DHaun
Well-known member
I missed several days of good fishing weather this week and could not stand it any more so I loaded up the truck and took the kids for about an hour below Nickajack Dam from the bank today about 3:00pm. It was a nice overcast day but no generators were running. I threw a crankbait, spoon, and a storm shad lure all up and down the bank with no success. They had a crappie jig and a small yozuri minnow tied on that they quickly got bored of since nothing was biting.
The water was super low and the rocks were very slippery making it hard to fish so they started to check out all the litter that people had left behind. While they were doing a bit of clean-up around the area, I hooked a fish on the storm shad lure, could feel it was a drum (as my usual luck goes) so I said "Fish On - Who wants it?" My daughter took the rod and fought the fish while I got the pliers and scales out. It was the biggest fish she had ever fought so I felt inclined to snap a picture after sliding down the rocks to land it. It was right at 9-1/2 pounds and even though it's just a drum, it still makes for a nice big smile! It was safely released.
As I continued to fish moving downstream with the smaller lures they made a "Nickajack Wind Chime" from all the fishing line, broken bottles, old hooks, and various other garbage that thoughtless people leave behind to trash a nice fishing spot. I figured they worked so hard on it helping to clean-up that I would snap a picture of that too.
We only stayed for about an hour and basically had the place to ourselves. Right as we got there I saw 2 guys leaving with what looked like a huge mess of small catfish (or other species - it was from a distance). They had so many fish they had the stringer hanging from the center of a large stick carrying it between them on their shoulders like a hog or something - I figure they will be cleaning fish all night... A few other folks showed up as we were leaving fishing downstream from the pier with small jigs. I didn't see a whole lot being caught.
As we left we had to make the obligatory stop at Big Daddy's fireworks, which they really enjoyed picking out a few dollars worth of small smoke bombs, snap-n-pops, and cherry booms. It was a nice little trip with my kids and they said it themselves it was better than playing on the computer and watchin' TV all day!
The water was super low and the rocks were very slippery making it hard to fish so they started to check out all the litter that people had left behind. While they were doing a bit of clean-up around the area, I hooked a fish on the storm shad lure, could feel it was a drum (as my usual luck goes) so I said "Fish On - Who wants it?" My daughter took the rod and fought the fish while I got the pliers and scales out. It was the biggest fish she had ever fought so I felt inclined to snap a picture after sliding down the rocks to land it. It was right at 9-1/2 pounds and even though it's just a drum, it still makes for a nice big smile! It was safely released.
As I continued to fish moving downstream with the smaller lures they made a "Nickajack Wind Chime" from all the fishing line, broken bottles, old hooks, and various other garbage that thoughtless people leave behind to trash a nice fishing spot. I figured they worked so hard on it helping to clean-up that I would snap a picture of that too.
We only stayed for about an hour and basically had the place to ourselves. Right as we got there I saw 2 guys leaving with what looked like a huge mess of small catfish (or other species - it was from a distance). They had so many fish they had the stringer hanging from the center of a large stick carrying it between them on their shoulders like a hog or something - I figure they will be cleaning fish all night... A few other folks showed up as we were leaving fishing downstream from the pier with small jigs. I didn't see a whole lot being caught.
As we left we had to make the obligatory stop at Big Daddy's fireworks, which they really enjoyed picking out a few dollars worth of small smoke bombs, snap-n-pops, and cherry booms. It was a nice little trip with my kids and they said it themselves it was better than playing on the computer and watchin' TV all day!
