked up some of the Parksville Secret lure. We thought they would prove to be successfuly in the muck and grass along the shoreline of the pond and the shallow end where we always see bass tearing up after baitfish. They only come in 5 to a pack. Louie wore out 4 of them putting the whoopin' on me tonight. He caught 6 and lost about as many. I caught Nadda.... zilch. Nothing! Have more pics on another phone, but have to wait until I go to town to upload them to the web from the phone..... emoBang These are the only ones I have now, but you'll get the picture. Lots of new areas to fish and some really great places to fish from shore. Much more fishing opportunities here even than was in Chatt from shore. L O N G way down from dam on both sides are public, with sidewalks and areas to fish for about 1 mi or more below the dam.
Can't wait until another year of fishing begins. It starts tomorrow with TritonCarl on Pickwick. He won't let me get skunked....
I thought all week about how I wanted to celebrate my 40th birthday today and when I woke up at 5:30am and looked over at Mary, I knew she wasn't getting up on her day off. So, I layed there and waited until she woke up around 6:30am and said, "I think I'll go fishing for a bit...." I tried to wake Louie up but he would have nothing of it. Riding the new fourwheeler, swimming in the pool, playing basketball, and fishing at the pond everyday has worn him OUT! He wouldn't budge....
So, off by myself I went. Scouted around the state park and felt I'd pretty much worked that area with lackluster success in the past week. So, I headed below the dam to make a run at some smallies. Read online at TVA that they should have 4 pumps running from 6am til 9am, but they only had one running until 11am while I was there. I tried some shakyheads, fat albert chart grubs on 1/4oz heads, spooks, topedos, and finally a swimbait. I caught one stripe and that was it on the grub. I caught a bunch of small ones on the swimbait...
So, I changed locations and went down river a bit to where the first big eddy comes out from shore. Fish were busting the top there and I tried the entire box at them. Not one small spot, drum, SM or LM! I couldn't believe it. The water is 16 ft deep right off the bank and lots of rock and chunk along that shoreline. Bait was prolific and I felt that every smallmouth in the river would be up there with feedbags on, but no one was catching anything and I was NOT getting bit. Finally I put on a bue vibrex and caught me some skipjack (eat your heart out Spur....) There were people lining up to pick them up behind me. People here are keeping the ones this size and putting them in buckets with aeraeters on their buckets and saying they use them whole and live for big 'ol catfish. You would have thought since I was providing bait for them, they would have told me where when I asked, but they just walked off without a reply....
MAN IT WAS HOT!!!! I was soaking wet when I got finished and went home to spend the day with the family.
Mary and the boys took me out to a famous old restaurant in Savannah, TN. The Catfish Hotel. It was awesome and we all had a really great supper. Drove back looking at the small towns around where we live and Louie pipes up from the backseat, "Let's get home.... we've got bass to catch." He was all excited because I had made a Walmart run earlier in the day and picked up some of the Parksville Secret lure. We thought they would prove to be successfuly in the muck and grass along the shoreline of the pond and the shallow end where we always see bass tearing up after baitfish. They only come in 5 to a pack. Louie wore out 4 of them putting the whoopin' on me tonight. He caught 6 and lost about as many. I caught Nadda.... zilch. Nothing! Have more pics on another phone, but have to wait until I go to town to upload them to the web from the phone..... emoBang These are the only ones I have now, but you'll get the picture. Lots of new areas to fish and some really great places to fish from shore. Much more fishing opportunities here even than was in Chatt from shore. L O N G way down from dam on both sides are public, with sidewalks and areas to fish for about 1 mi or more below the dam.
Can't wait until another year of fishing begins. It starts tomorrow with TritonCarl on Pickwick. He won't let me get skunked....
