Road Trip Chronicles

[Brian Needham]

Road Trip Chronicles

 

 

Get there Wednesday morning and meet bassinisaddicting. We get on the water at 8. Make a short run to the dam and immediately start catching fish on a jig. Wind kinda blew us out and I was still jittery. Make a short run to a creek catch fish, and a gar. We replicated this throughout the day. Met up with 00mod and fished a windy bluff to knock some out on shakeyheads………the pattern begins.

Total fish: 19 with several 2#s and big fish of 3 ½ #

Highlight of the day: Jon catching his 1^st ever jig fish (he’s hooked now)

Quote: “don’t let there be a jig bite up in here…..”

 

Thursday

Fished with 00mod. We start at dam again and knock out 23 fish in 2 hours. Ran some creeks and points but got on some bluff walls with current breaks and started to find quality. Bite dies down so we run to a big open bay and catch more fish…..pattern getting stronger. Graph deep fish on points but wind too much….

Total fish: 49 lots of 2#ers and a few 2 ½# smally big fish 3 ½

Highlight of the day: jeff catching his PB drop shot fish.

Quote: "these buck bass are just cruising these shallow, looking to munch on my drop shot."

 

 

Friday

I fish alone, as there is a strong chance of rain and I didn’t want to pair up and then not fish. I decided to head out later….run the history spots from the last 2 days and pick up 4 fish. On the way in I notice a point in the protected marina cove the depth I was looking for. I sidescanned the flat/hump/point and saw bait and predator fish. I dropped a buoy, turned around and caught 3 out of the first 5 cast all solid 2#ers. I saw swabby and Jon idling by and told them to drop trolling motor cause I felt like we were going to knock their lights out, as these fish seemed more active and bit harder…..naturally the bite goes cold….I follow the pod down a ways and catch another one.

Only fished for 3.5-4 hours

 

Total fish: 8, all pretty good ones. I feel now we got a solid pattern if the weather will help.

Highlight of the day: catching my 1^st “offshore structure” fish. Finding them, marking them, and turning around to catch them was an awesome feeling.

Regret of the day: Not running more water and staying out to fish longer. I needed a nap.

 

Saturday

I fish with Glenn. I really felt confident we could catch offshore today, as the FLW boys were knocking out lights on blackbass. I ran to some spots I caught earlier in the week and other spots I wanted to check….. never really found what I wanted, and I got impatient really quick…. Thank goodness Glen had a solid shallow fish pattern. We run to his spot and Glenn quickly starts kicking my head with a senko. He figured out with a quickness that they wanted a subtle do nothing fall, and color didn’t matter.

 

Total fish about 40 with Glenn catching at least 25 of those, with plenty of 2#ers mixed in.

Highlight of the day: Hearing lots of great info from Glenn and getting a senko lesson. I feel confident on how to fish a senko now. THANKS GLEN!!!

Quote of the day: “Needham, I wish you knew what this felt like.” As he was outfishing me by at least 8-1 at the time. I quickly rigged up a senko.

(edit: change "some" to "plenty" of 2#ers, since I know how to judge tn river fish now)

 

 

Sunday

I fished with Kerri. Started off slower, as I was trying to fish deeper fish. We started to flip trees and picked up some fish in the next few hours. We ran into Gene and Jon and asked why I couldn’t see fish on the graph. Gene informed me with so much current they were flat on the bottom and you had to trust they were there. We looped around them and headed back into a cove. Flipped more trees and bush and caught some fish albeit slower.

Coming out of the cove I threw across a rock point I just “hunched” had a quick drop…..then it happened. Rock, rock, rock……..THUNK, rod load! 3 ¾ in the boat!!! Few mintues later another, then Kerri boats a 2 ½ . I really thought we had found a school of 3#ers. We beat that point up for an hour until we had to go. It was really a classic textbook spot, a point with 2 rock ledges with milfoil on one side. TOTAL BLAST and great feeling to know they are there but more importantly to understand WHY they were there. Those fish either just came off the bed or waiting to go back in, either way they were looking to chomp on a ¾ ounce jig.

 

Total fish: about 25

Highlight of the day: finding the big bite and understanding why

Quote: “get the net, I got a SEA BEAST!”

Regret: having to leave. I really think we had them pegged from that last spot and given the chance I REALLY think we could have put the beatdown on some big fish.

 

 

 

[Brian Needham]

and from the opening evening sorriee to the telling everyone goodbye it was a total blast. I did not meet anyone the entire week that was not a complete gentlemen or lady.

 

The eats were great, the fishing was great, the nightly speakers were awesome. You owe it to yourself to try to make one the trips. Pickwick is now my new favorite lake!

 

There are MANY great people here on the boards and I am glad I got to meet and fish with some of them last week.

Thanks for a life long memory!

[00 mod]

Dang Needham,  We don't even have a picture of my PB drop shot fish.........

 

Jeff

[Brian Needham]

LOL, I don't think it could have fit in the camera!!!!

 

I am trying to post a bunch of pics but my files are too big....

[00 mod]

Here some that I have of you:

 

 

 

 

[Brian Needham]

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/gallery/album/751-pickwick-roadtrip/

 

 

here are some pics.

 

 

I think my bruises on my rib cage are starting to heal now, Powerbomb hooksets all week jig fishing is hard work.

[Tuckahoe Joe]

Sounds like a blast!

[Bankbeater]

Great post!

[Quitlimpin]

So jealous of you guys. Excellent write up!

[Siebert Outdoors]

Nicely done!!!

[Glenn]

Awesome stuff!

[bighed]

 Gene informed me with so much current they were flat on the bottom and you had to trust they were there.

 

Interesting comment from Gene there.  When the wind layed Saturday we had just a few hours to fish.  Ran hump to hump down by the dam and saw on the HDS that there were fish right on the bottom.  Not having any experience at fishing in a current and not seeing the balls of bait I associate with offshore fish, we passed them by.  Now I wish i had stopped and drug a C rig thru them to see what would have happen.  Best part of the roadtrip for me was learning something new!!

[Brian Needham]

Bighead, I should preface that comment better......also I don't want to speak for gene in any way.

 

Here is my guess, I asked gene that while he was fishing just off the river channel, or not far from it, which were the same ledges I idled over looking for fish/baitfish.

The current was so strong there, you could cast in front of the boat and by the time you reeled up slack and hopped a 3/4 oz jig, it was behind the boat!

to the baitfish not being there, I also believe the current pushed shad around so much that fish hunkered down and just waited behind any current break to be found..... as I followed a couple of huge baitballs for 100s of yards in a short amount of time.

 

with that being said.....depending on how/where your humps were in relation to the main "current" channel, those fish could have indeed been visible on a graph. Or at very least, they dart up to the top/side of the hump, grab a snack, then lay back down.

That is only my guess, and probably should be taken with a grain of salt, lol.

 

I totally agree, the best part about the trip was learning something new. I learned something from everyone I fished with, and a better fisherman for it!
 

[Fishing Rhino]

 

 

 

 

 

[NEjitterbugger]

 

 

 

 

 

 

That last photo looks awesome!!!

[AK-Jax86]

Amazing pics man and look at those fish what a trip