Nasty

[TnRiver46]

 

My first world problem: the river by my house is nasty, most would call it unfishable. As the old timers say, “It’s so thick you can see raccoon tracks on top of it.” So now I have to drive my truck around looking for better water, and I’m a cheapskate ! I burned up a lot of gas for 1 largemouth yesterday but I did find clear water and 1 largemouth which is more than the zero any kind of fish I would have caught near my house. I even tried fishing the mud water with every lure I could imagine on Saturday, white bass were spawning all over the surface and wouldn’t hit any lures, including rattle traps chatterbaits, umbrella rigs, stuff they always hit even in stained water but this is just too nasty 

[J Francho]

Chocolate milk either means stay home or go upstream.

[TnRiver46]

9 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Chocolate milk either means stay home or go upstream.

Well I live upstream so I actually went downstream and found clear water but i can’t be doing that every afternoon haha. I suppose I  can but I’d rather not 

[Dwight Hottle]

I feel your pain. Erie use to do that to me when the wind was blowing which was always more than appreciated. 

Like this.

 

 

 

[TnRiver46]

50 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

I feel your pain. Erie use to do that to me when the wind was blowing which was always more than appreciated. 

Like this.

 

 

 

Oh dear ............ the Atlantic doesn’t even have waves that big in SC!

 

it appears ive found a solution to the problem, Rachel just got off work and wants to go for a boat ride. It will be like riding through the wonka factory on the chocolate river 

[J Francho]

[Bird]

Chartreuse with a chartreuse trailer won't even work in that water......stay home. 

[Spankey]

It looks all to familiar to what has ruined some of my smallmouth fishing. 

[ironbjorn]

[slonezp]

14 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

I feel your pain. Erie use to do that to me when the wind was blowing which was always more than appreciated. 

Like this.

 

 

 

 

13 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Oh dear ............ the Atlantic doesn’t even have waves that big in SC!

Lake Michigan has been like that the last few days. We had 40mph NE winds yesterday.10-15 footers on the south end.

[TnRiver46]

Did some recon and went for a ride, I think it was a little colder than expected! That’s not the grim reaper, it’s Rachel wrapped up in all her jackets then wrapped up in my jacket. The water temp eventually settled around 56, that depth finder shot was right when we launched. Went up the holston river a ways and it might have been starting to clear up a tad, also someone’s runabout might be mostly full of rain water 

[Spankey]

My river is basically in my backyard. All I’ve really ever know up until the last few years. Lake fishing has been a different way of life and a real eye opener. I have a calling to go back. This year I’m going to put some time back into it. Go back and do my homework. No sense of asking at a state level. They have no answers. Just have to figure it out. 

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Spankey said:

My river is basically in my backyard. All I’ve really ever know up until the last few years. Lake fishing has been a different way of life and a real eye opener. I have a calling to go back. This year I’m going to put some time back into it. Go back and do my homework. No sense of asking at a state level. They have no answers. Just have to figure it out. 

Luckily the river in my backyard is all dam controlled and they don’t allow it to proper flood anymore. There are some free flowing rivers that get flooded pretty bad but for whatever reason the fish are fairly used to it and always ready to bite once it clears up a little. Maybe the terrain is so steep the poor quality water flushed out more rapidly? The big south fork of the Cumberland river floods to insane levels many times a year but you can catch 50 smallies all summer when it’s low. Here’s a line graph of its recent activity. It appears to have gone over 90,000 cfs over the weekend, which is way up through the woods but it’s in a gorge/canyon 

[galyonj]

15 hours ago, J Francho said:

Chocolate milk either means stay home or go upstream.

 

9 hours ago, Bird said:

Chartreuse with a chartreuse trailer won't even work in that water......stay home. 

 

Yeah, it looks gross, but in my experience this is just how it looks after it rains. And East Tennessee is a temperate rainforest. In Knoxville, we average about 50" of rain a year. And, on average, we get rain about a third of the year.

 

So you gotta learn to live with it. The fish don't mind too much.

 

Last time I was out fishing chocolate milk I caught on a swim jig after failing on a chatterbait, a rattle trap, and a jerkbait.

[NYWayfarer]

I am blessed with clear water a short walk or drive around me. When I see water like that it is down river and I immediately think Catfish.

 

Have you pulled any big cats out of that stuff?

[galyonj]

Just now, NYWayfarer said:

I am blessed with clear water a short walk or drive around me. When I see water like that it is down river and I immediately think Catfish.

 

Have you pulled any big cats out of that stuff?

 

I haven't because I don't fish for catfish, but I know there are some bigguns in there. Few years ago a kid caught a 78lb flathead downriver at a park in Lenoir City (before Fort Loudon Dam). There are also some great big striped bass in here.

[TnRiver46]

34 minutes ago, NYWayfarer said:

I am blessed with clear water a short walk or drive around me. When I see water like that it is down river and I immediately think Catfish.

 

Have you pulled any big cats out of that stuff?

I’m currently out of catfish bait (skipjack herring) and now she knows where I used to hide them in the freezer........ I might be able

to use the freezer at the shop 

 

but yes the cats will eat in the muck water 

[J Francho]

13 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

now she knows where I used to hide them in the freezer

Lol, I used to have chicken feet hidden in the freezer for the dog.  Not anymore.

[BassNJake]

It's the same chocolate milk here too and Norris is up 8 feet in 4 days.

that means everything that was on the bank is a floating lower unit/prop/hull hazard

 

 

[galyonj]

1 minute ago, BassNJake said:

It's the same chocolate milk here too and Norris is up 8 feet in 4 days.

that means everything that was on the bank is a floating lower unit/prop/hull hazard

 

Yessir. Late winter/early spring rains always blow this place out.

 

For the locals, did y'all see the cleanup got almost 16,000 pounds of trash out of Fort Loudon and Watts Bar?

[TnRiver46]

11 minutes ago, galyonj said:

 

Yessir. Late winter/early spring rains always blow this place out.

 

For the locals, did y'all see the cleanup got almost 16,000 pounds of trash out of Fort Loudon and Watts Bar?

Indeed! I love those guys/gals

[galyonj]

Just now, TnRiver46 said:

Indeed! I love those guys 

 

I didn't even know it was a thing, but I wanna help next time if I can. I pick up enough trash when I'm beating the bank as it is.

[BassNJake]

4 minutes ago, galyonj said:

 

Yessir. Late winter/early spring rains always blow this place out.

 

For the locals, did y'all see the cleanup got almost 16,000 pounds of trash out of Fort Loudon and Watts Bar?

Very awesome but also very sad because the clean ups are annual events.

[galyonj]

Just now, BassNJake said:

Very awesome but also very sad because the clean ups are annual events.

 

It is sad. I don't know why people are so insistent on being trash. The big industrial-looking items are a whole different conversation, I suspect, but the trash I saw those people picking up on the bank just...made me mad. It does every time.

 

I keep garbage bags in my gear just to clean up, and I'm mad the whole time I do it because there's no excuse to leave a spot looking like people do here.

 

A vignette that took place not long ago:

 

I was out on a mental-health break. Dude down the bank was just dropping **** everywhere. Normally I wouldn't say anything, but my impulse control wasn't great that day. When he packed up to leave and that stuff was still sitting on the ground, I hollered over to him "Hey, bro! Your mom fish here?"

 

"...what? Why?"

 

"Because it looks like she's still cleaning up after you. Does she still clean your room for you? You really just gonna leave all that **** there in everybody's way? Get us all hassled by the cops? Between all the junkies and people like you, I don't know which is worse."

 

It got a little heated after that, but he cleaned up his mess.

[MAN]

That river screams live/dead bait.