Percy Priest 8-28-2013

Percy Priest 8-28-2013

It only took four and half years for Clay, my next door neighbor, to finally head to the lake together. Now let me set the scene, Clay is the finest next door neighbor that a person can have. I am glad that person is me. Clay loves to fish but has mostly fished for crappie and is pretty good at it usually fishing with his Dad. He recently treated his son and a friend to a guide trip to PP. They had a terrific day catching bass and white bass. They were hooked. So, Clay and I headed out with the obligatory stop at Hardee's for a biscuit sandwich. We were heading for Stewarts Creek ramp. 

We were on the lake before light and headed up lake to the three river intersection. I wanted to fish a long saddle between a point and an island. I had caught and missed a few fish the week before. We each missed a few buzz bait blowups here. Next we eased into big flat just up the Stones river. The back of the flat was covered with lots stickups and tiny cypress saplings, perfect cover for tossing a buzz bait. Clay hooked up with a nice 2.5 bass after a smashing strike. I began one of the most

frustrating strings of missed strikes and lost fish I have ever had. Several missed explosions on the buzz bait led me to try something different. I pulled out a wake bait that runs right on the surface with a wild wiggle with a feathered rear hook. I promptly got 3-4 excellent strikes but my missed fish string continued. When the strikes slowed down, we headed up river to the pumping station where bass often congregate foraging on shad but no shad here, thus no fish.

Although Clay has fished Percy Priest over the years but mostly mid lake to down near the dam. He had never been up in the river. So we went up to the junction of the East and West fork of the Stones river. We finally each caught a fish, Clay on a shakey head and me on a worm, my first fish in the boat at 10:30 am. We made a couple of more spots along the river. We retraced our route and tried the saddle again hoping the fish had moved in. They hadn't. 

Next stop is what I call the Big flat. I caught a couple of fish here on a Red Eye Shad, a lipless crank bait. This will be a hot spot in 2-3 weeks. We stopped at the Weakley Bridge and flipped a small(really small) jig around the bridge pilings. Picked up a small bream, not really what we were looking for. Then in keeping with my exploration mode, we went to Stewarts Creek to a a pocket that usually holds shad...and bass. I caught one and yes, lost another. I was surprised not to see any schooling fish. By now the temperature was 140 or least felt like it, so we put the boat on the trailer. This was not a great day for catching but it was really satisfying to fish and explore with Clay. I see more trips in future. 

Percy Priest 8-22-2013

Percy Priest 8-22-2013

That old adage holds true once again, "you can't catch someone else's fish". After neighbor, Clay and his entourage had such a great day a week ago on Priest, I thought I would duplicate what they did. I don't exactly know where they were fishing but I found a few places that should have had the same characteristics. I did catch a couple of buzz bait fish and another on a Squarebill. Missed a few. Caught another on SBFW. Motored to the East/West fork junction but not a bite. Fished a big flat and saw a few single fish blow ups but no schooling fish. The shad were very small and the bass were reluctant. Finally made a swing into Stewarts Creek. Caught one more on a buzz bait at noon and that was the end of that. A total of 5 bass, 4 were over 12" with 1 15".   

August finally showed up with 90+ degrees. 

Old Hickory 8-17-2013 Tournament

To begin, here is an update on my trolling motor problems. There is a rectangle connector box about an inch and half long in the battery compartment.  There is a tiny black switch on the end of that box. That is the breaker switch. A simple touch and the t-motor was back in business and my face was red. Well it's fixed.

I was pumped for the tournament on Old Hickory Saturday. I had not had my boat out for a month. My neighbor, Clay, his son, Austin and friend Nick had fished Percy Priest Friday morning with guide Brian Carper. They caught well over 20 bass mostly on buzz baits. I am thinking we will kill the fish on Saturday. 

Charley and I launched about 5:45 along with Rob and Duke, the only 2 boats in the tournament. Not sure where all the other guys were. Heavy cloud cover, no wind and a  cool August morning greeted us.  The fish would probably fight to strike our lures. Hah!

We motored to a nearby point in Spencer Creek while Rob roared off in his new Phoenix boat down lake to the dam. After 4-5 casts with my buzz bait I saw a slurp, which usually means a good fish. Of course any fish is good but a 11.75 isn't big enough to record. Charlie immediately set the hook on a keeper using a jig. About 2 minutes later he set the hook on another jig fish, this one 15". This is going to be a great day. It was not to be.  We fished a lot of grass in Spencer, then out on the main lake. We found one little narrow creek or drain and fished around a lot of bait. I caught 3 fish in here on a square bill, with one being a keeper.  We didn't know it at the time but that was the last catch of the day. We loaded out at 12:35 with a 1:00 weigh in. Rob and Duke came hustling into the ramp at 12:58. Rob had 4 fish for 9.57 with a 4+ and a 3+. Duke had 3 for 4.10, Charlie had 2 for 2.77 while I had 1 for 1.27. It sure is hard to write a fishing report blog when you only have one keeper to register. I did catch 4 or 5 altogether. Did I mention the trolling motor worked fine. 

With Old Hickory tournaments over I can start thinking about Kentucky Lake, Guntersville or even Percy Priest. Until next time.....

Old Hickory 8-2-2013

Old Hickory 8-2-2013

Today I am celebrating my 55th anniversary with my wife, Jo Anne, by accepting Jack's invitation to fish on Old Hickory. Hey, my trolling motor is still in the shop. You go when you can. We will celebrate this evening with BLTs.  

Jack picked me up at 4:30 am and made a quick stop at Hardee's for a breakfast sandwich. Yep, they open at 4:30.  A 55 minute drive put us at the Davis Corner ramp in Spencer Creek. A pretty heavy fog bank greeted us. We idled about 100 yards and dropped the trolling motor.  We threw top waters for a while. The only thing to come into the boat was a very confused bream who mistook the topwater prop bait for a playful friend.  We fished around the point and into Ron's, Duke's, Bill's cove but no bass came to the topwater party. We reversed directions and retraced our trail with different baits. Jack scored first with our first and best bass of the day, a sassy, aerial 3 lb'er. Jack once again showed his ability with the jig.

I followed shortly with a 2 lb'er on the ubiquitous Smoking Blue Finesse Worm, my best of the day.

We began to move around a bit but slowly because the fog still covered the whole bay. We were fishing the bank when we heard the slurping, splashing sound of a school of fish herding shad to the surface and feeding greedily. They were just out of casting range but they suckered us into chasing the school. Finally picked up a couple of nice white bass. The school moved away so we went back to pounding shoreline. Jack lost a nice bass on a crank bait. I picked up a couple of bass on a worm but none more than 14". Finally got a call from the trolling motor shop. Mike said he had checked 6 times but he could NOT make it not run. This was good news/bad news. It meant the problem is on my boat electrical system. Except for having to spend $1300, I was kinda hoping to get a new one. He said the motor did have a broken speed control switch which he will replace. I can pick the motor up any time, probably Monday.

It was time to move out to the river. We tried the ledge at the opening of Spencer Creek to the river channel. High hopes dashed. No bites. Next stop, the steam plant outlet channel to bounce a jig on the gravel bank. This is usually good for a fish or two. A couple of bumps was the extent. To the power lines backwater! We finally picked up a couple of  bass here on the crank bait (square bill). Headed back to Spencer to finish up about 1:00 pm. Our take for the day was 1 bream, 2 white bass and 8 bass. Jack's 3 lb'er was the best. This was an enjoyable day with a great friend.