Grain Dust

Wheeler Lake - Decatur Barges

Time: 7:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Air Temperature: 75 - 84 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 
Lake Level: 555.3
Weather Conditions: Partly Cloudy. Wind NW 8 MPH

James Harris and I set out for catfish this morning under the grain barges in Decatur.  We had a mix of skipjack and chicken soaked in Kool-Aid for bait.  We planned on a 1/2 day trip.

I started my day wet as I slipped on the Hard Dock boat ramp and busted my ass.  

There was quite a bit of boat traffic in the area.  We set up right behind the barges and started bumping bottom, but there was a lot of traffic and not much room.  We eventually tied off and casted tight lines.

We had a good morning and caught 9 cats and one buffalo.  They were biting the chicken very well.  It was an easy trip and we had a great time.  Looking forward to the next trip already.

Drinking the Kool-Aid

Wheeler Lake - Elk River

Evening of July 31 - Morning of August 1
Air Temperature: 72 - 80 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 91 Degrees.  HOT!!
Lake Level: 555.6
Weather Conditions: Rain drizzle and overcast.  Wind N-NW 6 mphs.

It is time to do our annual fish fry fishing trip and there is no better way to stock a freezer than with trotlines.  I recruited Doug and Douglass to help me out for a couple days in hopes of filling my freezer and theirs.

We put out 100 hooks per person in and around the Elk River.  We put one 50 hook like just north of the HWY 72 bridge and one 50 hook line in deep channel water out in the body of the lake around 45 feet deep.  These two were to be experimental.  The one in the Elk was baited with 40% live bluegill and put in a spot that might attract flatheads.  The deep water line was to see what was lurking in the deep and if a thermocline has any impact on summer fishing.  We place a 100 hook like out from the island towards the channel and another 100 hook like on the Courtland side below the bluffs.

For bait, we had plenty of freezer shad and for giggles, I decided to play along with the trend of chicken and, yes, Kool-Aid.  We soaked two pounds of chicken gizzards overnight in Kool-Aid and garlic powder.  We baited every other hook shad then chicken. 

When we deployed lines on Saturday evening, the recreational traffic was insane.  We had to be very careful due to all the boat traffic.  We ran into a couple snags putting lines out due to traffic and being out of practice, but got all of them out shortly after dark.  Now to let them soak...

We got up early Sunday morning as was immediately met with rain showers.  The weather forecast was calling for scattered early showers, but as time went on, the rain set in and was going to stay.  We delayed an hour, but eventually had to go out there.

We ran the 50 hook like in the Elk first during a break in the weather.  I believe we caught 6 off of this line, but it was shallow and we had some casualties due to the stagnant, hot water.  Soon after, we headed to the other deep water 50 hook like and Douglas pulled this one as well.  We did better in deep water.  All fish were alive, but no monsters like we were hoping for.  However, it was nice to see that no lack of oxygen in the deep existed and this line actually did better than the shallow line likely due to cooler temperatures at depth.  

We headed over to the bluffs and Doug pulled this line.  It was a solid line.  We had weighted the center of the line and caught fish all throughout.  At this point, we were very impressed on the performance of the chicken and Kook-Aid.  We had been keeping all fish between 2-6 lbs and had threw back a few on each end of the range.  

Finally, we headed back towards the island to pull in the last long line.  I pulled this one in.  As soon as the anchor was up, I could feel good fish.  We caught stead fish, but with about 40 hooks left, I could feel something nice.  I made comments along the way, " yes, I still feel it".  10 hooks later, " yes, its still there".  " It's big.",  "This is a nice fish, guys."  After about hooks of feeling tugging, we finally came to the last 2-3 hooks and finally surfaced our big fish.

As she surfaced, she was fighting hard.  I had to let line spool back out like a drag.  Finally we tried to net the fish, but even my big net wouldn't due.  We got it up against the boat and I reached into its mouth and hauled her in.

