Percy Priest 8-5-2011

Well, this was a different sort of a day at the lake, cause it really wasn't a lake. It was the river, the Stones River to be exact. A good friend told me he had a good day on the river so I gave it a try. I put in at Jefferson Springs about 5:30 am and hit a spot that I had done well last fall. Not a bite. That's when I went exploring. Started up the river with a GPS that worked sometimes and sometimes not. The reason I needed the GPS is to stay in the channel of the river which was marked sparsely with buoys. Fished several likely looking spots with no hits.

Finally came to the East Fork/West Fork junction. Great looking spot. No bites. Journeyed up the East Fork stopping occasionally but again no bites. By the way, it was a great morning, cloud cover, not too hot. Reversed directions and headed back to the West Fork traveling 2-3 miles that way. Fished likely looking spots and finally got a bite on a fluke but no hook up. Met a local who fishes several days a week on the river. He had been catching good numbers of fish as recently as Wednesday, the 3rd but he was fishless on the this day also. His theory was a 3 inch rain in Murphressboro on Thursday turned the fish off.

I motored back to my beginning spot and hooked a 12" bass on a bitsy bug jig. I then caught a couple of more 13-14" on the same bait. Switched to a red eye shad and caught a couple of more bass and a tiny white bass. That first bass came at 10:50 am. In about 20 minutes it stopped as suddenly as it started. Could have been the thunder in the distance. I loaded out at 11:45 and headed for home. Went through an incredible thunderstorm, so heavy it was hard to see on I840.

All in all, an interesting day. Avoided another bagel on Priest and learned some new areas to fish.