Watts Bar 10-26

[Daniel Tn]

Went to the lake for a purdy long spell. I got off work that morning and wanted to go for a couple of hours and wound up staying all day...in which I paid for in lack of sleep for work last night. Put in at Hornsby again and fished the Hog Pen looking for crappie that were supposidly biting good. I casted jigs and grubs and then trolled through some of the stump sloughs. I caught one nice bluegill and that was it. Resorted to bass fishing and they whipped me too. Had one hit a drop shot with 4" worm but it was the first time of using a drop shot and I think I set the hook too hard cause I missed the fish. I went to pull up on it and felt it pulling at it...guess I should have just reeled up real steady instead of Texas Rig hooksetting it.

But anyway, fished quite a few spots and tried a few different techniques at each one of them trying to piece together something. Got into one cove where the shad were on top and flipping about and bass were just going nuts busting them. I went over there and they quit for a minute and then started back up well within casting distance of the boat. I'm talking 2-3 pound fish! I aint sure if they were largemouth, smallmouth, or stripers. I threw everything I had at them and NEVER hooked up with a single one of them. I threw lipless cranks, diving cranks, spoons, topwater pop r. Rooster tails and even the plastic worms. It just flat out amazed me I couldn't catch those fish. If I had a long net I coulda probably scooped atleast one up. LOL.

Water temp was hovering around 58 when I first got there and then later that evening it was bumping around 60-62 in each of the spots I hit later in the day. I managed to catch one little largemouth on a lipless crank and that was it. Rejected and whipped, I called it a day. The water looked like it was coming down a little and was really clear to boot. Did I somehow miss the topwater fun on Watts Bar or am I still too early? Seems like a few years ago we really got on it around late Sept and I have been fishing atleast once a week since then and not seen hardly any activity on top til yesterday and those were the ones I couldn't catch.

 

[jon the fisherman]

good report Daniel, sorry you didn't get em though. I found some schoolers last week in the evening on a main lake point. I have seen tons of shad in the cove I live in, but can not tell if bass are busting them.
I have caught bass on top up till November, but with the cold fronts every other day it may slow down faster.

 

[drumking]

Daniel, I had a man tell me last night that a lot of Crappie are being caught on Watts Bar on bluffs right now. Big crappie is what he told me. I checked to see if my leg was getting warm.emoUpsmile emoGeezer

 

[Daniel Tn]

Oh and I almost forgot. A while back I had trouble with my big motor letting me down and having to troll from Whites Creek nearly back to Hornsby.

Well turns out it wasn't my motor's fault at all and nothing is wrong with it. Except for the idiot operator that runs it from time to time. Heheh. This is my first boat and this is gonna make me sound like a dork but this whole time I thought I was doing the choke on the motor via lifting the little arm on my throttle box. My boat is an '89 Vision 20' and my motor is a '95 Evinrude 200 Vindicator. Well turns out I haven't been choking the boat at all and thus why it was giving me fits on those cool mornings. I didn't know you had to push in on the key and listen for the "click" before it was choked. So evidently that day it laid down on me, I didn't choke it and in trying to start it, I must have flooded it.

Now that I know what to do, it hits on that first cold start on about the 2nd or third crank and then after that it'll hit on the first crank everytime. I'm glad to know it was just me!! Got me some StaBill stuff for when I store it this winter. Gonna do a little work on it. I'd like to recarpet the trailer but don't know what I'm gonna do with my boat while I do that. Is there a marina that would let me rent a spot and let the boat stay for a day or so?

And as far as fishing goes. I don't know what to do. My last few trips to Watts Bar haven't been that great except for one day last week. I thought about running way up the lake looking for bass and shad in the creeks; or just going to Chickamauga, since the creeks there are more plentyful around my area. It would actually be quicker for me to get to Chickamauga and Hiwassee from where I live but since I know absolutely ZERO about either of them, I go to Watts Bar for just security reasons I guess. I know where the sandbars and stuff are on it. LOL.

 

[saltwatts]

Blue Springs Marina rents out their dry storage spots (they put it on a rack with a forklift) on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. They always have plenty of space. I used to keep my boat there, and they are good people.

 

[J-Dub]

Daniel, thanks for the report and the follow up on your motor (operator) problem. Made me smile as we've all had some sort of thing we've done that made us feel like dorks with fishing. You're just brave enough to fess up to it. LOL. Anyway, you must enjoy being out on the lake a bunch to stay out all day w/o having much success. To make you feel better just tell yourself that those schooling fish were just large shad, or skipjack- whatever they're called. That's what I tell myself when I can't trick schoolers because I don't want to have to touch those slimy buggers and get slime and scales all inside my boat and on me.emoLaugh In all honesty I did get into a HUGE school of those skipjacks one year and threw everything but dynamite and couldn't buy a bite. The boat drifted into the school finally and after some of them about jumped into the boat I did see they were skipjack so that's my default excuse when I can't catch shcoolers.