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?