"Epic" day on the Tennessee!

[Blue Raider Bob]

Sunny skies with a few clouds and a bit windy. Water temps 62 deg. Water was low and clear, allowing me to drift slowly and spot underwater structure.

 

     Shout out to "Jig Man" for sending me a box full of jigs I can fish textaposed. These jigs allowed me to fish much tighten to structure than I normally do and boy, did that pay off. I caught a 17" Smallie on my second toss up against a laydown. Fishing was fairly slow for the first couple of hours until I determined that the fish were only going to be found around laydowns and stumps under water. Hardly anything came from bare riprap or rock bluffs. Once I started concentrating on the wood structure off the bank, the bites became frequent. The only issues I had with the new jigs were the hook-up ratio. I lost several nice ones including a river pig that I got up to boatside before she ever opened her mouth and gave me my jig back. That wasn't the jigs fault, but my own. The hook never penetrated the bait. As much as I like the Zman products, they are too tough to use texstaposed (at least for me). After a while I just went with an exposed hook on the Smelt TicklerZ and fished the outside of the laydowns. This started bringing in the numbers including my first 20" Smallie of the year.

     The fish were so aggressive at one point that the unimaginable happened.....I hooked a small spot and he came unbuttoned by the boat.....and the dummie went after the TicklerZ again. I hauled his little self in that time. Another time I was bring a small spot in and out of the depths, A big smallie tried to eat him! The smallie lingered by the boat for several seconds before leaving! Crazy day on the river.

 

Final score....52 Bass ranging in size from just born to 17" with one 20" in the mix.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Way to Bob, sounds like an incredible day on the water.

 

I try to always have a moving bait rod ready when I get into Spotted Bass action like that, figure 8 a crank besides the boat while you have the other one there, sometimes you can get a double hookup.  

[Jar11591]

52 smallmouth with a 20” mixed in? Yeah I’d call that an epic day as well. 

[Blue Raider Bob]

1 hour ago, Jar11591 said:

52 smallmouth with a 20” mixed in? Yeah I’d call that an epic day as well. 

Actually, most were small spots but there were at least a dozen smallies. The biggest spot was 16" but most were 13 or less. A couple were this years spawn. They go nuts after a wounded minnow bait. 

[Micaiah Lindquist]

52 bass in a day with a couple big ones sounds like an awesome day to me!

[Tennessee Boy]

Congratulation on a great day.

 

I love fishing the Tennessee river when it's low and clear in late winter or early spring.  I'm kind of surprised it's that way now.

[TnRiver46]

10 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Congratulation on a great day.

 

I love fishing the Tennessee river when it's low and clear in late winter or early spring.  I'm kind of surprised it's that way now.

Been somewhat dry (comparatively)

[Blue Raider Bob]

1 hour ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Congratulation on a great day.

 

I love fishing the Tennessee river when it's low and clear in late winter or early spring.  I'm kind of surprised it's that way now.

TnRiver46 mentioned a couple weeks back that TVA was filling the East Tennessee reservoirs and very little water was making it my way. That's fine with me. Love it when the water is low and clear. Especially now that the water is warming up and the fish start eating. 

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

TnRiver46 mentioned a couple weeks back that TVA was filling the East Tennessee reservoirs and very little water was making it my way. That's fine with me. Love it when the water is low and clear. Especially now that the water is warming up and the fish start eating. 

Yes and Ft loudoun, watts bar and tellico are not quite to “summer pool” yet so they will still hold back even more water 

[12poundbass]

Nice work! 

[Swamp Girl]

They say that bad fishing days happen to good guys.

 

Well, not to this good guy, aka Bob, on this day!

[Blue Raider Bob]

Followed up last weeks trip with another yesterday. Boy what a change in weather. Cold wind blew upriver all day and I never took my coat off. TnRiver46 is still stingy with his East Tennessee water and he's barely letting us have any. Water is low and clear with hardly any current. The wind was so strong that it was blowing me upriver. Still managed to catch a bunch of dinks but the biggun's are nowhere to be found. Water temps 64 Deg. so maybe the boys are guarding fry and the girls have retreated to deep water.

Final score.....46 Bass

Big Fish 17-1/2 and 2 lb 14 oz. and a few at 15" to 16"

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Followed up last weeks trip with another yesterday. Boy what a change in weather. Cold wind blew upriver all day and I never took my coat off. TnRiver46 is still stingy with his East Tennessee water and he's barely letting us have any. Water is low and clear with hardly any current. The wind was so strong that it was blowing me upriver. Still managed to catch a bunch of dinks but the biggun's are nowhere to be found. Water temps 64 Deg. so maybe the boys are guarding fry and the girls have retreated to deep water.

Final score.....46 Bass

Big Fish 17-1/2 and 2 lb 14 oz. and a few at 15" to 16"

I ran a kayak shuttle for some folks yesterday below Douglas dam and it was knee deep, clear, and slow . Gonna be a while! 

[Blue Raider Bob]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

I ran a kayak shuttle for some folks yesterday below Douglas dam and it was knee deep, clear, and slow . Gonna be a while! 

I don't mind you holding back the water but I wish you would hold back the wind as well. Our northern friends would laugh at me shivering in 50 deg. with a 25 mph wind in my face.

[TnRiver46]

9 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

I don't mind you holding back the water but I wish you would hold back the wind as well. Our northern friends would laugh at me shivering in 50 deg. with a 25 mph wind in my face.

Wind has been much faster than normal this spring