Kentucky Lake 5-30-2013

Kentucky Lake 5-30-2013

You have no idea how lonely it is on I840 at 4:00 am when the status light comes on stating "Engine Coolant Hot". The needle on the gauge was almost completely on 260 degrees.  After a moment or two the needle ticked back toward 3/4 hot, so drove on, speeding up or backing down keeping the needle off 260. Stopped once and checked under the hood for steaming but there was none. I limped into Dickson and added 1/2 gallon of coolant and finally made it to New Johnsonville where I met fishing partner Doyal from Memphis. Tough start to a day of fishing.

 We began the day with a Squarebill (Doyal) and me with a Chatterbait. Fished a cove at the factory fishing shallow but no bites. Moved to the next creek down. I finally broke the skunk with a nice 3 lb bass on a 10" Tomahawk worm. Things picked up a bit as we caught several fish in this creek. We developed a pattern to catch these fish using a Squarebill, a Chatterbait, a centipede, a lizard, a jig and a finesse worm. As you can see there was NO pattern. Several of these fish were 2-3 lbs. we moved outside the creek onto the main lake several hundred yards offshore but not quite to the river ledge. I caught a nice 4+ bass on the Tomahawk worm (I'm beginning to like that worm). Fished the next creek down, I believe it is Little Dry. We caught a few more, several were small. Doyal caught a big 9-10 lb drum and later a 3 lb Flathead catfish.  The wind had become a real problem so we decided to head to Birdsong Creek to get out of the wind. The main lake was very rough. We only caught a few, mostly small. We had a goal of 20 fish but with a black cloud approaching we decided to be prudent and pulled out with 19 fish. One more contribution to the "pattern", a couple of fish fooled by the Red Eye Shad.

Back up at the ramp, I poured the rest of the coolant in the car. We stopped up the road a way and had a catfish dinner. When we came out, we noticed my Suburban leaking coolant. I determined that I would buy another gallon of coolant at the Walmart in Waverly. However I only got a few miles down the road when the needle locked on 260 or Hot. Still no engine hot alert yet. I noticed a small garage still open at 5:30. A man filled my coolant reservoir with water, filled my empty jug with water and suggested I put my windows down and turn the heater on high to open the thermostat. Long story short, I made it all the way back to Franklin. Oddly, the needle stayed about normal. With the engine running, the coolant didn't leak. In the shop on Friday, it was determined the water pump needed to be replaced. I was extremely thankful not to be stranded on the side of the road, neither morning nor evening. Fishermen are nuts.

Kentucky Lake 5-24-2013

Kentucky Lake 5-24-2013

Couldn't resist heading to Ky Lake on Friday. I knew a cold front was approaching on Thursday night and the lake had dropped nearly four feet this week. So I arrived at Mason's ramp about 6:15. Oh, a nice, brisk cold wind was blowing. So much for shorts and a T-shirt on May 24. Global warming my #%^*{. My expectations were low.

Began fishing in Richland Creek, specifically in the round pocket if you know Richland. Not much happened here. Caught a couple of nits (little ones, Tom) on the Red Eye Shad. Moved out on the main lake but again nothing happening. Decided to cross over to Harmon Creek and fished around a couple of islands occasionally picking up these very small fish. The lake is really getting rough now nevertheless I headed north to Turkey Creek. Same story, a few nits. Back to Richland with the same results. Finally moved out on the main lake south of Richland. Found an excellent band of grass in 6-9 feet about 500 yards off shore. Caught 3 fish here in the 1.25 to 2.00 and lost another 3 lb. The bait, a Tomahawk worm Texas rigged was the trick. Finally pulled out about 2:30.

Wore sandals for the first time this year. A cold wind, some overcast so I didn't put sun block on my feet. I am paying the price now with severe sunburn. Trouble walking today. Also, bought a rod on Thursday. Tripped in the boat taking it out and jammed the rod into the console breaking off 4". 

Caught a dozen or so bass, mostly nits with a couple of decent fish.

Hey...can't wait to get on the water again.

Edited: I feel that I should post further about the sunburned feet. I have been in pain now for the fourth day with my feet. I have not experienced the kind of pain this has caused. There is a sharp, shooting pain as if a hot iron were pressed into my right foot every 20-30 seconds. Then it recedes only to come again. Makes sleeping a real challenge. Then yesterday the toes on my left foot experienced the same pain, a hot fork jammed into my toes every 20-40 seconds. Fortunately, I have a normal doctor's appointment on Tuesday so maybe I can get relief. USE SUNBLOCK. I knew better but since I felt nothing while it was happening I didn't think my feet were cooking, frying, sautéing.

