Ft. Loundon Dam Mixed bag 05-24-14/River Info
Fished out east this past weekend with emphasis on stripers. It was OK at best. As the norm for me and my brother, we had a hard time locating net-able shad. i can finally throw the net like champ after numerous you-tube videos and practice, but finding them where we could net them has proven our kryptonite yet again. so in a frustrated tizzy, we hucked the net to the bottom of the boat, tied on flukes and flashy spoons and headed to the boils. there were several guys up there making drifts( ive gotta say, from what i could see, a pontoon boat is about the best possible boat you could get to fish them boils below a dam) the live bait guys were getting the larger fish, but i think we got them on the numbers. And by numbers, in no way did we load the boat, but for a half-cocked improvised trip, we did ok. managed to jig up some nice cats too. fish were all over that river in all different depths. the gars there super super thick below the gates, no water coming thru but it was amazing, easily hundreds of them, i was gonna try snagging some but i didnt have any big lose trebles and didnt want to spend the time taking apart my crankbaits! LOL. we buzzed downriver where the current slowed up some and found waves of spawning drums ( i guess they were spawning judging by thier darker color). biggest was about 10lbs i would say and they were in there heavy, 10ft-18ft. Thats so much fun....18ft of water, seeing big waves of fish go thru about 4ft off bottom so you start snapping your blade bait a little higher....a little higher....and either the line goes slack, or the rod about gets ripped outta your hand! Love my vertical jigging! managed 1 small small spot, about 8" on a shallow diving crankbait around some wood. I was kinda shocked at the total lack of bass cooperation down there, i dont know if there just isnt alot of them down there, or if they already set up in thier summer patters or what, it was kinda strange. I will catch drums any day though when the original plan falls apart or doesnt pan out!
Ended the day back in Crossville for the night topwater bite for bass, no big fish, but a few in the 3-4lb range. No pics this trip.
On a completely different note, I know in the past there has been people asking/posting about saugers/walleyes/river fishing/vertical jigging and how to do it. Like most other things, the best way to learn is to try it, well right now is the prime opportunity to practice your vertical jigging if that is something you wanna start adding to your river tricks. the rivers are packed with hungry cats and drums who provide plenty of vertical jigging practice for jig size/ bite detection/keeping vertical, that way when the eyes and saugers start up this fall, you will have a good grasp on what to expect and how to do.
And river jigging isnt just for toothy fish, them smallies dont all sit on the banks, they will be making thier way to channel edges and bottom features in the coming weeks and nothing temps a greedy smallie in a river like a flashy spoon or hard thumping blade bait!
Just a little tid-bit for anybody who might be interested in the river scene! hardly any boats/fishing pressure on the river either!
Heading back to Crossville this weekend with my boat for the first time, gonna have a little tourny between myself, my brother and our cousin from Tulsa. Hope to have some pics of that!
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