nomad60
06-21-2013, 02:28 PM
Today is the first day of summer and what better way to celebrate than to head out in the 90-degree heat and do some fishing? Ok, maybe not; when I hit the water at 5 this morning, it was only 68 out and it felt pretty good. I put in at the Clarksville Marina and headed down towards the area where the Red River meets the Cumberland because today, I wanted to fish the rocks and rock walls on the right side.
Not because I know anything; the main reason I wanted to fish this stretch was because the forecast high for today was 91 and I wanted to fish in the shade and that area stays shaded for a few hours in the morning until the sun breaks over the tree tops. Lucky for me, the bass had the same idea and as long as I stayed in shade, I had bites.
These were the pic-worthy bass of the morning. I caught one on a redeye shad and the rest of the fish were caught on Senkos - all my bass were caught in 3-10 feet of water. The fish in the pic IMG_1992 was caught on a 1/8 oz shaky head jig with a 4”, smoke/black Senko on the hook. Someone told me to try that because to the bass, it looks like a bait fish darting around in the rocks, looking for food. I don’t know what it looked like to the bass but I caught several fish today on that rig so it’s a part of my arsenal from now on. The bass in the last pic was the big one of the morning and I broke out the net for that one; did not want to risk losing it at the side of the boat. After I worked that stretch of bank, I headed back up river and fished another rock area near a bridge where I’ve caught fish before but that area was in full sun and the only fish I caught there were dinks. It got too hot for this kid around 10:30 and the bite pretty much died so I headed on home.
I feel pretty good about this morning; I’m starting to feel more confident fishing the river but this year is only the beginning and I still have a long way to go.
Not because I know anything; the main reason I wanted to fish this stretch was because the forecast high for today was 91 and I wanted to fish in the shade and that area stays shaded for a few hours in the morning until the sun breaks over the tree tops. Lucky for me, the bass had the same idea and as long as I stayed in shade, I had bites.
These were the pic-worthy bass of the morning. I caught one on a redeye shad and the rest of the fish were caught on Senkos - all my bass were caught in 3-10 feet of water. The fish in the pic IMG_1992 was caught on a 1/8 oz shaky head jig with a 4”, smoke/black Senko on the hook. Someone told me to try that because to the bass, it looks like a bait fish darting around in the rocks, looking for food. I don’t know what it looked like to the bass but I caught several fish today on that rig so it’s a part of my arsenal from now on. The bass in the last pic was the big one of the morning and I broke out the net for that one; did not want to risk losing it at the side of the boat. After I worked that stretch of bank, I headed back up river and fished another rock area near a bridge where I’ve caught fish before but that area was in full sun and the only fish I caught there were dinks. It got too hot for this kid around 10:30 and the bite pretty much died so I headed on home.
I feel pretty good about this morning; I’m starting to feel more confident fishing the river but this year is only the beginning and I still have a long way to go.