glad we went fishing in the rain saturday.
 

We were after trout but that soon changed. Released to catch again. http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/...7/IMAG0017.jpg http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/...7/IMAG0014.jpg

Wow! What did you use to get these bruisers???

Nice looking fish.

Nice fish!

Looks like the same fish to me!

Great job!

Oh well! Ha! Well what did they use to get that BRUISER! HA!

I am still looking for my first rockfish! I hooked one below percy last summer and it broke me off. I was bummed. It was about a ten pounder. But I want one over 30! REAL BAD!!!!

Seeing those pics may make me give up on trout as well. How bad is the water down there with that much generation? How would it be in a boat? Seems like you'd get flushed out pretty quick, but you could cover a lot of water.

If they're running the sluice gate open, I'd stay clear of the area immediately below the dam in a boat. It gets pretty rough. I helped a few folks out last fall after they paddled out into it and got overturned. The sad part was, if they'd just waited another 20 minutes, the sluice was scheduled to cut off for the day. They got soaked, lost a rod, and ruined their trip for nothing.

If the sluice gate is closed it is not any worse than any other tailwater.

bd

I've tried and tried and tried to catch big stripers below the Center Hill dam and had no luck. I have caught some really nice bass, but no stripers. Everyone I ask uses live bait, I strictly fish with artificials. Can someone give me at least some hints on what kind of lures can be used to catch stripers? Not even 30 pounders like I'm guessing those are.. just a 5 pounder would make me happy!

Anything that looks ike a shad will work, the gulp money minnow swim bait is awesome!

The usual tailwater lure, bucktail jig, works. You have to match weight to current, though, and still be able to cast it far enough to get to where the fish are. I use either a 7 1/2 ft med-heavy inshore spinning rod with 20 lb fireline crystal on a 4000 size reel or a 9 ft surf rod with 30 lb fireline on a 4000 size reel...depending on what I'm throwing and how far I have to get my lure.

It's a lot of work to deal with stripers below center hill due to the high oxygen levels giving them a "turbo gear," but it's as fun as anything you can do with your clothes on when 20-30 lbers are hitting your bait on every cast for 2 1/2 hrs (maybe longer, but I was too sore to go on dealing with them). This is NOT a common scenario, I lucked into a bite like that 2 years ago in much different conditions than they are now, but if only 1 fish is around, I'd make every effort to catch it. A reel screaming in pain as a big striper burns off 100+ yards of line is music to my ears.

By the way, take extra lures and line...some of the fish in the caney are more than anything but stand-up gear can handle from the bank...I've lost more than my share of gear (and sleep) chasing the smaller (30 and under) ones only to have a monster whip my...well, you know.




Chris

Well immediately after this month work will slow down and my fishing season begins. I plan to stock up on some fresh trout first which should be easy. Conservationists, leave me alone. Yes I eat fish that I catch because it's very healthy to do so. Eating fish from WalMart (from China sewage ponds)...not so much. Back to fishing, after I have some trout, I'm dedicating the rest of my time strictly to striper fishing. I'm going to make an order from Cabelas specifically for this purpose. I have in my "cart" a silver spoon, GULP money minnow swimbaits, and a big Rapala stickbait that I think resembles a shad pretty well. Any other tips?

Pencil poppers, super spooks, redfins, slug-go's, super flukes, and 1/4-1.5 oz jigheads with stout hooks.


Chris

Definitely these but I will also add to not completely stock all you box with huge baits. They do eat big stuff but a lot of the baitfish aren't large all year long. Put some 3" or 4" shad swimbaits on good hooks to make sure you can match the hatch so to speak if need be.

Travis is dead-on. My go-to striper and especially hybrid lure is a 4" pearl slug-go on a 1/4 oz jighead or tx-rigged. 5" redfins work spring-fall, 6" pencil poppers work as well as the 7" one, and I tie my bucktails anywhere from 4" to 8" depending on the season, where I'm fishing, and what forage is being keyed on. Below OH Dam is a great place to target big 20+ lbers from the bank during fall with smaller baits. Think 4" and pearl or white ice flukes on a 3-way rig bounced on bottom...just to name one of my go-to rigs there.


Chris

I'd probably enjoy that kind of fishing more if it didn't involve so many lost lures. It gets expensive after a while.

bd

BD,

If you have an 8 wt with floating line, a few 4" clousers in all white or grey/white, and a small stepladder, you can get into some good hybrids and stripers from the shore (or just off it, but you'll have to wade a bit) in about a month.


Chris

I have super flukes that I thought would work perfect for stripers. They're 5" I think and the color is smoke blue. I've used them at the dam a few times and caught some nice bass but never any stripers. I also never did this when the water was high though, that may have been part of the problem. Just out of curiosity, why do those big stripers only hang around the dam during generation?

Usually what drives them is food. Think of if as a conveyor belt. Faster it runs the more it can bring to you. More water brings more food for the little fish that get eaten by the bigger fish and so on. It also positions the prey fish as they have to seek current breaks making them easier targets than if they could swim freely. All fish move up to feed at some point not just the stripers.

