Dale Hollow

Dale Hollow 2-7 & 8- 2013

It's been a long time since I've been on the water back on December 1. So I have been psyched about this trip. My fishing partner, Doyal Brown, from Memphis arrived Wednesday afternoon. We headed out, along with my wife Jo Anne, for dinner at Puckett's Grocery in downtown Franklin.

Doyal and I left early Thursday morning after making a quick stop at Hardee's. Fishermen must have proper sustenance which includes biscuits. Celina is about 2 hours and 15 minutes from Franklin. We made a mandatory stop at Fisherman's One Stop, the home of Punisher Lures, to get an update on fishing conditions at Dale Hollow. They recommended several lures that were "can't miss" so naturally we bought a few, most of which we already have.

Checked in at Horse Creek Resort and got some more relatively useless lake info. We do have a break with fairly nice weather around 55 degrees and light SW winds. Finally time to hit the water. The lake was pretty high for winter pool and incredibly clear. We made a short run to Indian Creek and checked out the very back looking for bait fish. We were fishing a technique called float n fly. We use a 9 foot spinning rod with a three way swivel tied to the main line. A leader of 10 feet is tied to the bottom of the swivel and a tiny 1/32 oz jig ( or fly ). On the third side of the swivel a specially weighted float is clipped. The idea is that the fly appears to be a dying minnow. This rig is very awkward to cast and requires a special technique to get good distance. The line is back cast and allowed to hit water. On the forward cast the drag in the water loads the rod and allows the float n fly to spring out.

After 2000 casts I finally watched the bobber drop. As I raised the rod I felt the solid surge from a Dale smallmouth. After a few somersaults I realized I had reeled the bobber up to the tip of the rod. With a 10 foot leader and a nine foot rod I was at a disadvantage. Fortunately Doyal netted the 2 1/2 smallie. Doyal and I had a couple of more pull downs but no hook ups. After about 5 more hours without a bite I cast up into about 15 feet. I laid my rod down to check the time and watched the bobber plunge. Of course I missed the fish but worse was the hysterical laughter from my fishing partner. My one smallie remained our only catch. Back to the marina and secured the boat in a slip.

We drove over to Celina for dinner at Doris' Diner then headed back to Horse Creek for sack time. It began to rain sometime during the night and was still raining when we got up at 6. Back to Doris' fir breakfast hoping the rain would stop. The air temp was 47 which was the HIGH for the day. The rain did let up but the wind was out of the north and breezy.

We motored out to Kyle Branch again exploring for bait fish, unsuccessfully. We threw the F n F, a BiffleBug, crank baits, spinner bait, tail spinner, jerk bait and jig. Even threw a SBFW in a few lay downs. The next bite will be our first. Nada, nil, none. However we had the great privilege to see some of God's creatures in the form of 33 wild turkeys walking single file along the edge of the shoreline. We were able watch them for several minutes (heck, the fish weren't biting) walking, the flying up a steep hill. On the drive home we saw at least 20 or more turkeys flying across the highway and the Cumberland River into a field. What a special blessing.

I mentioned earlier the high temp of 47. It fell all during the day to 41 when we came in. We were both quite chilled by noon but neither of us would give up, still trying to catch a prized Dale Hollow smallie. Finally at 2:00 we both threw in the towel well frozen by now. Loaded the boat, checked out and headed for Franklin. We did make a short side trip off I40 to view Center Hill Lake at Hurricane Landing.

We picked up Jack Neal on Saturday and drove to the Nashville Fairgrounds to Fishing and Boating Expo. We found a few fishing lures that we might have but we might not so we bought a few. We admired all the bass boats and fantasized a bit. Jack said he could afford the boat but not the alimony and extra rent. This really is an excellent show. It was very disappointing not to be successful catching fish but this was a great weekend with good friends enjoying this wonderful hobby, bass fishing.