WB stripers Thursday 12-21-06

[drumking]

Dr Phillip and his son Luke went striper fishing with me this morning below the Watts Bar dam. We had it all to ourselves. We only had 2 hours to fish as we both had appointments that we had to keep, so here is the report.

We started at 7:00. TVA generating 24,500 CFS. My casio fishing time watch said 7:30 was the peak of the morning movement. We landed our first striper at 7:41 and it weighed 16.3 pounds. It was Luke Gawtrop's very first striper ever, even if he did need a little help. I hooked the fish and handed him the rod and let him wear it down. Boy did that young man enjoy this fight. That just made my day.

I landed a 16.9 pounder at 8:12 and a 12.2 pounder at 8:32. In between those times Dr Phillip landed 2 nice white bass and had a striper pull off. I lost one other fish this morning. It was sort of slow in the beginning and we had to quit just as things seemed to be heating up. I wished that we had had a couple more hours to fish. I included the times that we caught fish just in case there are those who are curious about how accurate or not these predicted times are.

At 8:00 TVA increased the flow to 34,600 CFS. The fish were caught out of the middle of the flow. For some unknown reason, I couldn't buy a strike from the right edge of the flow and that usually is the hottest bite up there. Birds were working great on both edges, but the fish we caught came out of the middle. 3/4 oz shadhead jigs and 6" hardhead plastic bodies were the lures of choice.

 

[TennesseeTalker]

Nice Mr. DrumKing ... very nice. Good fish yer lipp'in in that pic.



TT

 

[rsimms]

Pretty and fat! (The fish, not youemoLaugh )

 

[Fat Albert]

<font color="#6600ff">Naw, Richard I'm thinking the other way after what he said about me the other day.....I wish he had hair...LOL  lov ya man

</font>

 

[DHaun]

Great report DrumKing - Looks like you all had a blast!

 

[Bprice]

Its always great to see teenagers fishing... it kept me out of a lot of trouble. Not all of it, but a good bit

 

[Fishin Fool]

I keep saying you are gonna have to take me sometime! Good fish DK!

 

[slo-ride]

wtg, Drumking!!!!...those are some very healthy looking stripahs emoThumbsup
been meaning to ask...what pound line are you using when jig fishing?

 

[drumking]

Fishin Fool - 12/21/2006 2:58 PM

I keep saying you are gonna have to take me sometime! Good fish DK!

There is a strong possibility that I can take you either Wednesday or Friday of next week. Mrwhiskers is taking me to school below Chickamauga on one of those days and you can have the other.

Slo-ride, I use 20 lb test Trilene Big Game lo-vis green line and 7.0 ft med-hvy rods. I pour my own shadhead jigs and powder paint them either chartreuse, yellow, or pink.

I don't remember if I mentioned it in this morning's report, but the water temp below the dam was 51 degrees when we started. I hope that it holds there for a couple of more weeks. If it don't get below 46 degrees this winter, I will probably go at least once every week until May.emoGeezer

 

[slo-ride]

drumking - 12/21/2006 1:27 PM
Slo-ride, I use 20 lb test Trilene Big Game lo-vis green line and 7.0 ft med-hvy rods. I pour my own shadhead jigs and powder paint them either chartreuse, yellow, or pink.

I don't remember if I mentioned it in this morning's report, but the water temp below the dam was 51 degrees when we started. I hope that it holds there for a couple of more weeks. If it don't get below 46 degrees this winter, I will probably go at least once every week until May.emoGeezer

the reason for asking is that i've seen times where line size(even by 2 lbs.) made a huge difference when sweeping jigs through the current in the tailraces...i've fished 12 to 17, but never 20..have to give it a shot.(hopefully soon..i haven't been fishing since summer emoDoh )

that's right on target about the water temps....seems like down here, when the water hits 45, it's over below the dams.

 

[drumking]

slo-ride - 12/21/2006 8:25 PM

drumking - 12/21/2006 1:27 PM
Slo-ride, I use 20 lb test Trilene Big Game lo-vis green line and 7.0 ft med-hvy rods. I pour my own shadhead jigs and powder paint them either chartreuse, yellow, or pink.

I don't remember if I mentioned it in this morning's report, but the water temp below the dam was 51 degrees when we started. I hope that it holds there for a couple of more weeks. If it don't get below 46 degrees this winter, I will probably go at least once every week until May.emoGeezer

the reason for asking is that i've seen times where line size(even by 2 lbs.) made a huge difference when sweeping jigs through the current in the tailraces...i've fished 12 to 17, but never 20..have to give it a shot.(hopefully soon..i haven't been fishing since summer emoDoh )

that's right on target about the water temps....seems like down here, when the water hits 45, it's over below the dams.

