Center Hill
 

My Client and I fished Sun up to Sun Down Yesterday." Was Tough" We concentrated on finding bait in mid to backs of creeks. Crank baits Suspended jerk baits, Jigging spoons caught nothing. Resorted to The nightcrawlers and drifted them close to where we marked bait. Bite was slow but we still ended up with 12 or 13 spots. We had 5 decent spots between 15 and 17 inches. Topwwater has been good in the mornings but I believe that Yesterdays weather drove them deep. We only saw one pod of minnows up top in the very back of the creek. 10 to 20 feet most fish hit. 3 small spots did come of shallow wood Late in the day. Still a great day on the water.
Mike Dial

Well you caught fish Mike. Don't have to tell you the Hill can be tough. The weather and maybe we are in the transition period....with all that going on sounds like good trip to me.


Regards

Anybody know the water temps in the rivers below the dams?

Is there a website that will give me that info?

http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/Water...new/layout.cfm

This is the only site I know of with rivergage info other than on usgs.

The Caney was 50 degrees at the Dam last week.You can only get temp info on the link at Stonewall/Gordonsville "if" its working.

Talked with another guy from this forum tonight and he was saying that fishing below Center Hill dam was dangerous if they are generating. Having never been there and wanting to go there for walleyes/sauger soon, anybody got any thoughts on the matter?

Kinda tricky in a full size bass boat. A small Jon boat would be better. The walleye push up into 1 ft of water during non-generation times, and the area below the dam is not very deep when the generators are off.



Chris

It can be....depending on how much they are generating....is the sluice on.....what you are doing.....boating....kayaking.....knowing what time generation starts. Wading is a no go during generation. They can have no sluice going and a couple of generators on and I will put the kayak in the pond. I stay away from the current from the generators and always wear my PFD. I have fished it with browntrout in his boat when 3 generators were going and it was no problem at all. It all depends on amount of water being released and your boating skills....knowledge and so on. If you have never done it before maybe it would be best to go out with someone who has and learn from them. That is how I first started fishing there. A lot of parameters to consider.


Regards

I have fairly good boating skills, an aluminum 18ft Fisher Marsh Hawk that drafts very little. I have an I-pilot trolling motor (101 lb thrust) that should hold me about anywhere I need to stay. I have fished below Old Hickory in 37,000 cfps up near the gates and never had a problem with boat control. I guess I just need to go take a look at it and judge for myself.

I am not averse to taking a little risk (MNfisher and jad2t have fished with me in my 18 ft fiberglass bass boat and I didn't see either of them getting nervous) and I'm not foolhardy either. In my youth, yes. Old age, no. Love my wife and baby too much to risk causing them grief. Especially for a few fish.

I hear you. I can assure you that I would not get out there if there was a great risk of danger. When the sluice is on not only would I not go to the pond, you couldn't get there in one piece. The pond becomes like a small sea with waves. I have seen a guy with the IPilot position himself off the wing wall and cast to the boils....pretty neat how the motor keeps him in one place.


Regards

It's dangerous right now because when they're generating they're also opening the sluice gates. I went there not too long ago and saw what that looks like for the first time... you definitely don't want to be in a boat. It's almost as turbulent as that lock we saw open up several times when we fished below OHD. When they're just generating without the sluice it's not dangerous if you're experienced at that type of fishing which you are. I see people fishing from a boat all the time right up against the wall like we did below OHD. I'm working on gathering some information too on the walleye in the Caney, apparently they're plentiful. Mike knows how to catch them and a guy from another forum said to PM him and he'd let me know a few techniques to get them in the Caney. Maybe when you give it a shot I'll have some free time and can fish with you.

Always glad to have you on the boat with me!

Sluice gates. TVA's website for that Dam generation has a note above the schedule that the sluice will open up during generation.

Ageless,

I didn't know you had an aluminum boat. You should be fine in it. If the sluice ramps up from 250 cfs to 1750 cfs, I would move downstream and wait it out (if it is a 1 hr pulse). The area near the ramp on the same side as the waterfalls is relatively calm. If it is a longer release window, I would wait a bit to let the water downstream rise, then fish downstream to pick up the larger fish that feed in the heavier current. Just be sure to keep track of time so that you don't end up stuck when the water begins to drop.

Lately, the corps has only been increasing sluice flows when they are generating. That should help you determine what time/day to go. Also, generation has been much longer during the week, and only 1 hr on the weekends, if that.


Chris

Chris,
I just picked the boat up last week. I wanted to get into something that was more economical to run. Those gas prices were killing me, what with the Expedition getting 13 MPG and the boat getting a whole lot less than that. (Wide open....150 HP divided by 10 = 15 GPH consumption @ $3.50 gallon of gas (not counting oil mix and Stabil) = $52.50 per hour. So every ten minute run costs $8.75.

Going fishing two to three times a week by myself with no one sharing fuel costs got prohibitive. My wife NEVER says anything about my fishing times or trips, but I have trouble justifying to myself. Can't short the family to indulge my pleasures. I believe in equality in the family.

Lighter boat w/75 HP motor will cut my gas costs way down. A mechanic told me the most fuel efficient range was 3000 RPM so I'll try that for awhile and see how it does.