[Reel Tune]

We had a great outing. Two of us showed up Thursday and started fishing Friday morning on Boone Lake with another guy. I had one Striper in the 20-25# range follow a Bull Shad, and that was it. Then we met up with another guy after noon and the four of us floated the South Holston River from 3pm-7pm we ended up catching and releasing 15 or so smallmouth between 15-20" most around the 17" range, and a few small largemouth, and that was it. We spotted several nice fish largemouth and smallmouth. The float was basically to find out what was going on in this part of the river.

Friday evening one other guy showed up, and got up early Saturday morning to float the South Holston again on this float there were 4 of us. We took our time and landed 2 rainbow trout in one section that were 20", and 25.25" respectively. Then we got down to the blackbass area around 9am. We fished slow taking our time to pick apart the water, and ended up getting off the water around 5:30pm. On the South Holston we caught in excess of 60 smallmouth between the 4 of us, with the biggest at 21", and at least 10 over 18", most were in the 16" class, and one 19" largemouth was caught. I spotted some really big smallmouth 23"+ but there was no interest in what I was using. Around noon we got some strong winds and heavy rains, that’s when I pulled out the rain gear, and the Rapala Spittin' Image and proceeded to bust 5 or 6 on top water until the wind and rains passed and the sun came out. There were 4 redear/shellcracker caught, and two of them were over 13" close to 14". This was a fun float, and great group of guys.

Sunday morning we fished Boone Lake again from just before daylight. I decided to use the Bull Shad and pull a rainbow on a planer board. The visibility was great, I saw one cruising fish that had no interest in eating, I had big striper messing with the trout I was pulling bout wouldn’t commit. Ben lost one good fish right at the kayak, another guy got busted off while throwing a Sammy, and the last guy who had never caught a striper somehow got spooled. We fished until about 11am then headed back to camp to break down and head home. I ended up getting home around 4:30p Sunday and exhausted.

This was our second outing (the first being Reelfoot last month) that I have hosted/planned we had 14 say they were coming 6 showed up, 5 fished, and 4 stayed the entire weekend. I will keep having more outings throughout the year targeting different areas of the state, and hoping participation will continue and hopefully turn into a small tournament series that travels throughout the state.

This was one of the last times I will get to fish with Ben as he is headed off to the Coast Guard, we will fish together for a week in the beginning of May in Destin for our yearly adrenaline rush on kayak trip where anything can happen and preparation, and a little luck is the key to success.

If there is enough interest in pictures I’ll post some up.