Dale Hollow slow/ Obey so so.
 

Fished DH Thursday night with not much luck. Caught a couple of bass, lake was dead. Fished on Obey River yesterday and caught several bows on Rappala trout colored cranks and gold kastmasters. 2 largemouths on orange rooster tails. Put in at Donaldson Park and went up to Moody ramp cold front hit batteries died and paddled back in the rain. Great fall colors, clear water and beautiful fish though. I would like to check out the lower half section of the river for browns, striper.

Trout pic.

Nice pic; and that water is clear. Hey at least you got to get out there and get some fishing in...I watched it rain all day long yesterday :(

That is one of my 2 favorite places to fish (Caney being the other).

How was the water level below the island to Donaldson?

Very shallow. Probably the most shallow we came across. I didn't see but a few browns, have you caught many on this river or striper?

I have done really well in the river fly fishing and with Trout Magnets.

It fishes a lot differently than the Caney almost completely different. The Obey can go from traditional downstream flow to no current to backwards flow all the way to the Dam depending on what Dale Hollow, Cordell Hull and Wolf Creek are generating.

The trout in there relate to cover like bass and don't really act like trout. It's almost like fishing a lake. You'll want to fish directly to timber, rocks, ledges, creek mouths and such. It gets stocked weekly 52 weeks a year plus there are some big holdovers in brooks and browns. Haven't seen many really big bows but there 6+lb browns in there and over 15" brooks.

You can catch quite a bit of fish on low water pool hopping downstream but on 1 gen it gets a lot better.

You are dead on with the upstream current. The entire float I was getting pulled upstream and to the right hand side of river due to wind and current. Way different than the Caney. Due to these conditions I could not get the trout magnet dialed in like I wanted. Anyone using 2# on ultralight? I use 4# and like it but these trout are weary.

Put this way... the trout will see and turn off pretty much anything bigger than 6x tippet. Very clear, very line shy and most cases have a long time to look at it.

2lb, with fluoro tippet is the way to go.

2 # flouro , nano, mono. ?
Murfreesboro outdoors may have one of these.

Murfreesboro Outdoors will have the 2# test NanoFil and I am sure 2# test fluorocarbon. That is what I use most of the time...sometimes using 2# test mono....but when fishing for trout I always have the fluorocarbon leader on. That setup using a Trout Magnet gives me great results on the Obey. Would fish it more if not for the fact it is a long way away for me.


Regards

Thanks Alpha, my two older boys have ultralights that can handle 2#. I never have used it before. My reel is stamped for 6 # and up do you think it would work properly or should I step down.

You could leave some of say 6lb if thats what you have on there for a backing otherwise a standard 2lb spool probably won't fill it enough to get the best casting distance out of it. Also, factor in it will weigh more than the regular ultralight reels too.

I tried that on a mid size bass pro reel and put a whole spool of 2lb on it. That lasted maybe a couple weeks then it came off on a smaller reel.

I was going to tell you what Travis already said. On a Shimano 1000 series reel I can get about 240 yards of SOS 2# test line on one of those.....SOS line has a pretty small diameter. I wold hate to fill the next size reel up with 2# test.......LOL. With NanoFil I have to put about 150 yards of backing on my reel before spooling up with NanoFil. Probably best to buy a smaller reel....IMHO.

Regards