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.