She's BIG!  51 lbs and some change and we had my larges trotline fish ever in the boat.  This fish is my 2nd largest fish ever and a boat record.  We took photos and released her back to the depths unharmed.

It was a fantastic day.  We caught a total of 50 fish which equates to one every 6 hooks on the average.  Learned that deep water in the summer is still a good bet and chicken and Kool-Aid is a real bait option.  

We cleaned 32 fish and dressed 17.5 lbs of clean fillets.  Were all set for or fish frys!

A Change in Tactics...

Wheeler Lake - Decatur

Time: 8:00 AM - 12:30 AM
Air Temperature: 75 - 85 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 
Lake Level: 556.05
Weather Conditions: Mostly Sunny.  Winds NE 8-9 mph sustained.

My friend Joe came down from the Nashville area and we decided to approach the day in pursuit of a mixed bag.  We loaded up with worms, minnows, and frozen shad to be prepared for pretty much anything.  We launched at Arrowhead Landing and started the day fishing the deep water cover hoping to pull out some crappie on minnows or bluegill on worms.  We also launched 5-6 jugs on the flats out from the landing and 5-6 more just out of the mouth into the main river.

After an hour or so, we had zero luck on in the brush and it was obvious we needed to change tactics.  We needed to run jugs and I was thinking about trying for catfish under the interstate bridge, but another idea hit me on the way... We should try the grain barges by the cat food plant.

We went back into Arrowhead and ran the jugs.  No catfish, but right after we checked a a jug and threw it back in, Joe noticed it was acting funny.  We circled back and had a gar that is probably the biggest one I've ever caught.  

We ran back out into the channel and checked the others and pulled in one small catfish.  We headed on to the grain barges and set up there.

At the grain barges, we cut up shad and bounced bottom around back of the barge.  There were lots of baitfish in the area and we quickly hooked up.  In about 2 hours, we landed 12 catfish.  We had a solid time and it proved that sometimes you just have to adapt your plan to whatever works.  Look forward to doing it again!

  

Summer Fun with the Family

 

2021 Catfish Kickoff

Wheeler Lake - Browns Ferry

Time: 7:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Air Temperature: 53 - 67 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 77 Degrees
Lake Level: 507.27
Weather Conditions: Mostly Cloudy.  Clearing mid-day. Winds N-NW 9-10 mph sustained.

I've put up my long crappie rods for the summer and converted the boat over to a catfish slayer.  Today was my first 2021 day targeting catfish.  I thawed out some gizzard shad for the poles and some old threadfin to float some jugs and launched this morning at Cowford.  We had a cold front push through yesterday and it was cold for a late May day.  The cloud cover and north wind didn't help the temperature.

I dropped 6 jugs in from on my neighborhood and went down past the nuclear plant boils where the secondary channel spits and dropped 7 more.  I moved down past the powerline island and dropped 7 more there and then returned to the nuclear plant to drop my pole.

I attempted the livesocope today targeting catfish, but I can't say it made a difference like it does with crappie.  I concentrated on the pipeline dropoff near the green buoy.  I caught 3 nice fish on my first 3 passes.  I hung around bouncing bottom with cut gizzard shad and picked up another one before heading back to check jugs.

I caught a couple fish on the first jug drop, but only caught one total out of the other 14 jugs.  I decided to pick up these jugs. I headed back to the nuclear plant and gave it another go.  I wasn't having much luck near the green buoy, so I move to the middle of the channel near the dropoff and hit a good honey hole.  I picked up 2-3 more here.  

Around 11, I decided to call it an early day and pick up the remaining jugs.  The wind never really let up and it was pretty difficult to hold position.  The weather was clearing, but I needed to get back to the house and clean fish.  I picked up another could on the first jug drop and headed home.

It was an excellent start to my catfish season.  I ended up catching 12 and keeping 10 for the freezer. 3 of the 4 channel cats were still holding eggs, so the spawn is still active. One fish was slightly over 10 lbs and I threw it back.  Most were good eating size.  Will hit it again in another week or two and start running trotlines soon.

