Percy Priest 4-16-10

Another tough day on Priest at least for me. Put in Stewarts Creek at 7 am and fished until 3:30 pm. I caught 7 fish, 1 skipjack (about 5") 1 dink bass (on a swimbait) and 4 keepers 13-15" most on rattlebaits, 1 on plastic and 1 very nice crappie. Water temp was a surprising 72-74 degrees. I fished from the junction of Spring, Fall and Stones. Fished up in Fall Creek. Then fished mostly flats back toward Fate Sanders. Fished a river bluff, fished in Bryant Creek, fished the roadbed to the left after going under the Hobson Bridge.a Finished the day fishing several spots in Stewarts Creek. All fish caught in 3-5 feet of water but was disappointed that I didn't find more fish. Water is up some but still lots of danger spots.

I think this is has been one of my toughest spring fishing experience. Just can't seem to find the fish. They say let the fish tell you what they want. Well not only can I not catch them, I can't even get an appointment to interview them.

Center Hill Lake - 4-10-10 F3 Tournament

Wisps of fog everywhere on a chilly (38-39 degree) morning as 8 boats of the F3 Bass Club gathered around a no wake buoy at the Hurricane Bridge Ramp on Saturday. I think I was so excited to get to my first fishing spot, I forgot to put gloves or earmuffs on. So I off I went with Lawrence Watson, my partner for the day. Negotiating the cross wakes from high speed bass boats going both ways on the narrow lake was "interesting" After a short 10 minute ride to a narrow creek in Dry Fork which is in Mine Lick Creek, we arrived and in short order I launched a crankbait. Fished all the way to back of the creek and back up the other side, we finally came to gravel point at the head of the creek. We had used crankbaits, jigs, spinner baits, grubs and craws with no fish. I finally switched to a white X Rap slashbait. Caught a 13.5" in largemouth. Fished on down the gravel bar and picked up a 12" spot. Then caught 2 very nice bluegill on the X Rap. Lawrence missed on really good bite on his jig. Fished around the corner and started back and saw Noah and his partner Randy on the gravel point. He had caught a 19.5" largemouth there. Told him that was my fish but no avail. He won big fish for the day and the tournament with 6+ pounds. Congrats Noah.

We moved to a rocky bank still in Mine Lick. I caught one more 13" spot and lost a couple of more all on the same X Rap. All in all a tough but satisfying day. I was shocked to find out I finished second place with 3.37 pounds. Fishing should finally get a lot better with warmer days and nights.

Center Hill Lake - 4-3-10

Not everyone "whacked em" at the Hill Saturday. I fished with Noah Richardson on a cool, rainy morning. Noah was breaking in a new motor this day and was very pleased with its performance. We fished really hard but just couldn't connect. He caught 2 spots, one nice 1.75 off a river bluff. He then proceeded to show me a technique that I had not seen before, catching 2 large bluegill on a blue and chrome red eye shad. I, in the meantime, got absolutely and totally skunked. Got a lot of bites but could not hook up. However, I am fully confident that I can make a decent showing at our tournament next Saturday at CH. It was a pleasure to fish with Noah and I did learn some things about fishing these deep, rocky lakes.

The water temp was mostly 57-59 but we found one spot that was 53. We did see a tremendous amount of dying shad. Odd because the there has not been a really cold night in a number of days. Someone had suggested the lake was turning over which would have an effect on the shad.