We got to spend the entire week practicing for the BAIT Classic and man what a beautiful week we had!</p>
Started out Sunday putting in at the mouth of the Hiwasee around 10 a.m. and found active fish pretty quickly in the first creek on the left below the bridge. Fished with soft jerks and jigs around grass that had bait in it. Most of the bait was halfway back in 3-6 fow. Fished on down into Sale Cr and found some good schooling fish on the right as you go in, right across from the sail boat marina. Smoked 'em pretty good on spooks and sammy's with most in the 2lb range. Fishing was easy and we were looking forward to a REALLY fun week.</p>
Monday we put in in Soddy and started catching fish on shallow points with top water. Almost every flat point with scattered grass had some fish. Made it down to a creek on the right that was loaded with bait (not much grass though) and whacked several nice 3 pounders on a buzz bait. Wound up fishing the big grass matts below the nuke plant and found one small stretch that was loaded with breaking fish that would flat smack anything you threw in. Caught several more 1-3 lb fish and one 5 lber on a white jig. This was looking like the best week of fishing ever!!!</p>
Tuesday we put in at CF and tried to find some deeper stuff just scouting around mainly. Cliff caught another one near 5 on the white jig in Blue Spings and we found another small school ther but overall it was a very slow day. The weather was good though.</p>
Wednesday it was again very slow for us. We saw several good fish chasing bait in the edge of the grass on almost any grass point that had bait but couldn't make 'em bite. Tried alot of different lures but never hit on one that would make the bass react.</p>
Thursday was the last practice day and we went to see if the fish were still chasing in the matts below the nuke plant. They were there and hungry but we limited ourselves to 1 top water fish apiece and tried to explore the area more to find the little key pieces of structure. Started fishing big worms and wouldn't set the hook. We had several bites in the scattered grass and they would not let go. Ended up catching 4 including another about 5. Worm color didn't reall matter much but we threw mainly red bug and red shad with some watermelon magic mixed in. Our hopes were high and we thouhgt we would easily have 12-15 lbs with a chance of 17-18. We were stoked!!</p>
We were the last boat out, #131, which was really what we wanted, so we could be first out Saturday. It was not a fun run down the lake as there were several BAD fog banks that we had to get through. The only good part was that being last there were no boats behind us but it was still very nerve racking and my jaw hurt from clenching my teeth. Got to our honey hole and there was on boat sitting right on the sweet spot. It turned out to be one of our buds that had found the same school. The bass were busting but not very interested in eating our baits. We saw our buds catch a couple and we missed a couple but could not get one in the boat. We stayed in this one spot on and off all day and hit every spot we had caught fish but could not get it going. We had 8 bites all day and never put a single fish in the boat. WHAT A LET DOWN! We were both about as low as you can be and considered loading up and heading home. Several beverages later we said screw it we were gonna go fish and have some fun. We were not gonna let these silly bass get the best of us!</p>
Saturday we blasted off first and it was less foggy but there were still a couple of hairy moments. Right at the mouth of the Hiwassee we came out of some low fog and there were about 200 cormorants taking off across the bow. I knew were were getting ready to be eating birds, feathers and poo but some nifty driving avoided a bad mess. 25 bmiles laetr we made it to the spot and started catching fish right away. Cliff had 2 nice keepers on a lipless and I caught a couple of shorts on the big worm. For whatever reason the fish had changed. They only came up once or twice and after the sun rose the bite was about over. We hung around a while but it just wasn't gonna happen. Fished our way back up and caught another good keeper on a buzzbait but that was the last keeper for us.</p>
Summary; It was a great week to be on the water and I feel blessed to be able to have spent a week fishing with my best friend on a great lake in some of the best weather you could wish for. We didn't break anything all week, the beer was cold and we had fun what more could you really want!</p>
</p>
Started out Sunday putting in at the mouth of the Hiwasee around 10 a.m. and found active fish pretty quickly in the first creek on the left below the bridge. Fished with soft jerks and jigs around grass that had bait in it. Most of the bait was halfway back in 3-6 fow. Fished on down into Sale Cr and found some good schooling fish on the right as you go in, right across from the sail boat marina. Smoked 'em pretty good on spooks and sammy's with most in the 2lb range. Fishing was easy and we were looking forward to a REALLY fun week.</p>
Monday we put in in Soddy and started catching fish on shallow points with top water. Almost every flat point with scattered grass had some fish. Made it down to a creek on the right that was loaded with bait (not much grass though) and whacked several nice 3 pounders on a buzz bait. Wound up fishing the big grass matts below the nuke plant and found one small stretch that was loaded with breaking fish that would flat smack anything you threw in. Caught several more 1-3 lb fish and one 5 lber on a white jig. This was looking like the best week of fishing ever!!!</p>
Tuesday we put in at CF and tried to find some deeper stuff just scouting around mainly. Cliff caught another one near 5 on the white jig in Blue Spings and we found another small school ther but overall it was a very slow day. The weather was good though.</p>
Wednesday it was again very slow for us. We saw several good fish chasing bait in the edge of the grass on almost any grass point that had bait but couldn't make 'em bite. Tried alot of different lures but never hit on one that would make the bass react.</p>
Thursday was the last practice day and we went to see if the fish were still chasing in the matts below the nuke plant. They were there and hungry but we limited ourselves to 1 top water fish apiece and tried to explore the area more to find the little key pieces of structure. Started fishing big worms and wouldn't set the hook. We had several bites in the scattered grass and they would not let go. Ended up catching 4 including another about 5. Worm color didn't reall matter much but we threw mainly red bug and red shad with some watermelon magic mixed in. Our hopes were high and we thouhgt we would easily have 12-15 lbs with a chance of 17-18. We were stoked!!</p>
We were the last boat out, #131, which was really what we wanted, so we could be first out Saturday. It was not a fun run down the lake as there were several BAD fog banks that we had to get through. The only good part was that being last there were no boats behind us but it was still very nerve racking and my jaw hurt from clenching my teeth. Got to our honey hole and there was on boat sitting right on the sweet spot. It turned out to be one of our buds that had found the same school. The bass were busting but not very interested in eating our baits. We saw our buds catch a couple and we missed a couple but could not get one in the boat. We stayed in this one spot on and off all day and hit every spot we had caught fish but could not get it going. We had 8 bites all day and never put a single fish in the boat. WHAT A LET DOWN! We were both about as low as you can be and considered loading up and heading home. Several beverages later we said screw it we were gonna go fish and have some fun. We were not gonna let these silly bass get the best of us!</p>
Saturday we blasted off first and it was less foggy but there were still a couple of hairy moments. Right at the mouth of the Hiwassee we came out of some low fog and there were about 200 cormorants taking off across the bow. I knew were were getting ready to be eating birds, feathers and poo but some nifty driving avoided a bad mess. 25 bmiles laetr we made it to the spot and started catching fish right away. Cliff had 2 nice keepers on a lipless and I caught a couple of shorts on the big worm. For whatever reason the fish had changed. They only came up once or twice and after the sun rose the bite was about over. We hung around a while but it just wasn't gonna happen. Fished our way back up and caught another good keeper on a buzzbait but that was the last keeper for us.</p>
Summary; It was a great week to be on the water and I feel blessed to be able to have spent a week fishing with my best friend on a great lake in some of the best weather you could wish for. We didn't break anything all week, the beer was cold and we had fun what more could you really want!</p>
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