Cumberland River Fishing Report 11-6-22

[Blue Raider Bob]

     Rained Saturday Night but Sunday dawned clear and a bit windy. Hooked up and went to the Cumberland. The water was super low, with little current and covered with leaves. Real tough fishing conditions for me. I busted my butt last Monday night (more on that later), and I couldn't hold a rod, so I tried trolling a Scrounger that Alabama Spothunter recommended. The Scrounger just spun in circles so I went back to trolling cranks with no success and only leaves for my efforts. Finally went to the Ned rig and caught five before having to leave due to pain. The water is so low that the rock shelf where I caught a 5.3 couple months ago is 3ft out of the water.

     Last Monday night I was working on a tractor in one of the barn bays. Left the bay to retrieve a tool from another barn. The night was dark but since I knew the way to my own barn in the dark it was no big deal........only my wife had moved an animal trap off the drive and placed against the barn. We use a humane animal trap to catch and release farm varmits who become problems.........coons, possums, and skunks. They get in our animal feed and krap on my dock! I take them deeper into the country and release. Anyway my long legs are moving pretty quickly in the pitch black night, and I trip over the animal trap and faceplant! My wrist is now in a brace and when I tried to set a hook, the pain was too much. Shortest fishing trip of the year.....but no skunk, I caught five.

     BTW......wife feigns innocence and suggests maybe I had a senior moment and sniped myself?

[Jar11591]

Sorry to hear about the accident. It sucks to leave biting fish due to injury. At least you got a few! 

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

     Rained Saturday Night but Sunday dawned clear and a bit windy. Hooked up and went to the Cumberland. The water was super low, with little current and covered with leaves. Real tough fishing conditions for me. I busted my butt last Monday night (more on that later), and I couldn't hold a rod, so I tried trolling a Scrounger that Alabama Spothunter recommended. The Scrounger just spun in circles so I went back to trolling cranks with no success and only leaves for my efforts. Finally went to the Ned rig and caught five before having to leave due to pain. The water is so low that the rock shelf where I caught a 5.3 couple months ago is 3ft out of the water.

     Last Monday night I was working on a tractor in one of the barn bays. Left the bay to retrieve a tool from another barn. The night was dark but since I knew the way to my own barn in the dark it was no big deal........only my wife had moved an animal trap off the drive and placed against the barn. We use a humane animal trap to catch and release farm varmits who become problems.........coons, possums, and skunks. They get in our animal feed and krap on my dock! I take them deeper into the country and release. Anyway my long legs are moving pretty quickly in the pitch black night, and I trip over the animal trap and faceplant! My wrist is now in a brace and when I tried to set a hook, the pain was too much. Shortest fishing trip of the year.....but no skunk, I caught five.

     BTW......wife feigns innocence and suggests maybe I had a senior moment and sniped myself?

Thanks for the report, use a flashlight in the dark…….. don’t blame your wife that sure won’t help 

[Swamp Girl]

Yikes, Bob! I have one of those traps too. One time red squirrels visited my bird feeders. They were so cute that I bought some treats just for them. A couple months later, they were everywhere, including my porch and roof thanks to my inadvertent squirrel breeding program! I trapped 33 and relocated them to a wildlife refuge, one at a time. It took about two minutes and one peanut to trap one. 

 

Say, how do you move a skunk?

[roadwarrior]

14 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Say, how do you move a skunk?

I think you call a professional for that one.

[Blue Raider Bob]

3 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Yikes, Bob! I have one of those traps too. One time red squirrels visited my bird feeders. They were so cute that I bought some treats just for them. A couple months later, they were everywhere, including my porch and roof thanks to my inadvertent squirrel breeding program! I trapped 33 and relocated them to a wildlife refuge, one at a time. It took about two minutes and one peanut to trap one. 

 

Say, how do you move a skunk?

Moving a skunk takes a degree of courage that is difficult for me to muster! Here is how it is done.

Hold an old blanket out in front of you and slowly approach trap. Skunks tend to be docile in my experience. When upon trap, slowly lay blanket over the trap and feel through blanket for the trap handle. Gently lift and set in the bed of your truck. If you do not have a truck.......don't do this!

Drive to a safe location for the animal and let down tailgate and set trap on the ground. Remove blanket from door and lift door. Pray like hell there is no lingering animosity!

 

I have found raccoons to be the most difficult. The big males are not especially friendly and make their feeling quite clear. When a large, angry buck is lunging at you while you are carrying him is an experienced not soon forgotten. When lifting the door for release there is always a moment when you are vulnerable due to the fact that you have to use one hand to hold open door. Fortunately without exception, they have always bolted into the woods, to my intense relief. Couple times I have caught lactating females, and when this happens, I just let them go where they were caught. I'm not killing a bunch of babies just because I get tied of cleaning up coon droppings from my dock.

 

I have a funny story about my son accompanying me on a release when he was younger but it may bore everyone to tears. Maybe later.

[TnRiver46]

18 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Yikes, Bob! I have one of those traps too. One time red squirrels visited my bird feeders. They were so cute that I bought some treats just for them. A couple months later, they were everywhere, including my porch and roof thanks to my inadvertent squirrel breeding program! I trapped 33 and relocated them to a wildlife refuge, one at a time. It took about two minutes and one peanut to trap one. 

 

Say, how do you move a skunk?

Skunk trapping is what I do for a living haha. You handle skunks very carefully with no sudden moves. It helps to wrap the traps with a tarp prior to setting them . Then slowly every so gently cover the entire thing with a towel so they can’t see you . Once they can’t see they calm way way way down, I drive all over town with them in my truck nearly every weekday 

[Blue Raider Bob]

17 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Thanks for the report, use a flashlight in the dark…….. don’t blame your wife that sure won’t help 

Excellent advise and will incorporate!

