Percy Priest Mar 28, 2012

Back on the water today at 6:30 am. Launched at Long Hunter ramp. Headed for Bryant Grove toward the back of the creek. Caught a couple of shorts, one a smallmouth and one largemouth on a ShadRap and a SK Squarebill 1.0. Next stop was the big cove to the left after going under the bridge Picked up several fish including a couple of keepers. The Bitsy Bug jig and craw was the ticket here along with a Rattlesnake worm on a light Carolina rig and a heavy c-rig. There seemed to be a lot of fish in this spot. An interesting thing about today was how many fish hit right at the boat, I would say at least 8 or 9 strikes. Even caught a couple. With all the fish hitting a bait swimming, I put on a Big Hammer swim bait and quickly caught a white bass and a bream along with a bass Next stop was Smith Springs. Again caught a couple of shorts and 2 lb drum on the Hammer. Fished the rocky flat past the swimming area near Hamilton creek. Lost a really nice fish around 4 lbs after he jumped and returned my Hammer. Wind is increasing intensity after being relatively calm the first 3 hours. Next stop was the leeward side of a main lake island. Caught another bass by a stump again the Hammer. I headed back toward the cove near the bridge but someone was on my spot. Headed to the back of this cove when a totally unexpected event occurred. My boat is now 6 years old with the original deep cycle AGM batteries. They have never run down...until today when they quit nearly completely. In this wind it was time to head out (it's 1:30). My totals for the day was 13 bass, small and largemouth, a white bass, a drum and a bream. Most were small but probably had club limit of 12" or better. 3-4 were in the pound to pound and half range. Unfortunately no bigger (other than the 4 that escaped). A pretty good day except for the prospect of replacing those batteries.

Percy Priest March 24, 2012

Percy Priest March 24, 2012

First tournament for the Cumberland Bassmasters. My partner, Jack Neal, and I were on the water at 6:30 am raring to go. Five boats of bass fanatics stoked for the day. We hit the back of Savage creek on a shallow flat. Disappointed no bites. Motored down lake under the bridge and to the left in a pocket with an old roadbed. Finally caught a small non keeper. Jack caught a 15 " smallie on a jig and craw. I catch a couple more small ones and then Jack strikes again with a 16 3/4 largemouth. Crank it up and fished a steeper bank in water slide cove but no cigars. On to a point and down a shoreline in Smith Springs. I finally put a 12" keeper on the books. Caught a nice crappie and bream all on a ShadRap, which I eventually lost. The wind was blowing pretty good by now and fished the lee side of an island with lots of stumps. I caught a 16 1/4 LM on a SK square bill 1.0. Caught a couple more non keepers on the same bait. Moved to a main lake rock bluff fishing a jig along the edge. No bites. Fished a rocky point and picked up my third keeper on the 1.0. Raining by now but not too hard. Made one mor stop on an island but the rain was coming down pretty good now. Since we only had about 20 minutes to go we headed in with rain stinging the face like needles.

Everyone caught fish. Several limits reported. Big fish was an 18+" smallmouth but real skinny. We have two divisions, boaters and non boaters. Jack finished 3 rd in non and I finished a respectable 5th in boaters (5) with a fraction over 4 lbs. the winning boater had just under 10 lbs and the non had a little over 9 lbs. A fun day and successful launch.

Toledo Bend March 3-11, 2012

Toledo Bend March 3-11-2012 on the Texas/Louisiana border about 100 miles south of Shreveport.

The players: Mike and Calvin, Roger and Bill C, Gary and Jim, Phil and Maurice and Doyal and Bill H, 10 guys and 5 boats.

Left Memphis to meet the other 4 teams in West Memphis at 6:00 am. 10 minutes later found Rogers's boat beside I240 disabled after he lost a wheel from his trailer. Each of the other teams stopped for assistance. Fortunately no one was hurt and with some creative mechanical help (and a spare hub) we were back on the road in an hour with 480 miles to go. We stopped in Texarkana to eat when the wheel curse struck again on Phil's trailer. Bearing disintegrated, hub damaged. As Roger pulled out of a small parking lot, the shackles holding his axle on his trailer broke. Sounds like a horror story and felt like it too.  It is Sunday with most places closed.  However, they found an auto parts store and jury rigged a set of shackles to fix Roger's trailer. Reluctantly, Phil and Maurice decided to drive slowly to Zwolle, La on 3 wheels and made it. 

Monday we went fishing. We trailer about 18 miles to Indian Mounds ramp and area. Doyal and I caught 15 bass mostly on Carolina rigged lizards. Got back to the cabin and discovered we had flat on the trailer. Doyal could not locate the key to the lock on the spare tire but again someone had a patch kit. Since the problem was a screw in the tire the flat was fixed with some effort. Quick ride up the road on 3 wheels to fill up with air and we were good to go. 

Tuesday was our toughest fishing day with 11, but at least no drama. Well, that is not quite right. After Doyal drove the boat on the trailer I pulled up a little, jumped out of the truck without quite getting the gear in park. In fact, it was in reverse. I desperately scrambled to get back in with my foot on the brake. I couldn't speak for several minutes with the vision of Doyal's truck rolling into the lake. 

Wednesday we had 13 bass, no drama. Lizards still the most consistent bait. 

Thursday, rain, all day. I switched to a Baby Rattlesnake in Burnt Cactus on the C rig and got off to a good start. We had 20 for the day. Doyal caught a Grinnel about 8 lbs. he also caught several bass on a Senko. 

Saw our resident alligator in Hogpen Branch as well as several others.

 I haven't mentioned incredible problems with high winds. It is now mentioned. On Thursday night/Friday morning a strong storm and front moved through. With the wind and rain we elected not to fish on Friday. Most of the group had a great feast on about 40 lbs of crawfish prepared by a local guy. 

Six of our group went home Saturday while four of us fished on Saturday although it was pretty cold and windy. We caught 12 bass and caught more rain. Senkos, Rattlesnake and jerk baits were the ticket this day. I also caught a nice crappie on the jerk bait.  We wind up the week with 71 bass in spite of wind, rain, fronts and drama. Doyal and I were almost even all week with me having one more at the end. 

We made it to Memphis on Sunday with no incidents. I continued on to Franklin making it in at 9:45 pm after near 700 miles.

We had a good trip with the exception of the mechanical issues. Most of the fish we caught were in the 1.5-2.5 lb class. We only had about 3 that were 3 lbs. One of our group had a 6 and a four. One of our group, 88 year old Jim, had a 5+ lb bass. There may have been another 4 or more.