2021 Spring Crappie Finale

 Cedar Creek Reservoir

Time: 7:30 AM - 2:30 PM
Air Temperature: 61 - 78 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 
Lake Level: 580.24
Weather Conditions: Mostly Cloudy. Winds N-NW 6-12 mph

Doug and I took a day off today and hit the water for one last time for our spring crappie season.  It was a bit chilly and the cloud cover never lifted for long,

We started off fishing near the boat landing on the south shore.  The wind would soon get up and make the south shore tough, so we tried there in then shallows first with minnows and a bobber.  We struck out in our first 2-3 shallow stops, so we knew we needed to do something different.  

We decided to target deep water fully submerged structure like we had success with a couple weeks back.  We started on the east end of the lake on the big south bay in the bend of the river and quickly caught a few with the livescope and vertical jigging.  One we hit a couple locations here, we headed down to the far north west side of the lake and fished the narrow channel in the deep water we found fishing earlier in the year.  Once again, today we caught fish on ever single stop where we concentrated on submerged structure and jigging with the livescope.  The difference today was that we were pulling up good fish whereas a couple weeks earlier, only small, immature fish were in the deep structure.  

I don't believe we took any pictures today, but had a solid day.   Especially considering we had to completely change tactics.  We ended the day catching 20 crappie with 9 big enough to keep and one drum.  Once again, I was surprised to see 5-6 still hold eggs at the end of April.  Also surprised fish caught in 15-20 FOW over suspended structure hadn't moved up to lay.

Overall, I had a solid 2020/2021 crappie season averaging 24 crappie per trip and 12 large enough to keep each time.  Very solid improvement in progress over the past few years.  I'm changing over to catfish now and will pick up the long poles again in November.

Spring Crappie Winding Down

Cedar Creek Reservoir

Time: 7:30 AM - 3:00 PM
Air Temperature: 54 - 79 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 
Lake Level: 580.22
Weather Conditions: Partly Cloudy. Winds S-SE 4-7 mph

Returned back to Cedar Creek today and fished solo.  Spent a lot of time fishing shallow again exclusively with minnows and a bobber.  Had my best luck over at the Lost Creek docks around mid-day.  I'm writing all this a few weeks late, so I don't remember all the details except it was a solid day.  Caught 25 crappie with 13 big enough to keep and 5 largemouth bass.  Caught a couple nice sized fish today.  Surprised to see 5-6 females still holding eggs when I cleaned them.  Seems spawn isn't quite over yet...

2021 Cedar Creek Guys Trip

Cedar Creek Reservoir Guys Trip
April 15 - 18, 2021

Daniel McGovern
Ronny Watkins
Eric Watkins

We started what I hope is a new tradition this year.  Back around Christmas, I pitched an idea to have a spring crappie fishing trip to my dad and brother-in-law and they were all it.  We coordinated a few days vacation in mid-April centered around the spawn and made it a plan.

Dad came up on Wednesday afternoon and we did some grocery shopping a packing.  Daniel came up on Thursday morning and we hit the road for a 11:30 AM target time.

April 15 2021

We booked a cabin from BCDA Elliott Branch (http://www.bearcreeklakes.com/elliott-branch.html) and checked in right on time.  This was my first time dealing with the BCDA cabins and I was a little nervous about the location and amenities, but once we got there, we realized it was the perfect setup.  The cabins are very nice and had absolutely everything we needed.  We got everything unpacked and settled in and made some sandwiches and prepared to hit the water. 

We stopped by CJ's and got some tuffies and made it to Britton Bridge landing at 1:00 PM.  We set about to fish my normal places and techniques starting with the south side of the bank near the boat landing.  The temperature was in the mid 60's with a high of 67 and the winds were about 10 MPH from the N/NW.  It was sunny and beautiful and the water temperature was around 68 in the shallows.  We began floating tuffies under a bobber in the shallows and BOOM! crappie on the 1st cast! 

