The best, bad hight fishing trip

[Ivey]

Best, Bad night of fishing I ever had

 

Guy’s I’d like to tell the True story of the best, bad night fishing I've ever experienced. Fishing a small club tournament on Pickwick lake part of the Tennessee river impoundments can have it's challenges. The ramp at Florence Alabama’s McFarland Park is about a half mile down river from Wilson Dam. Water releases from Wilson can really get the current going at times so this one particular night my partner and I decided to run down river to start our 12 hour Smallmouth only tournament and fish some of the slower current areas. I fish out of a 20FT. Bumble Bee bass boat and was headed to our first spot a few miles down river when I either hit something or the one blade of my prop broke off. Somehow I got the boat shut down without any other damage but now was miles down river from the ramp with heavy current and only a trolling motor to get back to the ramp. As we started our slow troll back up river I pulled up close to a rock pile and made a cast. A tick on the line to and a hook set brought a nice 3 pound Smallmouth to the boat.   

 

Wanting to save as much battery for the Trolling motor I dropped the fish in the live well and didn’t put the pumps on told my partner we’ll keep a close eye on the fish to watch for stress. I picked up my rod and headed back to the front of the boat where I proceeded to walk directly off the front of the boat and falling head first right into the  into the river. somehow I came up with Rod in one hand my hat still on my head and a toothpick in my mouth. My partner ask if I was ok then began his round of laughter at me telling my it was illegal to get out of the boat to fish, he helped me back in the boat and I found a change a jacket and a pair of rain pants, changed and continued our long troll back up river. About an hour in I remembered the fish in the live well and ask my partner to take a look and see how it was fairing. He opened the live well lid and my nice 3 pound Smallmouth took his chance and jumped out of the live well. Now I said it jumped out but I mean it jumped out of the well and never touched anything but water. This fish must have been doing laps around the Live Well to get that kind of air because It jumped out of the boat crushing my only chance of maybe weighing in a fish at weigh in time. My partner and I just stood there looking at each other, dumbfounded at our bad luck.

Not long after the great fish escape the dam shut the current off so we figured at least we’ll get back to the ramp and knowing a couple good spots just across from the ramp we got back with about 45 minutes to fish till weigh in time. The spot I stopped on was a pile of rocks close to a bluff that held some good fish at times so we decided to spend our last few minutes there. I cast a jig out and picked up line and thump, hook set  BIG rock. Breaking this jig off thinking this night will never end I tied on another and made another cast to the rock pile. Jig hit the bottom and I started working it back through the rocks I turned to my partner and said “man it feel fishy down there”. The words just out of my mouth another thump but this time a hook set revealed I had a nice one, then it got bigger and started pulling harder, a big fish broke the water and jumped about 3 foot up before falling back in with a splash the sounded like someone threw a large dog in the river. The battle was on, the fish ran under the boat and started peeling line off my spinning gear. Suddenly there was a loud splash 20 feet or so on the other side of my boat. My partner ask what that was and I followed with MY fish. Somehow I led the fish back around the front of the boat and after a couple more hard runs and another epic jump we led the fish up to the boat when I realized we didn’t have a net. I made my way to the drivers seat and lipped this big smallmouth finally ending the fight. I was astounded at the size of this fish but with little time left we dropped it in the live well. I swung the boat around and my partner made one last cast to the rock pile and bam he was hooked up. After landing his really nice fish we were out of time and had to get to the ramp for weigh in. Ended up the fish my partner landed went 5 pounds 2 ounces and mine tipped the scales at 7 pounds 4 ounces. To end the story our combined weight 12 pounds and 6 ounces was just enough to win first place in the tournament and my 7,4 was enough to net us the big fish pot.  All this just proves don’t give up on fishing till the bell rings cause there just may be a pay off at the last few minutes.

The big next to me we called Redneck, you can figure out why.

[NittyGrittyBoy]

That was a good read, what a night! 

[TnRiver46]

Great story, I have camped at McFarland park 

[roadwarrior]

[Guitarfish]

Nice smallies.  I have never seen one that big where I fish.

[Ivey]

11 hours ago, Guitarfish said:

Nice smallies.  I have never seen one that big where I fish.

You should head over to North Alabama, Pickwick lake any time between now and the full moon in April. The big girls will be on the bite for some time now and this is the best time of year to catch a true Trophy Smallmouth.

[Ivey]

On 2/26/2020 at 9:06 PM, TnRiver46 said:

Great story, I have camped at McFarland park 

I can't say how many nights I've camped at McFarland. My wife and I would pull the camper and boat down and spend a week or so. She doesn't like doing out after dark so she'd drive me down to the ramp and put my in, then when I was ready to come in I'd give her a call and she would be there with the trailer win the water waiting for me to load up. a lot of really great nights fishing out of McFarland. Here's my first 7 pound beast caught on Columbus day 2010

[Ratherbfishing]

Beast of a fish!  Both, really.  Great story and congrats!