Percy Priest 5-30-2014

Percy Priest 5-30-2014

Got a late start today, on the lake at 7:45 at Jefferson Springs ramp on the Stones river. First stop was at the chute near the pumping station. On my third or forth cast with a popper called Yellow Magic, I had a nice blow up. Not a big fish but a nice start. Moved on up the lake making various stops. Missed a couple of more top water strikes but caught a couple of more bass on a square bill and a lizard. Broke out the C-rig with a baby brush hog and caught a couple more. Continued up the river fishing a point and flat still catching some on the C-rig. Finally retraced my route and went up the Stones to the East/West fork. Caught 4 bass on lizards and brush hogs around the island at the fork. Wound up the day here with a total of 10 bass for the day. Not a great day but nice to get my line stretched a little. The best of the day was about 1.75 with several over one pound. Off the lake at 2:30.

West Point Lake 5-20-2014

West Point Lake, Georgia 5-20-2014

My wife and I visited friends of nearly 70 years in Fayetteville, Georgia about 25 miles south of Atlanta. It has been many years since Carlyle and I have fished together so we were determined to go fishing. We headed out Tuesday morning for West Point Lake near La Grange, Ga. The lake was quite high and very murky. Neither of us knew anything about the lake. We even went Google Earth to find a ramp.  Caught a couple of small bass and that is the story of West Point. I think it would be fun to fish if the lake were in better shape

Chickamauga Lake

Chickamauga Lake May 4-8

Four friends from Memphis met Jack Neal and I at my house on Sunday about noon. Doyal Brown, Ron Taylor, Bill Caldwell and his son Todd Caldwell, Jack and I had lunch before heading to the Chick. We arrived in about three hours and examined our accommodations at Island Cove Marina and Resort near Harrison Bay on the lake. We had hoped to fish Sunday afternoon but it didn't work out after we examined the ramp and the parking situation wasn't great. We decided to launch at a public ramp a couple of miles away in Wolftever Creek. 

We launched at 6 am Monday without having a clue where to fish. Jack and I decided to fish the Creek. Fished some banks but looked for some flats hoping there were some spawners. We finally caught a few bass and Jack even picked up a couple of crappie on a crank bait. We then checked out a dockside restaurant named appropriately the Dockside Restaurant and had lunch. After lunch we found a creek or cove that looked promising. Jack immediately lost a nice bass on a modified umbrella rig. We caught a couple of bass in here then went into an adjacent cove. Found Doyal and Ron had had a little more success than us. Doyal had landed a 4.5 bass. We decided to meet at Dockside at 5 for dinner. Doyal called Bill and Todd to tell them. For the day we only caught 6 bass and the two crappie. The other guys had similar catches. Todd even had a nice smallmouth.

The next day was similar but we only had 5 bass. What we had learned from a local and a TWRA officer was that most of the bass had just come off the spawning beds and were recuperating (read, not feeding). The other guys did pretty much the same. On Wednesday Jack caught a bass on a topwater and I picked up a fish on a lizard both before the lights were off on the boat. Looked to be a great day. Not! Jack caught one more later in the day. I finally caught a 3.2 on a lizard and concluded our catches for the trip. Doyal and Ron had a better day but Bill and Todd had a slow day also. We had breakfast on Thursday and headed for our respective homes.

In summary, Chickamauga is a beautiful lake and have no doubt it is a great bass lake. We had no knowledge of the lake and we hit the early post spawn so it was disappointing in the catch but we truly had a great time together.