Old Hickory - June 21 & 23 (Tournament), 2012

On Thursday I planned a little pre-fishing on Old Hickory for a club tournament on Saturday. Therefore since I didn’t want to get up at 3 am 2 out 3 days I came late to the lake launching at 7:30 am. By then the sun was up so the prospect of a morning bite was slim and that is the way it played out. Fished in the cane grass but no bites. Crossed over Spencer Creek to the East side to explore. Didn’t find much but stopped at at deep spot that my GPS showed 3 creeks coming together along with a roadbed. However the creeks were silted in so I couldn’t find any real structure and no bites. Moved out to the mouth of Spencer where it empties into the Cumberland main channel.  I found one small area that seemed to have either gravel or a shell bed. Using a Carolina Rig with a finesse worm I could feel the roughness of the bottom and --bingo-- I got a bite and caught a small fish. Continued to work this area and caught 2 more on the C-rig. Then I caught another on a KVD 6XD crank bait. Before departing, I threw a finesse jig with a chunk and caught a 16” bass. Lost a couple of more on the C-rig. Not bad for only a little over an hour. 

Moved down lake and fished what I call twin coves fishing shallow, in the grass and around some boathouses with little to show. Moved out on a river ledge and caught another on a C-rig. About now a hunger pain hit me so I motored to Flippers for their gourmet hamburger (and a side of cool air conditioning). Left there and went up the river a short way to fish the East side of an island. Caught one more there on a finesse worm. Then back to the Spencer mouth ledge again but the fish seemed to have moved on. Moved toward the back part of Spencer and picked up 3 more on finesse worm T-rigged. By then the heat index was close to 182 (it seemed) so I put it on the trailer.

My take for the day was 10-11 bass with 2 16”, 2 14”, 1 12.5” and rest dinks. Not really too bad for club keepers. I felt pretty confident I could catch a few on tournament day. Hah!!! 

June 23, Cumberland Bass Club tournament.

Up at 3 am to prepare the boat and drive to Davis Corner ramp and be prepared to take off at 5 am. Traffic jam at the ramp as other clubs were also there as well as our 7 boats. My partner for the day was Scott Jordan, our first time to fish together and it was a very pleasant day. We were the fourth boat off and only got passed once. I don’t run quite as fast as some Bumble Bees. Not that I can’t but I don’t. Stopped halfway out of Spencer to fish the cane grass. We threw buzz baits, frogs and worms but could only raise one half hearted strike on Scott’s buzz bait. We crossed over to the East side which had grass partially in shade but again no fish. Briefly tried the spot mentioned in the report above with confluence of creeks but still no bites. On to my “can’t miss” honey hole at the mouth of Spencer. There was a boat sitting at the spot I wanted but we stayed patient and were soon able to spot up. I prepared the measuring board, the score card so that we could quickly process our fish and keep them coming. Alas, you can’t catch “yesterdays fish”. We could not buy a bite other than a few bream rat a tat tat nibbles. I am embarrassed. I practically promised Scott that we would get a limit easily, then cull. It was not to be. Move down lake to twin coves and fished grass again hoping the Phyloplankton was growing, producing oxygen for the bass (read that in BassMaster) so they would bite. It didn’t and they didn’t. However, when we got to the back and very shallow end of the cove I had a nice bite on a worm but he came off without our seeing it. Seemed like a keeper. Before I could adjust my worm, Scott hooked a nice bass, played him expertly and I netted him, a very welcome 16.75” bass. Thing were looking up. Not. After trying the river ledge and then Spencer’s mouth with no more bites we moved to the back half of Spencer and we caught 3-4 small bass but no club keepers. This was a very discouraging day from a catching standpoint but a very gratifying day fishing with Scott. Made a new friend, enjoyed Wendy’s with most of the club members.

I had 0 keepers (the only one with 0). Corey won with 9+ lbs, I believe Steve had big bass 3+. Several had catches in the 8# range. It seemed some of the better catches all came shallow. 

Tims Ford 6-8-2012

No trauma today. No tire blowouts, no fog, just a great looking day on beautiful Tims Ford in Middle Tennessee. Unfortunately Jack and I mistimed our trip from Franklin to Tims. We got there about 30 minutes after the sun was up and Tims is an early morning lake this time of the year.

