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.