Watts Bar 4-9-07 bass

[jon the fisherman]

I went bass fishing today, put in at Tom fuller in Rockwood around 1 pm. It was a little windy but still nice to be out there. I caught about 20 bass, but only four were keepers. The biggest was about 3lbs and all fish were caught between 2 and 10 feet deep on a slow rolled spinnerbait. The fish were on the first drop near spawning areas, and were oriented with stumps. If there were no stumps, then there were no fish. All fish had large bellies and are getting closer to the beds. Water is about 4' low and was 59-61 degrees.

 

[2jigs]

Good report Jon.

 

[jason]

Stumps, stumps, stumps...lately, every good report has them. Is it just Tennessee River pre-spawners or largemouth in general that have a fondness for stumps in Spring? Glad to hear you got a chance to get on your home water, jtf. 

 

[DHaun]

Great report JTF - Thanks!

 

[Bprice]

Thanks for the report JTF... looking forward to getting back up there over the summer for some night action!

 

[Jmax]

jason - 4/9/2007 10:14 PM

Stumps, stumps, stumps...lately, every good report has them. Is it just Tennessee River pre-spawners or largemouth in general that have a fondness for stumps in Spring? Glad to hear you got a chance to get on your home water, jtf. 

Jason your guestion of stumps, stumps, stumps can be answered with spawn, spawn, spawn. In a river system like ours there is a lot of lose dirt and silt. The bass will look for hard bottoms, either rock or wood. In some lakes with a lot of silt they will spawn on top of stumps. I am sure some of them do it here. I believe it was Rsimms that was talking about how the bream will look for a pocket or pretected area where they only have to defend the beds from a limited direction. The bass are the same way. If they can find a pocket or bank with hard bottoms and wood they will spawn there and since the stump will block one direction it allows them to defend it better. Same with rocks and boulders. They gravitate to that type of area this time of year more then ever looking for the prefect place to set up house. Jmax

 

[jon the fisherman]

to add to what Jmax said, I believe that early in the season when the water is still cool, the bass use the stumps for nesting because they are dark. The heat generated may not be much, but it is enough for the eggs to hatch. As the water warms, they will be less picky about where to spawn, using more rocks and fallen trees.

 

[Tr19]

That is a good report there JTF . I love throwing a blade in the spring .

 

[Bprice]

Excellent info guys...

I honestly can say I didn't consider largemouths spawning in wood and rock. I guess i just left that for the Smallies.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Fish Hunter]

Very nice report! Hopefully, they will be moving up in a couple days if this weather will stabilize.