jjohnson
05-26-2014, 09:08 AM
Fresh and new to clearwater/river fishing and decided yesterday that I wanted to try fishing at night on the Caney. Called a buddy and made a plan on where we were going to go.
We decided to start downstream a but and work our way up towards the dam considering how the dam hasn't been generating a whole lately.
We're shore/wading fishermen so to start, we got to the Betty's Island ramp around 8:30pm and pitched for a couple of hours....no action at all. So, we decided to change the venue and try a new venue.
Moved upstream to the Happy Hollow bar and well...The Caney fog had rolled in pretty thick at that point (about 11pm I'd say) and the water was so low that getting a hook wet proved pretty difficult. Especially since the undergrowth was pretty well exposed in the water and even with flashlights, visibility was only around 5-6 ft. Finding prospective areas to actually fish was pretty tough. So, we gave up on fighting the grass and fog and made our way to the dam.
Finally, feeling a little relief about the fact that the bottom of the dam is almost ALWAYS active with fish we hit the steps on the south/west side of the dam and tried everything in our tackle boxes. Literally. No luck.
Not being one for "throwing in the towel" and a firm believer in "a bad day of fishing beats any good day work", I told my fishing partner into just throwing a weight and night crawler out and we just sit and relax. If something hits, it hits. Whatever.
Long story short, we only caught 3 fish all night but I think we accomplished something that I haven't really heard of or seen...2 of our 3 catches were Lake Sturgeon. 3rd was a 17" Rainbow. I have pics but (bear with me) I'll have to figure out how to attach them in a second post on this thread after I learn how to do it. Haha.
How often are Lake Sturgeon caught in the Caney Fork?
Also, could anyone help by sharing some suggestions on lures and techniques for night fishing the Caney? Maybe the fish just weren't moving but I'm confident the issue was that we weren't really giving them what they wanted.
We decided to start downstream a but and work our way up towards the dam considering how the dam hasn't been generating a whole lately.
We're shore/wading fishermen so to start, we got to the Betty's Island ramp around 8:30pm and pitched for a couple of hours....no action at all. So, we decided to change the venue and try a new venue.
Moved upstream to the Happy Hollow bar and well...The Caney fog had rolled in pretty thick at that point (about 11pm I'd say) and the water was so low that getting a hook wet proved pretty difficult. Especially since the undergrowth was pretty well exposed in the water and even with flashlights, visibility was only around 5-6 ft. Finding prospective areas to actually fish was pretty tough. So, we gave up on fighting the grass and fog and made our way to the dam.
Finally, feeling a little relief about the fact that the bottom of the dam is almost ALWAYS active with fish we hit the steps on the south/west side of the dam and tried everything in our tackle boxes. Literally. No luck.
Not being one for "throwing in the towel" and a firm believer in "a bad day of fishing beats any good day work", I told my fishing partner into just throwing a weight and night crawler out and we just sit and relax. If something hits, it hits. Whatever.
Long story short, we only caught 3 fish all night but I think we accomplished something that I haven't really heard of or seen...2 of our 3 catches were Lake Sturgeon. 3rd was a 17" Rainbow. I have pics but (bear with me) I'll have to figure out how to attach them in a second post on this thread after I learn how to do it. Haha.
How often are Lake Sturgeon caught in the Caney Fork?
Also, could anyone help by sharing some suggestions on lures and techniques for night fishing the Caney? Maybe the fish just weren't moving but I'm confident the issue was that we weren't really giving them what they wanted.