Percy Priest - April 1, 2013

What a weird Spring. High winds, rain, snow and abnormally cold. It has been hard to find good days to fish, especially if you have gotten a little wimpy like me. As I looked at the weather forecast for this first week of April, it looked like more of the same except for Monday so I went. Didn't go for the early bite since the early bite lately has been early afternoon, so I got to the Long Hunter ramp a little before 9 am. Supposed to warm up to the mid 60s with 8 mph wind and a lot of sunshine. The forecast was pretty accurate but didn't describe that light wind as frigid. All in all 'though, a really nice sunny day. I found water temps early at 51-53. As the day progressed I saw a lot of 53-55 with a couple of locations at 56-58 in the back of creeks in shallow rocky water. A few warm, sunny days will get that temp to 60 and above and should bring the bass up to the shallows.

I began my day in Bryant Grove in the shallow water. Threw an Excalibur Lipless Red and a finesse jig but got no bites. Moved to the big creek to the left under the Hobson Bridge. Fished the Excalibur, jig and the KVD 1.0 crawfish square bill. Again, no bites. Next stop was the little island opposite Party Cove named Raccoon Island. Lot of stumps along the East bank in 2-5 feet of water. Finally caught a nice little 1.5-1.75 lb bass on the KVD 1.0. Fished the big island (Bear Island) across from this little island and back to the little one for another pass. (Truth be told, I was thinking about the 7 lb 9 oz bass that Heath Richardson caught by himself with a little drag adjustment from Dad and net assist from Corey, a week or so ago. Heath is the 6 year old son of Noah in the Cumberland Bass Club. I have been fishing for about 70 years and this tops my personal best).

After cruising around a bit I moved into Party Cove where I can usually catch a fish or two. Not today. A water hall. Moved across to the Hole-in-the-Wall bluff where I expected to catch a spot or two on a finesse jig. Rob always can. I couldn't.

Then moved to the cove to right past Hobson bridge toward the dam. Fished the shallow bank on the North side and finally picked up 4 fish in 11-13" range and lost one (in the 6-7 lb range on April 1). All caught on the KVD 1.0 crawfish. Finally decided to beat the traffic home (I didn't) and loaded out about 3:30 pm. Total 5 fish with only one fair fish. Just a few more degrees warm up in the water and I think the fish will be good.