We fished heavy around the landing, levee, pumphouse, and on the blow down past the bridge all evening and had a solid day.  We finished with 29 crappie caught with 14 being keepers.  We also caught a bluegill, rock bass, and largemouth.  Very good day considering we launched a 1:00.

We headed back to the cabin and I cleaned fish while Daniel and Dad cooked dinner.  Daniel made some smash burgers and hot dogs that rocked.  After dinner, we were all exhausted and hit the sack early.

April 16 2021

We were all up around 6 AM and cooked sausage, biscuits, and eggs for breakfast.  We headed back out shortly after 7:00AM on Friday and started off with the same tactics as the day before.  However, the temperature had dropped substantially overnight and a cold front was blowing in.  The water temperature dropped about 5 degrees overnight with the lows getting down into the 40's and cloud cover set in for the entire day.  The high was only about 64 degrees.  This made our tactics from the day before much less effective.  We pulled a couple out of the shallows, but it started off very slow.  The fish we were catching were also much smaller.  We moved around a great deal and the fish were scattered.  We caught a few early, but went into a tremendous dry spell through the middle of the day.  

It was pretty obvious that the fish had pull back some from the shallows.  We couldn't find them in the deeper blowdowns on the bank either.  By middle afternoon, we decided to change our approach entirely and we found some submerged structure in the little bay where I normally fish with the blowdown past the bridge.  This structure was completely submerged in about 8-12 FOW.  We set up the Livescope and switched over to jigs.  The crappie started hitting immediately!  It seemed the key to the colder weather with the cold front moving in.  

We ended the day with 16 crappie caught and 10 keepers.  Daniel caught one bluegill big enough to keep.  We also caught 2 largemouth and one rock bass. While it was much slower, we still had a great time and had a good game plan ready for Saturday morning.

We went back to the cabin and I cleaned fish again while Dad and Daniel cooked.  We fried some of the fish we caught from the previously day and was absolutely stuffed! 

April 17 2021

We got up about 6:30AM and cooked another fabulous breakfast - deer tenderloin, sausage, biscuits, and eggs.  We hit the water shortly after 7:30AM and started the day with a plan to fish deeper water and fully submerged structure.  This day was much like the previous with heavy cloud cover and highs in the mid 60's.  The water temperature never recovered and stayed around 63 to 64 degrees.  

We started out were we finished the previous day past the bridge fishing structure in 8-12 FOW with jigs and we were immediately getting bites.  We pulled several out but overall, the size of the fish was very small.  We motored around the mouths of the bays and coves scanning and marking structure.  

We were all amazed that every single submerged structure spot we marked and fished held crappie.  We probably did this 10 different times and caught fish every time.  However, all fish coming out of deep structure were very small.  We realized later in the afternoon while fishing out towards the dam end of the lake that the small fish must be immature and would not move up to spawn.  Therefore, they had no need to leave the deeper structure.  

This would be our final afternoon of fishing, so we hit up the boat docks and some of the most promising shallow spots and managed to pull in a few keepers.  The bigger fish wanted to be shallow, but the wind got up to around 10 MPH NW and the combination of the cooler water and the muddy, windy wave action made shallows tough.  Still, we had a much more successful day that the previous since we had come into it with a better game plan.  We ended the day with 22 crappie, but only 4 keepers. Daniel also caught a nice channel catfish under the boat docks and we kept that one too.  

We headed back to the cabin and I cleaned fish while Dad and Daniel cooked.  Daniel cooked some killer ribeye steaks on charcoal.  

April 18 2021

Week took Sunday as a day of rest and cooked a good sausage, egg, and toast breakfast and packed up and got ready for checkout.  Overall, I believe we caught 65 crappie with 28 of them keepers.  We also had a mixed bag of other fish (bluegill, largemouth, rock bass, catfish). We had an outstanding time and a much needed break.  I can't wait to hit it again next year.