Ohl 7/13/13
 

Hi all,

I fished Old Hickory this morning with a friend. I had some creek minnows and the usual assortment of bass baits to see what we could find.

First spot was loaded with fish on the depthfinder. It is one of my favorite striper holes and I thought we may have gotten lucky. The depthfinder was full of big hooks from 20 to 50 ft deep. An hour and a half of drifting big creek minnows through them and no bites. There were paddlefish surfacing all around us, so maybe that is what we were seeing on the depthfinder.

Oh well, off to find some bass. We did pretty well on the bass, catching a dozen or so between us. My friend lost a good one when it jumped at the boat. Then later he had a fish on and he thought it was a small one when it took off and pull a bunch of drag and then got off. Bummer. I gave him a bunch of grief about his wimpy hook set :)

Last spot of the day, just after noon I hooked a big fish off a bluff bank. It powered straight at me and then blasted under the boat. I lost it. It felt like a huge smallmouth. My friend didn't forget to mention that it must have been my weak hookset that was the problem. Karma I guess :(

Overall a fun day and the main channel is really rolling. For us, the best fishing was along current edges on the main channel. Not much action if we got away from the current.

No pics as the big ones all got away.

Jim

Can someone explain exactly what the "channels" in a reservoir are? I have a vague understanding but it's always been a bit of a mystery to me...

Well you got 12 fish to the boat.....so a good day IMHO. But yes ones heart sinks when those big ones get off. We only will get so may shots at those big ones and it feels sick when they get away....but man it is thrill....even short lived...when we hook one.


Regards

Main Channels ... <'TK><
 

TK,

Very helpful...thanks a bunch!

I'm going to check that out because I'm catching all of my bass in 2' to 4' water.............woody

Hi Woody,

Most of our bass were shallow also (2 to 6 ft), but on the edge of deep water. The best ones were right on the drop off.

Jim

I agree, it was a fun day. Old Hickory has been fishing great this year. No shortage of numbers or size. Big change from the past few years.

Part of my problem of losing fish has been fishing light line. We are fishing 6 lb test mostly and it is hard to drive the hook home on big fish even using a light wire worm hooks. With that said we have caught a bunch of good size bass on the set up this year so it is hard to change when it is working.

Jim

Woody, you are catching the little "buck" bass. The bigger ones hang out deeper.

TK gave a good answer and I will add some to it. The pictures are from some hydrologic modeling I did on Old Hickory a few years ago.

Old Hickory is a reservoir on the Cumberland River and the main channel is the old river channel. In the lower end the river channel and lots of the old floodplain areas are underwater. As you move upstream of Gallatin, it begins to transition to more of a flooded river, but the top of the river channel banks are now long islands. By the time you get to the upper river section from about Bartons creek upstream the lake is fully within the old river channel.

You can see these zones in the following picture.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-d...640/Slide7.JPG

For more of a close up look, in the lower end you can see the main channel from the air and it is obvious where the main channel is when looking at a depth cross section. In the following picture, the main channel is going between the two powerline towers.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-6...640/Slide8.JPG

The shallow water at the top of the old river channel banks are the "ledges" that you may hear people talking about fishing during the summer. Lots of bass move out to the main channel edges during the summer. When fishing the ledges in the summer, you are looking for irregularities in the top of the old channel. A small cut, some old trees, mussel beds, etc that may hold fish. You just have to fish it to find the good spots.

Moving upstream, in the transition zone, the islands are the top of the old channel (what would be the ledge downstream).

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G...640/Slide9.JPG

In this area, creek mouths are real good, but there are still ledges as the channel moves from one side to the other. Shallow wood that sits at the edge of the channel is a great thing to look for. Remember to fish the deep edge under the wood and not just the obvious visible wood.

By the time you get up river, Old Hickory fishes like a river. The water is still confined to the old river channel and very little of the old floodplain is underwater. Find eddies, cuts, rock piles, and holes and fish any cover in those areas.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-P...40/Slide10.JPG

In all areas of the lake. Humps, breaks and holes in the bottom of the main channel hold big fish. Stripers, catfish, white bass and most any type of fish can stack up in these areas. In the deep holes, sometimes the fish are just resting and are hard to get to bite. You may have to wait for them to move to the nearest break for them to start feeding. The more current in the main channel the tighter the fish will be to defined spots. Without any current, the main channel can be tough to fish.

We have had good water flow through Old Hickory all year and it has been really good fishing. In the past few low flow years it was hard to get a consistent bite.

Hope this helps,
Jim

Thats good stuff there Jim....great info!




Regards

Thanks Jim! That's great info!

I felt like I was in a classroom reading that haha. Great information man, we all appreciate it! I'm very excited to get a depthfinder on the yak (coming soon) so I can look for this type of stuff and make my fishing a whole lot more interesting and productive!

Jim, that is about as clear an explanation as possible.. thanks for posting those photos with the graphs, they were particularly helpful! regards

Have you always used such light line? I've never heard of so many people using such light tackle until I joined here. Maybe that's the change that's catching more fish?

With certain lures it will help catch more fish because heavier line may not allow for enough action of the lure to entice a strike. Mostly though we just like it for sport. I always bass fish with 4 or 6lb test and when using trout/crappie magnets I use a spool full of 4lb mono with a few feet of 2lb flouro. I often catch bass with that and it's a blast fighting them on 2lb test, have to be very careful! The only rods I have with heavier line are my rockfish setup (30lb braid) and my baitcaster that I use for spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, crankbaits, etc. which requires 10lb test. Now if I was fishing a tournament, which I have yet to attempt, I'd definitely use 15-20lb test so I can horse the fish in as quick as possible and not worry about breaking the line.

A couple years ago at the Caney, at night, when I was first attempting to catch big browns I had that feeling. Fishing a rainbow trout pattern crank I had something really big grab it and make a long run. I wasn't even in the battle yet, just holding the rod and watching the drag run out. That lasted about 10-15 seconds and then it was gone. Didn't break off, just got loose. Yea, I felt sick.

I use light line on my bream rods, still sticking with 14lb mono for bass until I get the hang of a small baitcaster a bit more. I only use 20lb mono on all my catfish rigs however. I get a kick out of them pulling drag and it casts alot farther. I may try to step down the bass rod soon then and see if I can hook up on a few more.

Thanks for the nice comments about the graphs and pics. I am glad if it helps.

Also,

I an not a light line only fisherman. I carry a bunch of rods on the boat ranging from 80lb braid for fishing big live bait for stripers and cats to 2lb test for trout magnets. I have a number of baitcasting set ups with 14 or 17 lb test for typical bass fishing. The 6lb set up is for light shakyhead fishing. I have been doing well with a 1/16 and 1/8 oz sliderhead jig with a small plastic worm or crawfish. The light head allows the baits to slowly slither through the cover and rarely gets hung up in the rocks. The 6lb fluorocarbon leader on braid is an amazingly strong setup. It rarely breaks even when the bass wrap it in the brush.

Last fall my best action was on a rattletrap and that was on 14 lb test. Hardly ever picked up any light tackle as the bass were killing the rattletrap so mostly I fish whatever they are biting on :) I have had little luck on a spinnerbait this year and that is normally my go to bait.

Jim

Good to know and thanks for the responses fellas. I'm just now getting into fishing species other than catfish and all of this is very helpful!

Great information and explanation with the visual Jim. I would like to learn to fish deep water humps and ledges better. This information sure does help. You can't always fish shallow.

Jeremy

Thanks, Jim. This is a massive help.

When one starts out fishing, he beats the bank to death. Then he starts to learn to fish deeper waters etc.