In the summertime they also run to the Dam for reasons above but more importantly then the waters DO level goes up when new water mixes.

I assume you're talking about the upstream side of the dam for that. When I was griping about lost tackle I was talking about tailwater fishing. Just so nobody gets the wrong idea, I would recommend having one's life insurance policy paid up and all personal affairs in order before wading into a tailwater to fish off a stepladder. :)

bd

Yes, UPSTREAM side. Though, you can wade a certain tailwater under the right conditions and absolutely slay hybrids, stripers, white bass, and all three black bass species with a flyrod, but I'm not revealing any specifics or posting pictures about it on a public forum...I like the fact that I'm the only longrodder out there, and I outfish guys with conventional gear 5:1.


Chris

So where do these big stripers go when the water is really low around the dam? Do they retreat all the way to the deeper parts of the river? That seems like quite a journey to make everyday when the generation begins.

Also, about how long after generation do they begin feeding and how long until they are done? I'm just trying to broaden my knowledge of how these fish move around and live in an effort to catch one this year, I plan on dedicating a lot of time just to catch a big striper. I'm bored with small trout in the Caney, so I went after the bigger ones and got one. Now that goal is checked off my list, its time for the striper! :D

Bigger stripers follow the food. Long releases draw baitfish, which draw predators like trout and skippies, and that draws in the big stripers. A big striper isn't going to run from way downriver and back every day, so released need to be high enough and long enough to make a striper feel safe to travel thru previously skinny water. I've seen big stripers feeding in shallow stretches in rivers, but there's deep holes nearby for them to retreat to.

You're really gonna have to dedicate yourself to catching a big fish. Most of the "striper" lures are not big enough to tempt a monster lineside. I use the 10" fin s fish, but even it is on the small side. Big Huddleston lures, castaic swimbaits, ac plugs, and some Muskie sized lures work, but they are über pricey, and big stripers live in places you may not wanna chuck a $25 lure. Live bait is the primary method used, but again you have to think BIG. Skipjack over 20" are not too big. The hardest part of the livey game keeping it alive and in good shape.

Of course, big is a relative term. If you're thinking over 20 lbs, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding one below oh dam, Cordell hull dam, and some other known hotspots. Anything over 40 lbs gets a lot harder, however. My personal best is 45 lbs, and I hooked into one much bigger in my kayak...on a fly rod (tragic ending to that story...I still wake up at night sick to my stomach over it). I would pick one area that historically holds these fish, and fish the crap out of it till you get one.


Chris

I don't know where they go but Stripers and White Bass can travel 55 miles in a 24 hour period....according to the experts.


Regards

Are you speaking in general or in reference to the thread being Caney.

The Caney on low water the furthest up I have ever heard of one caught on low water was Lancaster area. On how long once generation comes... your guess is as good as mine. It's not guaranteed they will be there.

Those fish can cover a huge amount of water. There used to be a study somewhere of ones tagged on Percy that would travel from the Old Hickory Cove area down by the Dam up to the forks of the Stones with regularity. I forget the time frame they did it in but it was impressive.

When generation stops, they will move all the way back out to the Cumberland. They will "stop over" briefly in some of the deeper holes on the lower river, but they don't stick around in the shallows for long when the water stops moving.

The Stones tailwater is only 7 or 8 miles tops from Percy Priest Dam to the junction with the Cumberland. It seems like a long trip, but stripers will do that kind of move at the drop of a hat. They are very mobile fish, and they can move a lot farther than that in a day if the forage and the conditions motivate them to do so. On tailwaters with intermittent generation, it does seem like it takes a long period of sustained generation before they will show up at a dam, but once they're there, they will stick around until the generation shuts off or the foraging opportunities die down.

bd

i have caught stripers at center hill(caney) with no generators run for along time 12 plus hrs. there are deep holes all over they can drop back to and hang out.

The Caney is 28 miles long and is quite a bit different from the Stones tailwater in terms of gradient, depth, and the character of the pools close to the dam.

That said, even on the Caney, the stripers rarely run all the way to the dam unless there has been continuous generation for a while, and when the continuous generation ceases, they drop back and don't stick around in the upper few miles of river.

If you're saying you regularly catch large stripers on the Caney close to the dam, on low water, with the generators off for 12 plus hours, I'm sorry but I'd have to see it to believe it.

bd

BD I agree I have lost so many expensive lures below Priest(years ago), Old Hickory and where these guys are at. But I fished the Caney with my brother in law heavy over the last 2 or 3 years(not this winter though), and we have seen and gotten into these big stripers from the Cumerland all the back to Center Hill at different times, when we were trout fishing, around 5 or 6 miles down toward the Cumberland. You would see these hugh dark shapes chasing trout in the 3 and 4ft water range. Be fishing 4lb line and that spinning reel start singing. Fun stuff.