Watts Bar 11-9

[Daniel Tn]

YEE HAW!!

Somedays you go and have decent days. Some days you go and have terrible days. And some days you go and just have one of those YEE HAW days and today was one of those YEE HAW days.

Put in at hornsby and went fishing for crappie BUT didn't catch any crappie. I caught a few largemouths that were just fun to catch and moved to another spot or two. Well long story shorter...I made a run to try and look for some schooler fish and went to where I was a few weeks ago and fish were breaking all around me and I couldn't catch them.

Well I got there and lo and behold they were doing it again but this time I found out what they were. I first had one hooked on a Rat-L-Trap and fought it for a couple minutes when I realized this was a BIG fish. It pulled off though. Well I had an idea. I tied on a big rooster tail and when they started breaking near me again I threw over there and soon as I cranked the reel handled my drag started singing. I fought this fish for a good 15-20 minutes and even have video on my camera of me fighting it. It would pull drag out and I thought my reel was going to be out of line it pulled so much. A couple of times I thought it was going to break my wrist. I got it to my boat and saw that it was a purdy good stripe bass. Actually the biggest dang fish I've ever caught in my whole life. I mean a 3 1/2 to 4 foot long FAT and big stripe. I ain't sure how much he/she weighed. I don't have a net and was by myself and I know this sounds like the biggest "fishy" story you've heard in your life. But I honest to goodness couldn't lift this fish out of the water. I made several attempts to and why I didn't take a picture of it while I had it there at that point I do not know. On my last attempt to lift him I got him about 1/4 to halfway out of the water and he started shaking and flopping around and I dropped him in the water and he was gone. So I figured out what the breaking fish were. They were coralling up those schools of shad and going to town. Problem was...this one I caught on a big roostertail and he bent it all to crap. I fished there til dark and they were unpredictable as to where they were going to turn up next. They might be 50 yds from you or 150 yds from you. Only twice did I get them in casting distance and both of those times is when I hooked up. YEE HAW kinda day right there. Wish I had a big picture to show ya'll but I don't. Caught one more big fish but it was a big 10-12 pound drum.

 

[japlata]

Yep I can relate to your story, the same thing happened to me about two yrs. ago at Bay Side Marina when after a buddy and I put in we discovered the dock was surrounded by zillions of shad Minnows, and something was feeding on them just like you described. All around us the water would explode and when it did we would throw a silver spoon to the spot. We wasn't really rigged for the huge stripers or the big cats that were feeding on them. My partner had 14 LB test line on a spinner and was able to land two stripers. We could not weigh them but they may have weighed around twenty pounds or so each. I had a smaller line around 10 or 12 pound test line, and its just as well two because, I was doing something a little differently than my fishing partner because I was catching big cat fish that were feeding underneath the minnows. I didn't bring any of the cats home to eat but sure did enjoy the action. I did bring home the stripers just to see if they were as palatable as I remembered. ( they were). I think the secret if there is one is to find the minnows and stripers in the pocket of a cove where the frenzy isn't spread out so far. I realize this may be hard to do, But if you can find them you may need a seat belt and a nitro pill.emoHoppingmad

 

[DHaun]

Thanks for the report Daniel Tn! My first striper was caught and lost on Watts bar on 12 lb line in college...it felt like I threw my lure into moving traffic when it hit. Thats where I got hooked...I need to go fish that lake sometime again soon but I know very little about where to target them. It's good to know they are active up there right now! Maybe a few will show up at the Nuke on Chickamauga this year.

 

[BeeBasser]

Great Report Daniel Tn.
I was fishing with my Uncle on Watts Bar one day and he hooked into a Monster Stripe on a grub with small spinning gear and 8lb. test line. My uncle would never change his line until he was short casting it all out. That huge fish ran his line out several times as I manned the trolling motor trying to catch up with it. The fish stayed in a shallow slough and never ran to deep water or we would have lost him. After 30 minutes and exhausted, My Uncle brought him beside the boat and I netted him. He weighed 35lbs., the biggest fish we had ever caught. A YEE HAW DAYemoLaugh