Percy Priest 10-21-2011

Supposed to have gone to Memphis today but the trip was delayed until Saturday. So...I decided to go fish.  I decided not to go early but after doing a little maintenance and filling up with no ethanol gas in the boat I finally got on the lake at 10 am. Headed for the junction of East Fork and West Fork first. My first spot didn't pay off but I did pick up 2 bass in the chute between the island and the bank. Quite a few shad flipping. Headed down river to old faithful, the pumping station. Lots of shad flipping but I could not get a bite. Weird. Further downriver to the big flat off the main river which usually produces something. Not today. Back upriver to Falls river branch. Fished a flat there but again nothing, no shad. Down Spring Creek and caught 1 on a point but again nothing else. Even went to the 840 bridge to fish the piers but it also was fruitless. Back to the pumping station. Same result.

Passed the ramp (Jefferson Springs) and couldn't decide to quit or go try the junction again. The junction it was. Picked up 4 more in the chute again and called it a day. Most of the fish were small with maybe 2-3 14". Most were caught on the Red Eye Shad with a couple on the DT6. Left at 4 with a total of 7 fish in the boat. Only lost 1 fish today. Sort of disappointed in the catch but glad I came.

Percy Priest 10-14-2011

On the river at Jefferson Springs ramp at 6:15 am. River is very foggy and still but the winds are expected to be 15-25. I can confirm they were closer to 25-30 than 10-15. I started at my old faithful, the pumping station just downriver from the ramp. Threw a buzz bait, crank bait, fluke and Red Eye Shad but no cigar. No shad flipping. So I head upriver on a tip from a friend. He said I should be there before the sun came up but with fog and part of the river unknown to me I waited. Went about 5 miles above the 840 bridge but I could not score. Very few shad showing and the leaves were extremely thick on the water. Makes it hard to fish a bait properly. Finally headed back to the junction of the East Fork and West Fork. Set up in 18 feet casting to the bank in 3-5 feet and immediately hooked up a nice bass but naturally he pitched it back to me. I was throwing the DT6 in shad color that Jack gave me a lesson on the week before. First fish landed was at 9 am. I then hooked and caught 6 more bass and early released 4 more. On my third fish I had a break off of my DT6. The fish refused to give it back. I then tried a Bandit in Root beer and it produced. Fisherman are never satisfied so I had to try my Little John in Cell Mate color. Caught 1 and then my line broke on the cast and the Little John was donated to the West Fork. These fish were concentrated on a shelf feeding on shad as they entered the East Fork. A local had clued me into this pattern a few weeks ago. The fish finally quit feeding and I couldn't locate them again. Headed back downriver. Stopped at the pumping station again and found a little action, very little. Moved across the cove to the flat just before a stone bluff and picked up a nice little smallmouth on a SK square bill. Went downriver to a large flat off a swing in the river. Caught 2-3 here on Red Eye Shad.

Decided to head up Spring Creek and stopped on a sharp point. Caught another on the Shad. Stopped at the pumping station one more time and picked another 1-2. I think altogether I landed 13 and lost 9 (that were actually hooked). Most of the fish were 12-13 inches with only 2 around 14-14.5. The wind was really whistling by now so I headed for the ramp around 2 pm. It was somewhat slow but if I had landed all I hooked and hooked the number of hard strikes I had it would have been a pretty good day. It was still fun to be on the lake.

I can't wait for the next time on the lake.

Percy Priest 10-6-2011

Thursday looked to be a great day for fishing, light wind, temp in the 80’s but a cool morning. Picked up Jack at 5:30 am, made a quick stop at Hardee’s for a breakfast biscuit and headed for Jefferson Springs ramp on the Stones River in upper Percy Priest. Beautiful sight, fog on the river, shad flipping, gar coming up for a quick surface flop, yep, gonna be a great day. 

