Old Hickory July 10, 2012

Some fishing reports are hard to do. But I have challenged myself to report good or bad and Tuesday was not so great. Jack Neal picked me up at 3:50 am pulling his boat arriving at Old Hickory at 4:45 am. Launched the boat and that's when our first trouble began. The motor was being stubborn about starting. After about 20-25 minutes Jack got it going. Did I mention that it was raining, but not too hard...yet. Jack had just updated the software on his Lowrance HD5. When he turned it on all the settings had changed and the screens were different. He worked with it for a while until we got sonar screen but the GPS still wasn't right. We finally went to a big grass bed and started fishing. Still raining.

Jack picked up a nice keeper in the grass on a buzz bait and a couple minutes later I caught a keeper on a KVD 1.0 Squarebill on the edge of the grass. Things are looking up. That's when the lightning and thunder started. That is also when we began looking for an empty boathouse or slip. We soon found an empty, covered slip, just in time while the thunder crashed overhead and the bottom fell out of the rain clouds. Jack checked the radar map on his iPhone and saw that storm cell was right on top of us. Two hours later it finally passed....but....Jack had plenty of time to work on the settings on the HD5. Forgot to mention, the trolling motor was having problems with turning left or right. It is programmable for straight ahead but you really need control. Handy Jack worked on the foot control and fixed it.

Back to fishing. Headed back to the grass but no bites unless you count the teasing nibbles of a Bream. We figured maybe the thunder drove the fish to the ledges. We found a favorite drop, felt gravelly bottom ( or a shellbed) but not bites. By the way, still raining. Fished a grassy point and stump beds near the mouth of Station Camp creek but still no bites. Fished the community hole near the duck blind in the creek. Lost something strong but it hung me up on something. Decided to head back into Spencer. Fished a bank that usually produces but today only a dink. We had picked up one other keeper somewhere along the way and Jack, the drummeister had caught a dink drum. Still raining. By now we looked like drowned rats. From 4:45 am until 12:30 pm the rain had not stopped one minute. Really thought the fish would bite but I think the thunder had an affect on them. That's my story and I am sticking to it. A total of 4 bass, 3 club keepers and 1 anemic drum and 3 million gallons of water was our haul. But...the motor was running fine, the trolling motor guided pretty well and the sonar/GPS worked fine. Back to Franklin for a short nap.

Editors note: We are pretty sure we know why all the problems today. Jack had brought a banana for snack not knowing that bananas are absolutely taboo in a boat. I think the banana did it. If you didn't know bananas are taboo, Google it. Jack has vowed to never make that mistake again.