WB tailwater 4/30/06

[drumking]

I saw that there was a good water flow this morning from Watts Bar, so I decided to see if any Stripers were active. I didn't see a single one caught. We did manage to catch 7 White Bass, 2 large Drum, 2 river herring, and landed one nice Smallmouth about 3 pounds and lost another one at the boat that was at least 1 to 2 pounds heavier. We didn't see many fish caught by other boats and all that I saw caught were blue catfish and 1 White Bass. Slow day for everyone up there. We fished about 2.5 hours. Water temp was around 66 degrees.

Going tomorrow and look for Shellcrackers!emoQuestion emoGeezer

 

[JerDog]

Hey Drumking,

How were you fishing for the stripers? Live bait or jigs? I put another message out there for you as well. When you were nailing stripers a couple of springs ago with the flood gates open, what were you using?

 

[drumking]

JerDog - 4/30/2006 8:51 PM

Hey Drumking,

How were you fishing for the stripers? Live bait or jigs? I put another message out there for you as well. When you were nailing stripers a couple of springs ago with the flood gates open, what were you using?

I always use artificial baits. Mostly 1/2 and 3/4 oz shadhead jigs that I pour and powder paint myself. I use a variety of plastic bodies on them from 5" bass assassins in the summer to 4" and 5" sassy shad bodies. In the bass assassins, my favorite color is white/clear flake and mostly pearl colored sassy shads that I will sometimes use magic markers in yellow to streak them. I realize that sometimes, live bait will outfish the jigs, but I really don't care. There are more times that I will catch many more on jigs that any live bait.

About 4 years ago, my friend and I were up there in the fall and we were nailing a double on every drift and a Striper guide from Roane county was up there using live bait and couldn't get a bite. After watching us for 9 or 10 drifts and seeing us double every drift and he didn't even get a bite, he waiting for us at the end of a drift and eased over and asked us 'what the heck are you guys doing?' We shared several of our jigs with him, made instant friends and he promised to keep us in live bait if we ever wanted any. We haven't taken him up on that yet.

I'm sorry that I didn't answer sooner. I have been out of town for a few days and didn't see your question. Just got back home yesterday.emoAngel

 

[JerDog]

Hey, thanks for the input. I think that jigs may be the ticket for the next few weeks with all the bait out there. Just throwing the fish something different sometimes does the trick.