We motored downriver a short distance to the flat beside the pumping station. Made a few tentative casts with topwater baits but saw no surfacing bass. Finally going to my old reliable, Red Eye Shad, I quickly hooked and lost 3 straight fish. Jack switched to a Rapala DT6 in silver and quickly scored. We caught and released (some early releases) 9 or 10 bass in the next several minutes. Most not too big but nevertheless fun to catch. After they slowed down we motored down lake to another large flat off the main river. Fishing was slow but we still picked up the occasional bass on this flat. There were a lot of shad but they didn’t seem to be in large clouds hovering near the surface. I think that is why the DT 6 did well because it ran a little deeper. I continued with the Shad and also threw the new KVD Square Bill 1.0 crankbait. Since Jack had not fished the upper part of Priest I wanted to show him a couple of more spots. 

We moved on down lake to Stewart’s Creek to a small flat that I have had some success on last fall. Picked up 1 there but not much happening. We hung around there for a while then went toward the back of the creek arm with the slalom course. Almost got hung up on a mud flat so we tried another small cove nearby. Jack picked up a couple of more so we moved again. I didn’t want him to embarrass me anymore. Went back to the big flat up river for another 2-3. Then headed back to the pumping station but someone was on our spot, so I headed upriver to the junction of the East Fork and West Fork of the Stones river. Again one or two fish picked up and decided to head in to the ramp around noon.

We didn’t keep an accurate count but were sure it was 15-18 fish, most small, with a few in 1 to 1.25 lb range. Jack had one really nice crappie on the crankbait. We lost nearly as many as we caught. Never have figured out how a bait with 2 treble hooks on it can release a bass so easily. Really was a nice day and got our lines stretched a bit but not much endangered with breaking. Fall fishing should get better each time out now until winter encroaches. 

Kentucky Lake New Johnsonville 9/30-10/1

Noah and I met at McDonalds in Hurricane Mills at 5:30 am. We were excited to get on the lake and launched at 6:30 am. First stop was in Trace creek where we threw topwaters with only a few slaps at the baits. We finally saw some schooling bass off a gravel point and picked up several on the Red Eye Shad (refered hereafter as RES). Next stop was the creek we call the Factory but no fish here. Like a magnet, Richland Creek was calling Noah. He knew some places he liked. I had never been to that area. Getting there was the problem. I haven't mentioned the wind yet. It was ferocious. We were in Noah's 22 ft Bumble Bee with a 225 Yamaha. We knew it was rough when we hit the 2 and 3 footers, then 3 and 4 footers and then 4 to 5 footers. By the time we got to our destination we were drenched and relieved to be out of the maelstrom. (how's that for a big word). But...we did find bass busting shad everywhere. We did catch plenty of fish most on RES. The fish were in 1# to 2.5#. I broke a 4 pounder off. Had to be a nick in the line and not operator error.

We then left heading south to the back side of the river near Pilot's Knob. Again we found lots of shad flipping and bass busting. We continued to catch fish on RES. Noah tried a jig, spinner bait, chatterbait and fluke but the RedEye was still the ticket. We really didn't keep an accurate count but are certain it was over 30 with at least 20 lost. Even with the horrible wind and waves it was a very successful day.

We went to Camden for a so so dinner, got gas and headed back to the motel to cover the boats and prepare for an early to bed.

We were up before 5am preparing for our club tournament. Our guys were at the ramp launching ready for a 6:30 blast off. The wind was still with us. My partner, Lawrence and I began at Trace Creek caught a few non keepers all schoolies and all on the Red Eye Shad. We then headed to Little Dry Creek. No shad evident but I did pick up my first keeper. We soon decided to go down river to the opening of the boatlane that goes upriver on the west side. We found scattered bass on the gravel flats near Pilot's Knob. I finally finished my limit. We caught several bass but getting keepers was tough. The cold front was responsible for scattering the shad and changing the bass bite. At 11:15 we started back knowing river was extremely rough. We made it back safely and headed to the ramp for the weigh in.

Rob won the boater championship for the Classic. Omar won as non-boater. I finished in 3rd. Rob also won big fish with an 18 incher.

I had an enjoyable two days fishing with Noah and Lawrence. The cold front certainly affected the bite but Kentucky Lake is a world class bass lake.