Tims Ford 4-8-2013

Didn't sleep much the night before heading to Tims Ford. Thought about those great smallmouth bass on Tims. Must have been a nightmare instead of happy dreams because the smallmouth (nor largemouths) refused to cooperate. I drew a blank, a zero, a doughnut, a skunk......

It all started at Church Sunday when I asked my fishing partner, Jack, about going fishing on Monday. He was ready despite having a relatively disappointing trip to Lake Fork the week before. We thought about Percy Priest since we have a tournament there on April 20. But, we decided to go to Tims since we have not been this year, it's spring and a perfect time to go. Since the water has been cold early we decided to arrive at the lake at 9 am. Might have been a mistake. If there were an early bite, we missed it as well as the later bite, we missed it too. Not fair. Jack did have one good bite.

We began the day fishing the back side of an island not far from our launch site at the State Park ramp. We have caught fish there in the past. Not today. On to Ray Branch, a good size creek with lots of fishable banks. Fishable but not necessarily catchable. Interestingly, when we arrived at the lake, the water was quite calm, just a ripple or two. By the time we reached Ray Branch, there was a small gale blowing. We finally decided to go to another of our favorite spots that we call Five Fingers, an area with 5 different coves. We did find some wind protection in most of them. We fished hard with the usual, jigs, craws, cranks, and finesse baits. Finally near the back of one of the coves, Jack set the hook on a nice fish. It was obviously a smallmouth. What was not so obvious, was that it didn't jump and fought lethargically. When I netted her, I told Jack he had a 5 lber. It should have been but it was not to be. The fish was 21.5 inches long but weighed a paltry 3.2 lbs. It had no girth nor breadth. Beautifully colored, a handsome fish that should have been a 5+ fish. Although the tail was not bloodied from fanning a nest, I believe she had spawned out and was exhausted from the effort. Jack was using a jig with an ultra vibe craw attached.

 Although Jack did get a couple of more bites, there were no more fish to the boat. I might have had a nibble but it was undocumented. I did have equipment failure. The ceramic guide on the tip top of my jig rod came out. And, mysterious line breakage occurred a couple of times on my craw rod. That's my story and I am sticking to it. I really can't imagine why we did not do better today. Water temp was mostly 58 degrees. The wind kept us off main lake points but these fish should have been in the creeks. Oh, well there will be another day ahead.