[Swamp Girl]

Do tell that story, Bob, when you have time.

 

Say, TriRiver, since you're a critter professional, I have a suet feeder for the woodpeckers. Something keeps opening it and eating the entire suet cake. I have ordered some tiny carabiners to secure it because my twist ties didn't work. What do you think is stealing my suet? It eats the entire cakes. I find not a bit at the base of my post, suggesting it's a bigger animal.

 

Also, if anyone ever rear ends you when you have skunks for passengers, they are going to be sorry. 

[Blue Raider Bob]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

Do tell that story, Bob, when you have time.

 

Say, TriRiver, since you're a critter professional, I have a suet feeder for the woodpeckers. Something keeps opening it and eating the entire suet cake. I have ordered some tiny carabiners to secure it because my twist ties didn't work. What do you think is stealing my suet? It eats the entire cakes. I find not a bit at the base of my post, suggesting it's a bigger animal.

 

Also, if anyone ever rear ends you when you have skunks for passengers, they are going to be sorry. 

OK so you forced me to keep gabbing and avoid work!

 

Several years ago when my son was mid teens (he's 31 now), we had a coop robber. I set the trap using a chicken egg for bait! Well it worked and next morning we had a big-ol'e buck racoon who was not at all pleased. I put the trap in the back of my truck while my son was admiring the growling, lunging coon. I told him to hop in and we'll take him down to the Stones River to let him go. The Middle Fork Stones is about 2-1/2 miles from our place. Along the way we were discussing the damage an adult coon could do to someone and my son was in awe. Just before we got to the river my son asked how I was going to get him out. I said that I wasn't, that he could jump back there and let him out since I was driving. Silence followed. Finally he said in a soft voice, "How do I let him out dad?" I said all you have to do is stick your arm in there and hold the door open while he runs out and he probably won't stop to bite you!

     More silence.........followed by a very soft, stuttering voice that squeaked, ddad, I I ddon't think I can ddo that. I was fighting back tears of laughter as my poor boy struggled with measuring up to dad and a terrible fear of the snarling animal in the truck bed. I finally said "I'm not going to let you do that!"

     I laughed all the way home.......he didn't.

 

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

Do tell that story, Bob, when you have time.

 

Say, TriRiver, since you're a critter professional, I have a suet feeder for the woodpeckers. Something keeps opening it and eating the entire suet cake. I have ordered some tiny carabiners to secure it because my twist ties didn't work. What do you think is stealing my suet? It eats the entire cakes. I find not a bit at the base of my post, suggesting it's a bigger animal.

 

Also, if anyone ever rear ends you when you have skunks for passengers, they are going to be sorry. 

Raccoon . Check the pole it’s hanging on for smeared muddy footprints 

[Swamp Girl]

I figured it was a raccoon. Well, my mini-carabiners arrive tomorrow. We'll see if that wily coon can solve them.

 

Ha, Bob! I was a basketball coach for years. One year, at a tournament, the hosting high school hadn't turned on its hallway lights. I took a little walk and saw that they'd done some fancy brickwork, with bricks sticking out here and there. So, I fetched my girls, sat them in a circle, and told them that there used to be some seriously mean girls in that school, girls so mean that they drove other girls to suicide and after the deaths, they repented and asked that the girls who took their lives be buried in the walls of the school so that they'd feel like they finally belonged. Well, they intended well with that request, but what they didn't realize is that the girls in the walls heard all the laughter in the halls and grew angrier and angrier that they were missing out on the good times, so when it was dark, they'd push the bricks out of the walls and have their own good times in the dark. 

 

"C'mon," I told the girls. "I'll show you where they're buried."

 

So, I took them down a horribly dark hallway and told them to feel their way by grazing their fingers across the walls and I led them to those jutting bricks.

 

You should have heard them scream and laugh and watched them run when their fingertips touched those bricks!

[Blue Raider Bob]

9 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I figured it was a raccoon. Well, my mini-carabiners arrive tomorrow. We'll see if that wily coon can solve them.

 

Ha, Bob! I was a basketball coach for years. One year, at a tournament, the hosting high school hadn't turned on its hallway lights. I took a little walk and saw that they'd done some fancy brickwork, with bricks sticking out here and there. So, I fetched my girls, sat them in a circle, and told them that there used to be some seriously mean girls in that school, girls so mean that they drove other girls to suicide and after the deaths, they repented and asked that the girls who took their lives be buried in the walls of the school so that they'd feel like they finally belonged. Well, they intended well with that request, but what they didn't realize is that the girls in the walls heard all the laughter in the halls and grew angrier and angrier that they were missing out on the good times, so when it was dark, they'd push the bricks out of the walls and have their own good times in the dark. 

 

"C'mon," I told the girls. "I'll show you where they're buried."

 

So, I took them down a horribly dark hallway and told them to feel their way by grazing their fingers across the walls and I led them to those jutting bricks.

 

You should have heard them scream and laugh and watched them run when their fingertips touched those bricks!

One more silly remembrance from yesteryear.

     Was leaving the farm with my son when he was a youngster and a septic tank truck pulled out on the road in front of me. Well the septic truck had been driving in the mud and mud was all over it's tires. The septic truck (Al & Ralph's Septic Service) sped up and started slinging mud in the air, and all over my windshield. I hollered at my son Rob, " Rob, that's the sh..... Truck !!!! He's slinging sh.... all over us!" A horrified little boy starts hollering "Get it off daddy! Get it off!" Meanwhile I've got the washer/wipers going and making a real mess while Rob is nearly in tears! I was in tears myself but of a totally different kind.

    Parents don't reprimand me for this. It was not child cruelty, it was retribution!