Location: Shoals Creek - Wilson Lake - Alabama

Time: Morning - Mid Morning through Mid Afternoon
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 505.79'
Weather Conditions: Light Wind

Fished with Doug and Douglas Ainsworth.  We set out for crappie and fished the north side of the bridge.  We focused on the west bank on the drop offs and submerged tops.  No luck.  We moved to the flats in the bend where the 25' submerged beds are.  We immediately caught 3 good crappie, but it didn't last long.

Near the dock and "No Wake" buoy, we spotted good fish on the finder.  These turned out to be catfish.  We caught 4 catfish pretty quickly using minnow and jig rigs bouncing bottom.

Fish finder was showing fish like crazy from the "No Wake" area all the way to the north bank.  We fished this entire area and found it all to be drum.  Screen was nearly covered with fish.  Literally caught about 100 drum! We caught them everywhere we dropped a line.

We moved to the HWY 72 bridge in the afternoon.  We caught one small crappie and 2 good white bass on the same line at the same time.  Also caught a couple bluegill.

 

 

 

Location: Joe Wheeler Marina- Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 9:30 AM - Dark
Air Temperature: 60-65 degrees
Water Temperature: 52
Lake Level: 551.2'
Weather Conditions: Morning rain moved out.  Went fishing afterwards.

This is only my 2nd time on Joe Wheeler.  Spent much of my time exploring.  Fished east side rock banks and marked some good brush.  Spent a lot of time fishing boat docks at the marina.  Spotted good big fish marks on the fish finder.  Catfish!!  Caught 3 catfish around the boat slips feeding on a bait ball.  I was using minnows and Bobby Garland 2" swimming minnows. 

Lots of bluegill around the bank and drop off in 14' to 18' of water.  Caught one crappie there.  Caught a couple drum in the area. 

Moved to target points and mouths.  Spotted some fish that turned out to be drum.  At dawn, moved towards the mouth of the main bay where it meets the lake.  Lots of activity in the center of the bay around 28' of water.  Need to try there again. 

 

 

Location: 2nd Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 6:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Air Temperature: 55 degrees
Water Temperature: 51 degrees
Lake Level: 551.03
Weather Conditions: Very Foggy! Rain set in after lunch.

Caught some drum and bluegill under the bridge.  Started out trying to fish tops under the rock wall across from the landing.  No luck.  Fished rock wall south of the bridge on the wes side.  Marked some good brush and caught some bluegill.  No crappie today.

Location: Tennessee River - Clifton, Tennessee

Time: All Day
Air Temperature: 43 degrees in AM
Water Temperature: 51 Degrees
Lake Level: - Current 50,000 gpm - Very strong current
Weather Conditions: Windy

Fishing with Cameron Mcdonald.  Started the morning drifting for sauger by bouncing bottom with jigs tipped with minnows.  We were fishing in 20'-35' of water.  The bottom was hard rock and we were below high cliffs.  After a few drift passes, we couldn't find any sauger, so we went to creek mouths and fished for crappie.  

Got on crappie in 12' to 20' of water.  Caught several small crappie and several large brim.  Moved to Beech Creek.  There we floated minnows in 9'-15' of water under a bobber.  Caught several more crappie, most small.

Ended up keeping 4 crappie and 8 bluegill.  Probably caught 12-15 crappie total and 20-25 bluegill.  Good day.

Location: Shoals Creek - Wilson Lake - Alabama

Time: Morning - 6:30 AM to Dark
Air Temperature: Cold! 24 degrees in the morning.
Water Temperature: 50 degrees.
Lake Level: 505.75'
Weather Conditions:

Caught no crappie, but practiced depth finder techniques.  Started catching monster drum.  Caught several around the "No Wake" buoys at the marina.  Moved down toward the rock face and bay on the west shore north of the bridge.  Caught more huge drum.  Found submerged tops under the rock wall.

Moved to my marked positions on the flats.  More big drum.  Moved to ledge/point on the northwest side and fished drop off.  More big drum.  I was catching 20+ pound drums.  Also caught a couple catfish.

 

Location: 2nd Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time:
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 552.'
Weather Conditions:

Main point of trip was to explore depth finder settings.  I had been studying how to use a depth finder in more detail.  Fished under the bridge.  Set on low frequency.  Was amazed on how well the fish showed up.  Caught a bunch of drum and bluegill.  New depth finder settings made it possible to actually target the fish I was looking at on the depth finder.  Literally caught the fish I was looking at.  Very successful using these new techniques!

Location: 2nd Creek - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: All Cay
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature: 52 degrees.
Lake Level: 551.04
Weather Conditions: Still warm for the fall/winter pattern.

Fished all my normal spots.  Caught a bunch of drum.  Caught one crappie early under the bridge.  Fishing was very slow. 

Moved down and fished south of the bridge.  No luck.  Tried fishing south shore in bay near dam.  No luck.  Fished around the lock by the dam in the slack water.  Caught a couple drum.  Nice place to fish.

Returned back to the bridge on the way back towards the landing.  Started picking up nice bluegill and crappie after lunch.  Caught a couple of catfish, too.  Ended up keeping 5-6 crappie and 5-6 bluegill.

Dressed out to be about 2.5# of fillets.  Used Minnows and Bobby Garland 2" swimming minnow jigs.