Percy Priest 9-30-10

Interesting day today. Not great, not bad. Caught 12-13 bass, several nits, a few 12" and 2-3 14". All caught on a red eye shad. Several caught up the Stone River, rest in Stewart Creek on flats. Still didn't see any schools blowing up, just single fish roving the flats feeding on shad. Saw lots of huge schools of shad. Loaded out at 1:30. Wind was quite high today and the water temp was 73-75.

Noticed the night before that one of my trailer tires was low. Put air in all tires. Checked after coming back from the lake that the tire was getting low again. Went to Discount Tire to check it out. Discovered 3 out 4 of my valve stems were cracked. Replaced all for $30. Better than changing a tire on the side of the road.

Percy Priest 9-21-10

Another monotonous day on Priest with one exception. NO bites the first three hours beginning at 6:15 am. Finally found a spot that gave up 4 bass, most were nits but one might have gone 1.25 lbs. All on a Red Eye shad. Moved again to a rock bluff. Cast a brown jig with pumpkin pacacraw at the end of the bluff where it crossed over the river to the other side. A nice 4 lb 10 oz bass latched on and stayed on. As you can see, I need practice with camera by myself in the boat. I got my head and about a pound of the fish's head but she was a dandy. Not sure if I got another bite the rest of the day. Off the lake at 2:30. Today the temp was 96 air and 79-81 water temp. Come on October/November.

Percy Priest 9-11-10

What a day!  This was the last tournament of the year for the F3 Bass Club. Somehow my clocks got out of sync. I meant to get up at 4:10 am and instead got up and dressed a t 3:10 am. Tough start as Sam and David had a blowout on their trailer on the way to launch. Needed a jack and a wrench. Noah was able to stop and help them. We launched at 6 am. My partner was Steve Becker. We started in Bryant Grove not a long way from the ramp. I caught  a 17. 5 " Smallmouth on a Red Eye Shad fairly quick. We both caught some short fish. After a while we moved to another place, fished a point then moved into Savage Branch. I caught a 13" again on red eye shad. Steve had a 13" and a 15"  as we had moved back into the long cove beside Hobson Pike. His success was on a purple U-Tail worm.

While fishing back there I caught a nice 12-13" crappie. As I was lifting it into the boat, he shook hard and rocketed the red eye shad toward me embedding one of the trebles deep into my left thumb. I knew the technique widely published of taking a string in the bend of the hook, pressing in front of the barb and jerking  the hook out. Steve said I don't believe I can do that. I said I don't believe I can do that either. Steve called his wife who looked up the closest walk-in med center. Found one in La Vergne about 7 miles away. I drove us back to the ramp and Steve drove us to the Med center. The hook was quickly dispatched with the only pain being the Novocain shot to deaden the thumb. Very nice ladies treated me.

We got back to the ramp at 12:30. Weigh in time was 1 pm but pulling out was Rob. Now Rob is usually fishing to the last 30 seconds of time. As he was being pulled out he held up his hand and pointed to it. We thought he was pointing at his watch but it was a Bandit lure embedded in HIS hand. Fortunately, he pushed the barb through and Noah, again to the rescue, clipped the barb and removed the hook.

What a day! The tournament was won by Sam, with Noah second and me third. Sam had a 4 lb lm, Noah had an 18.5 smallmouth and I had a 17.5 smallmouth. It turned out to be a nice day on the water but the bizarre happenings made it most unusual.

Percy Priest 9-7-10

Finally caught a few bass at Priest today. Put in at Stewart's Creek and went up river to the convergence of Spring, Fall and Stone's. Went up Stones river to a couple of wide spots off the river. Got a few half hearted swipes at my buzz baits but no fish. Moved into a shallow channel off the river. Saw a couple of blowups on bait and flipped my buzz bait in there. Went on to catch 4 or 5 bass on the buzzbait. Switched to a 1/4 oz red eye shad and caught several more and lost at least that many. That went on the rest of the day. I can't figure out how a bait with 2 treble hooks allows almost every other bass to escape. I found a couple of other flats with bait and bass with the red eye shad being the best option. I counted somewhere around 19 bass in the boat with at least 12-15 hooked and lost. Size?? Not much. I had maybe 7-8 that would go 12" with a couple maybe 14". The rest were nits but after my last 3-5 trips the action was welcome. Even the nits fought ferociously (smile). Even caught 3-4 white bass. 

Tournament Saturday.

Percy Priest 9-1-10

I don't think I like Percy Priest. Beautiful lake. Looks "fishy". I just can't consistently catch decent fish here.

I was on the lake at 5:30 am, before safe light. Hung around in Long Hunter bay waiting for the schools of bass, white bass and hybrids to start breaking according to a very recent report. No schools. Went to Bryant creek where a another report says schools break in this creek early.  No schools. So I fished coves, points, creek channels, islands, bluffs, pockets from Bryants up and into Suggs. Caught 1  12" and 1 13", the small one on a worm and the other on a Little John crank. Off at 2 pm. I won't quit. I will keep trying figure out the key.

Bill