Tims Ford 8-23-12

Tims Ford 8-24-12

I know many of you await my reports with baited breath. Yeah, I know it should be bated but hey...it’s a fishing blog. My last 2 reports have been pretty disappointing, more to me  than to you. Fishing in August is just tough. 

Jack and I resolved to fish somewhere besides Percy Priest this week. We debated going to New Johnsonville or Tims Ford. We decided on Tims for certain reasons. Shoulda’ gone to New J. Actually, Tims is such a beautiful lake it is always a pleasure to fish there. 

We left Franklin at 4 am and headed toward Tims. Stopped in Shelbyville at Hardee’s for a biscuit (if you haven’t tried their Bacon, Bacon biscuit, egg with bacon and Canadian Bacon, you should...unless you are on cholesterol light diet). We did not see any Tennessee Walking horses in Shelbyville but this is the week of their big show. Put the boat in the water at the State Park ramp at daylight, full of hope and anticipation.

Began fishing on the back side of the island out from the ramp. Jack caught a nice snub-nose 4+ largemouth this spring on this bank. We picked up a dink and 14.5” lm on a Pop Rs, I the former, Jack the latter. We then moved to an interesting bank recommended by a friend of Jack’s. It was on a huge field of Kudzu. Now we didn’t catch anything here but wouldn’t it have a great story to be on a Kudzu pattern. Kinda’ like the yellow flower pattern in the Spring on Kentucky Lake. 

We moved to an area we call 5 fingers and fished in 2-3 of the fingers. Jack caught a nice keeper on a jig. Saw some excellent bait in the finger we call white fence. No real wolfpack blowups but we did see individual fish blowing up. I got one blowup on a Pop R but missed the fish. 

We motored over to Ray Branch and fished in one small arm here. I caught a nice smallie on a Rapala DT6. The fish was about a 1.5 lbs and unfortunately had a hook in its gullet with a short length of red line attached. The fish seemed to be healthy but I fear it may have a hard time feeding. 

Next stop was the bank beside the golf course. We missed a few putts here but Jack caught a nice little largemouth on a 200 Bandit In Spatterback pattern. I followed up with about a 2 lb catfish on a Little John crankbait in Cellmate pattern. I was fishing for thugs. By now the heat was coming up about noon. Jack got a call from his wife that she had received tickets to the Titans game for that evening if he wanted to go. He replied yes so we headed for the ramp. We got a sandwich at the concession at the State Park ramp. The best Butter Pecan icecream is here, better than Chocolate, Chocolate Blizzards.

Learned that guide Rick McFerrin had fished that day and caught several on topwaters. Checked Rick’s site today and saw that he indeed had a pretty good day. 

Rick’s site is: http://www.tennesseebassguides.com

We also saw a couple of guys come in that had caught 16 Walleyes but only 5 were long enough to keep. Not sure what the size is. 

We only had 6 fish in the boat but it was a pleasant day. Tims Ford is really a beautiful lake. We just don’t know enough places to be effective. We learned what to look for at the concession by a young man who works there but alas, we were on the way home. Me for a nap and Jack to get ready to go Titans. 

Man, I love fishing, even with its disappointments. Until the next time.