Watts Bar 04.26.14

[TNBronzeback]

Me and the Bro packed up and headed east for our (late) first striper trip of the season. Got to the dam before sunrise and began the process of netting shad, not happening! zero surface activity, several other boats there as well and not a fish caught. Generation was a mere trickle at just over 6k cfs which did not make the morning any easier. about 10:00 I
used the handy dandy TVA App to check the generation at Melton Hill. 1 generator from noon until 7 but again, about 6k cfs. Not ideal by no means, but with the river layout as opposed to Watts Bar, its better.
Got to the boat ramp about 1, shot up river to the first creek and got our shad, a great mixed bag of big, small, medium size, threadfind and gizzards. (and as a side note, i still cannot throw a net consistantly, LOL)
with shad in hand we set out the planer boards thru school after school after school of our linesided buddies. the shad went crazy a few times, but no takers. now i DESPISE trolling of any kind for any kind of fish so after about 15 minutes of looking at what was comparable to an etch-a-sketch on our graph, i dropped down the jigging blade and went to work. within 5 minutes BOOM. not a big fish, but a start. That was short lived. Headed down river to our magical stretch of river last and while it wasnt the same, we werent disapointed. first pass eric sets out his live bait rig and starts rigging up the planer board, no sooner did he turn around and that live bait down rod was jerking up and down, then a steady hard downward pull that turned the back of the boat, he nails it, drag screams then the sinking feeling of slack line. just as he gets re-rigged i hammer down on one, same situation, rod bucked and bent, drag singing our favorite tune then slack! 2 big fish lost in about 20 yards! we continued our drift and found a deeper hole, about 35 ft. planer board out, 2 live bait rods down and 2 of us jigging blade baits, erics live bait rod jerks down, hook on, i about had the rod jerked outta my hand on the blade bait and missed, erics fish rips off, my live bait rod goes down, i set mine and it was like setting into a snag, but a snag that runs upriver. i fought that fish hard for about 3 minutes with some pretty stout gear and again, the thing rips off!!!!! that action cooled down after no more hits in 3 more passes so we went back up where we seen all the graph activity to see if they changed thier mood. right at dark is was game on. BUT, no other hits, not even a sniff on live bait. the final tally was 8 stripers landed and about 7-8 lost. all landed fish came off jigging blades, BUT they were smaller fish and they were hooked on the sides of thier mouths, they baits were not in them which i found strange. For the conditions that we had, low generation, high skies and hot weather, i think we fared pretty well. the big fish were on live baits, but i think with the little generation, they had too much time to look at and were just mouthing the shad resulting in poor hookups. i took a few pics of our first fish and our last fish as the rest we landed were no bigger or smaller. all healthy looking fish, just as powerful as ever. might try it again Mothersday Weekend. hoping for more generation to get them biting more aggresively.

[creekcrappie]

Great report!

[TNBronzeback]

Gonna try to get back out there weekend after next. hopefully the water will have more movement but wont be dirty. There is defeinately a ton of fish staged in there right now.
its amazing, those big, ferocious eating machines being so picky about a meal!

[nomad60]

Nice report, I enjoyed reading that. And that reminds me, I have a cast net I bought a while back that I was supposed to practice with so I could start catching live bait but there it sits, in the garage, forgotten and dusty LOL

[lupanfreitag]

Striper talk is making it hard to work.

[TNBronzeback]

its my brothers cast net, i think its a 6ft or 6.5ft diameter. i dont know which brand. probably off the shelf from academy or BPS im guessing. 1 out of 20 throws for me opens up fully and perfect, of the remaining 19 about half open up about half way, as in a circle cut in half, then half of those is like a banana, and the rest, well i might as well just ball it up and throw it in the water! LOL. a few guys said they would give some classes this weekend on throwing a net so i guess i should buy my own and bring it with me this weekend so i can practice with "my" net ya know.
If they are running out east, im sure they are running out this way too and i wouldnt mind trying it this weekend!
No trolling or planer boards for me though, i cant stand mess! i will rig up a few live bait rods, drop em down and hope for the best!
I hope the river dont get dirty, although im sure thats not gonna happen!

[Alphahawk]

Nice fish.

Regards


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[Transplanted Sportsman]

Originally Posted by nomad60

Nice report, I enjoyed reading that. And that reminds me, I have a cast net I bought a while back that I was supposed to practice with so I could start catching live bait but there it sits, in the garage, forgotten and dusty LOL

x2

Congrats Bronzeback sounds like a very fun outing, good read too man!!