We had only been on the lake about 10 minutes when Jack got a tremendous strike on a Pop R. After a great fight he landed a bass just a couple of ounces shy of 4 and half pounds of largemouth. The fish seemed long enough to be 6 pounds but I suppose was spawned out. Oddly, the fish seemed to be somewhat snub nosed not that I have ever heard of a snub nosed bass.

After this fish the catching slowed down. It is about now that we regretted  not being on the lake about 45 minutes earlier. After a bit Jack caught a smallie about 12 inches on the Pop R. I finally got a little fish smell on my hands with a fighting largemouth about 9 inches long on a plastic bait. At least I am not skunked.

We continued to fish hard for fish. Jack lost a couple of nice fish, at least with nice topwater strikes, but they came unhooked. Still can't figure out how a bass comes undone on a bait with multiple treble hooks.

We finally moved to another location hoping to find a bite. I finally did hook into a nice smallie on Bitsy Bug jig. Great, hard fight but oddly, no jumps. This one weighed in a couple of ounces shy of 3 lbs. Man, I could use a steady diet of 3 lb smalls. A short time later Jack hooked up with a nice fish on a crank bait. As he got near the boat we realized it was a nice fish in the 3 lb class, with a dark back. We thought small mouth. Then Jack, who is from up north of the Mason Dixon line realized it was a very nice walleye. Unfortunately his net man (me) didn't react quick enough and the "eye" disconnected from the treble hook somehow and dropped away into the depths. Back in this same pocket we observed a unique phenomenon. There were dozens of 2 feet long gars cruising near the surface of the water. They were all over this cove.

By now the sun is high in the sky, temp is rising and our confidence in finding bites here on Tims was lagging not to mention the tubers, jet skis and pontoon boats were proliferating. We did try fishing a long gravel bar that dropped off into deep water with Carolina rigs but no bites. So around 2 pm, we put the boat on the trailer. A great finish was having a double dip cone of Butter Pecan ice-cream in the State Park concession stand.

We certainly did not have a good day with quantity, only 4 in the boat but with Jack's 4.5 and my 3 lb smallie it was a very good day on the water. Can't wait til the next time.

Old Hickory 5-30-2012

It’s nice to have a Hardee’s that opens at 4:30 am. Picked up a sausage and egg biscuit and headed for Old Hickory. There was patch fog most of the way but just before I got to Hwy 109 off of I40 the fog got really thick. Difficult to see signs, traffic lights and other vehicles. Went slow and found the turn off to Davis Corners Ramp and thought it may be a while before this fog lifts. Little did I know. Launched the boat about 5:45 am and motored (slowly) about 200 yards and began to fish. Threw topwaters when I could almost see the bank. Continued to fish the contours of the bank with topwaters, cranks, plastic and jigs with no participation from the fish. It was such an erie fog and the feeling was fish just had to feed, but they didn’t. I fished nearly the whole eastern shoreline of the back half of Spencer Creek waiting for the fog to lift. Finally, around 9:45 I began to see the western shoreline dimly. All of this time, not one single bite. Finally caught a 1 lb bass on a Smoking Blue Finesse worm. As I was fishing, a boat idled up close by and the fisherman asked if I knew where in the heck he was. He was looking for the Davis Corner Ramp and was totally lost. He did not have GPS but said that he would have one tomorrow. I pointed the direction and told him to go straight that way but I knew he couldn’t. It is almost impossible to drive a straight line in total fog without a compass or GPS. I knew he would get close and find his way if he didn’t circle.

With the fog finally lifted by 10 am I began to work my original plan. The water was up pretty good in the caney pond grass but the bass did not seem to be in there. Moved down the lake to a couple of my favorite spots but only picked up one more small bass. A friend suggested a spot to ledge fish and I resolved to try it. I have never been further down lake than Cedar Creek. This spot was out in front of Saunders Ferry ramp. Fished it quite a while with a 10 inch worm but no bites. Headed back up lake to Station Camp Creek to explore some more. Caught 1 1.25 lb bass on a squarebill off the duck blind. No more bites. Moved back into Spencer Creek and caught 1 more 1.5 bass on the SBFW on a dock that finished my catch for the day. Worked a few more spots and put it on the  trailer. A total of 4 bass, 3 of them club keepers but a pretty poor showing. 

I have no idea why I couldn’t catch bass. Conditions seemed ideal except for the fog delay but should have caught fish before it lifted. The wind got up pretty good around 12 pm but it was not a real problem. 

Anybody comment. Is heavy fog a deterrent to bass feeding?