Nickajack 5/18/2013

Nickajack 5/18/2013

Publix parking lot at 3:00 am Saturday morning. Omar was first to arrive, then Jack with his boat, then Rob with his. We were ready to convoy to Nickajack. We caught up with Duke past the mountain. Riding through a downpour amidst numerous semis over Monteagle made for a tense ride and not a little concern for the fishing conditions. However, over the mountain, the rain ceased and we had a very nice day on the lake even if quite cloudy. We were pretty shocked to find a large number of trailers parked at the ramp area. Fortunately most were already launched and we were able to get on water quickly.

This was my first time on this lake and I had no clue where start. My boat mate had fished there last year and did have a plan for us. There was a tremendous amount of debris and logs in the water so caution was the watchword. Omar directed me to a small island on the west side of the bridge. We fished the shallow edges then decided we should move considerably off the end of the long point. We each picked up a keeper here on plastics. We continued to move to points but well offshore with c-rigs and caught a few more. I even picked up a nice crappie on a fluke.

We decided to move well up the lake to an area that Omar and Noah had done well last year but the fish weren't here today. We made a few stop on the way down river but no luck. We decided to spend our last hour at our beginning spot but alas a boat was sitting right on our spot. I guess he thought it was his spot too since we saw them catch a couple of fish. So our day was done. Omar had 3 keepers for 4+ pounds and I had 4 for 6+ pounds. Rob had the best catch with 5 for 13 pounds topped by a beautiful 6.25 spawned out bass. I really liked the lake but I would like to fish without all the tournaments. There were easily 200+ boats.

On the way back Rob had a vibrating wheel on his trailer. We examined it while we were atop Monteagle and determined the tire had a bulge perhaps belts separating. Rob decided to try to make it home and we followed.  He made it thankfully. Jack continued on to Guntersville for a couple of days. Got a text today saying he caught 8 today topped by 4+. Lucky guy.

Percy Priest 5/8/2013. Stewart Creek

High water.  Skunked!

Percy Priest 5-1-2013

Jack, picked me up at 5:30 am heading to Percy Priest. We weren't sure what to expect after the 5-6 inches of rain the past weekend. Crossing the Hobson Pike bridge was a strange site, absolute calm, slick water with logs, stumps, trees, and all types of debris in the water. Looks like an interesting day. When we got to the Long Hunter ramp, we realized just how high the water was. The deck on the left side of the ramp was completely under water and the one on the right was above the water but the ramp out to it was sunk. The water seemed to be about 6 feet high and had apparently been at least 1.5 foot higher.

As we carefully idled out to the buoys we realized just how hazardous the water really was. We continued to slowly get past drifts of debris that collected in certain areas depending on the flow of the water. We finally got up on plane but carefully navigated to the creek on the right under the bridge. The water was far up into the trees and too thick to get near the bank. We threw jigs, cranks and plastic without a hit. The area we usually fished would have been 2-4 feet was now 8-12 feet. Jack finally put on a jerk bait and caught a nice 1.5 white bass and shortly after I caught its twin on an Xcal50 rattle bait. Surprised we didn't get into more of these but couldn't find them. Jack tied on a Pop R and in short time caught a very nice 15-16 inch largemouth, the first topwater bass of 2013. He then had another blowup but it turned into an ambitious bluegill. We continued to the back of the creek into flooded fields. I finally caught a twin to Jack's on a centipede on a mojo rig.

We then moved to the creek to the left of the bridge. I shortly picked up a 14 inch bass on the centipede. We finally switched to C-rigs, Jack with a lizard and I with a baby rattlesnake. The rattlesnake caught a 13 inch when it dawned on me that I didn't have anymore with me. No problems, didn't get anymore bites. We fished a couple of islands, got a 2-3 bites but no more fish and called it day. There were other spots we wanted to try but the navigation was just too hazardous. We figured the bass were deep into the bushes and trees that we couldn't get to, not even flipping. Fishing should get pretty good when the water goes down and stabilizes. Wonderful day to be on the lake, my first day in shorts and t-shirt...and sun block.