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.