I have fished 15 and 20 and the 20 works so much better as far as presenting the lures below Watts Bar dam. I know that water is deeper below Nickajack and smaller diameter line may be the way to go down there. Chickamauga is much shallower and the drift is short plus I don't believe that there are as many stripers below the Chick as Nick and Watts Bar.

We meticulously fished each temp in years past and paid attention to the number of bites that we got and although you can still catch fish in water temps as low as 42, the number of bites isn't worth the cost of the trip to make up there. The only time that I fished at 42 degree water temp we had 1 bite in 4 hours of fishing, but that fish weighed 26 pounds. Nice fish, but I had rather catch three 8 pounders as one 24 pounder. Our drifts typically last 4 minutes, plus 1 minute to run back up to the dam, so that is 12 drifts per hour. 4 hours is 48 drifts for that 1 fish. Doesn't make any sense to me to do that. I just wait on better conditions. When the water gets that cold, I Crappie fish in the creeks where I can find some warmer water and I have more success in January and February than I do in March and April. My records reflect that.emoGeezer

 

[polo-dog]

Great job Luke! Fantastic that you can get on the fish up there like that. I feel the way you do about the species of fish that I go for DK, I tend to fish for what will bite. I enjoy fishing for bass more than anything but when they are finicky or other fish are really hot or if I want to eat something I'll fish for other species. I hate to spend a day and not catch much and someone come and tell me that the same day they were killing another species.

 

[drumking]

I know what you mean, Polo. That's my sentiments exactly. I have caught enough big bass, stripers, catfish in my lifetime to satisfy me. Now I want to catch as many shellcrackers, crappie, bluegills, yellow bass as I can. Whatever is biting is what I want to go after. I hardly ever do full day trips anymore, so when I fish for 1/2 day, I want to be catching fish. I promise you that I get just as excited over a 12" crappie as I do a 15 pound striper. It's all relative.emoBigsmile emoGeezer

 

[2jigs]

I'm with you guys, I think I could close my eyes & have you pull on my line & get excitedemoUpsmile emoToast But before it's all over & done with wouldn't you like to get one of those big black marlins say about 400-600lbsemoGeezer I think you could still do it DKemoWorthy

 

[WLG]

Im gonna have to take better notes on here when Drumking speaks so I can learn how to catch those BIG stripers. I went up there to WB a few weeks ago and I zeroed on the stripers. Caught plenty of skipjacks though.( BAIT) I started reading on here when i got home and realized i was probably running right through the middle of the fishemoScratch I guess you live and ya learn

 

[foodsaver]

you sure make it look easy! My dad and I went up there and couldnt buy a bite! I think the solution is to fish more and work less!

 

[Gator]

Congrats on another great day at WB Mr. Drumking. You made another day for a teenager too. I bet as long as the ice isn't too deep you can catch 'em. Have a Merry Christmas.

 

[drumking]

foodsaver - 12/22/2006 11:32 PM

you sure make it look easy! My dad and I went up there and couldnt buy a bite! I think the solution is to fish more and work less!

It is sort of hard to explain how or why I have success up there on the stripers. For one thing, I have been doing this for 6 or 7 years and I have learned a lot about reading water. As I am drifting downstream, I pay attention to having my jig in the proper position when it is entering the eddy water that is around a rock pile. I just don't let it drag through the rocks or you will hang up all the time and catch few fish. But I reel just fast enough to keep slack out of the line, yet let the jig just barely tick the tops of the rocks. The stripers are laying on the downstream side of the eddys. The difference between ticking the top of rocks and a rockfish bite is like this. Tic, Tic, Tic, soft Thud. The sharper tics is the jig hitting the top of rocks, the soft thud immediately after that is a striper taking the jig. Set the hook hard and fast.

If you see that you jig is out of position as you are approaching a good rapid, reel it in like mad and make another cast into the proper position or you will waste a drift. I don't like to waste drifts. Another thing that I have noticed this year. There doesn't seem to be as many fish up there as there are in normal years. I don't understand this. It is just a mystery to me as it is to the rest of you guys. I know that Bigfishguide is experiencing the same things below the Nick. Not as many fish as normal.

I'm not catching any small fish below Watts Bar. That is a great concern for me. Where are the next generation of stripers coming from. Isn't TWRA stocking the fish as they once were? I could go back and look at my records, but I would say just off hand that I haven't caught more than 5 fish this fall that was under 10 pounds. Most of the fish have been in the 12-21 pound range with just a lot of them 16-18 pounds.

In past years, we were disappointed if we didn't catch at least 30-40 fish in a 2 hour period that we usually fish. We have gone 2 hours straight with at least one fish per drift and many doubles. That hasn't happened to me this year. I think that 11 is the most that I have caught on 1 trip this year. Numbers just aren't there. If anyone knows why, I sure wish that they would chime in and let us all know what the problem is.emoGeezer