Center Hill Lake - 3-30-10

Center Hill

Went to Center Hill yesterday (Tuesday). Put in at Hurricane Bridge ramp about 7am. The fog was extremely thick from the time I got off I40 and on the lake until about 9:30. I navigated slowly across the river by GPS into a slough near the bridge. Fished until the fog lifted with no bites. Fished in Mine Lick Creek mostly on points and in the back of washes or creeks. Only caught 2 spots both keepers, one 12" and one 13". Both caught on Little John cranks, one crawfish and the other cell mate (that's the color, sort of shad). Fished Shad Raps, jigs, jerk baits, spinner baits, plastic and Red eye Shad Rattlebait. Water temp was 49-50 on the main lake, 52-23 in the creeks until about 3pm where I found some 55-56 back in the creeks. Also fished in Hurricane Creek, no fish but promising. We should have 60+ degree water in the next week or two.

Percy Priest - 3/20/10

Our bass club, F3, held their first tournament on Saturday, March 20, out of Long Hunter Ramp. Huge crowd at the ramp at 6 am, at least 3 other clubs if not more. Weather was pretty chilly in the morning but warmed up some by noon. Cloudy day. I caught 1 keeper (1.25) on a white jerk bait. My partner, Charlie Taylor, caught 1 (1.25) on a jig and 2 other dinks. The winner was Tim Sheets with 9+ pounds, Duke Dunsford second with 6+. Noah Richardson caught big fish with a 4 lb smallmouth.

Percy Priest- 3/16/10

Cold and cloudy day on Priest. Fished 10-4. Caught 2, 1 dink and 1 2lb. The 2lb LM had the mouth and length of a 3.5 but was really skinny. Caught it on a deep jerk on a bluff. The dink was on a rattletrap (red) in shallow water. Water temp was 45-47. No pattern at all for F3 Tournament this Saturday.

Toledo Bend

Toledo Bend

This is a huge lake, some 200,000 acres and 65 miles long on the Sabine River mostly a boundary between Louisiana and Texas. 10 friends made the trip from Memphis to Many, La. 9 are from Memphis and 1, me, from Franklin, TN. Trip is about 400+ miles. We left on Sunday morning, Feb 28 at 6 am and arrived at the lake a little before 3 pm, just in time to fish for a couple of hours. My fishing partner, Doyal Brown, has been coming to T-Bend for 25 years. We caught 1 bass Sunday afternoon.

Monday morning dawned with downpour, cold and windy and lasted all day. We took the wimpy way out and stayed in our cabin watching TV.

Tuesday was cloudy and cold with a breeze. We trailered about 10 miles to our launch ramp at Indian Mounds Recreation Area. The temp was 27 degrees but we were layered up pretty good and stayed relatively warm. Fished until about 5 pm and caught zip, zero, none….. Some of our group caught a few, 1 or 2 but Roger caught 2 over 5 pounds. Still not a banner day.

Wednesday morning clear and frosty and again about 27 degrees. For some reason it seemed much colder than Tuesday. I caught 1 2lb bass and Doyal zipped again. Most of the other guys had a similar day. Roger and Jim were zeroed. Phil and Maurice had 3, Calvin and Mike had 3, Bill and Jeff had 1 each.

By now we are all pretty frustrated. We have been fishing this week or the 2nd week of March for years and we usually have from 12 to 35 fish per boat. The water temp was still pretty cold and a front had just come through Monday but this was just tough. We spoke with several local fisherman and they were just as puzzled over how bad the fishing was for this week.

Thurday was not quite as cold and a little more pleasant with light and variable winds. Again we fished hard with spinner baits, crankbaits, lizards, worms, craws and briefly, a kitchen sink. I finally caught 3 on a speed worm in 6 Mile creek. Doyal went zero for the 3rd straight day. He was not a happy camper. Again similar results from the other guys but Phil caught the big fish of the trip, 5 lb 9 oz.

Friday was a beautiful day with light to no wind. Again we fished hard and Doyal finally caught 4 fish and I caught 1 at 4:20 in the afternoon after beginning at 7:30. Calvin and Mike had 9, the others were 2-5 per boat. All in all a very disappointing trip. The other 4 boats were finished and going home on Saturday. Doyal and I stayed 1 more day. Had a crawfish fest at our cabin Friday night. Most enjoyable.

Saturday was the nicest day of the trip. On the lake at 7 am and fished hard. I caught my first fish at 4:30pm. However, Mr. Brown caught 6 including 3 over 3 lbs with a total weight estimated at 15 lbs. He finally felt better about the trip. He has been coming here for 25 years but this was by far the worst trip for catching fish. Other than the catching of fish we had a great, safe trip with great food, fellowship and fun.

Doyal and I headed out early Sunday morning for Memphis. After arriving, I loaded my gear into my Suburban and set out for Franklin arriving around 7:30 pm.

Embarrassing to only catch 5 fish in 5 days and 2 hours but that is the truth which a fisherman rarely tells.

Reorganized my tackle in my boat and can’t wait until I am back on the water again.