September Journal 2018

 

22 Sept 2018

Sorry for the Delay

My apologies first for not posting for a couple of weeks. I guess I could have apologized in person to my reader (thanks to my wife), but posting this way gives an appearance of the article typically being read by many. Anyway, I have gone fishing when possible the past few weeks, but there just hasn’t been much to write about. This past weekend was not much different, however, the words were just a flowing.

Friday came and I headed out to the river. I had tied up a few jigs and wanted to test them on the ‘ol trout. I headed up to the South Holston Dam and found a spot at the river. I understand that if I wanted to catch some, I could have brought a crank bait, perhaps spoon or rooster tail, some other stuff works but hey, where is the fun in using what works, I kinda like to blaze my own trail.

A fellow angler had shown my his crankbait he was catching them on last week, so I went home and whipped up a 1/16th oz jig in similar color. I began doing a bit of fishing and low and behold, I ended up catching 3 in the hour I was there. I got a pic but not sure when I will get it posted. They were not wall hangers, but nor were they sardines, they gave a little tussle and I had a great time. I didn’t spend long as work and mowing had limited my time, but I left the day with fish smell on my hands, that’s always a good thing.

Saturday rolled around and I got up and got the daughter off to work, she didn’t need my help but I just can’t move beyond having to be around just in case. I checked the weather, rain coming at 2:00. I continued to notice throughout the day that the forecast changed, I really need to get into this weather gig, I’m usually right only part of the time, looks like the job for me. Anyway, I don’t want to get the boat in a gully washer again as it takes quite some time for the carpet to dry in the garage and we got plans coming up. However, I headed to the lake anyhow.

The generators have been rolling and the trash line was below Davis. When I got there I put some cold water in the live wells, and threw a bucktail for a bit. Then I went and caught a shad. That was not a typo, it was one shad and I decided if I needed more I’d try again. I was going to use the small jigs on the banks, but I might as well pull a shad behind the boat.

Truth is I knew where some of the stripers had been caught, but I was just feeling kinda like slow fishing the bank that day, just to see what happens. I switched up colors from the green and that day anyway, a pink tail seemed to be best. I got a ton of bites, caught quite a few of those rock bass, but nothing bigger. There was a real good knock on the line, but I didn’t get it.

The flat line behind the boat with the shad got messed with once. I don’t think it was a striper, but something was chasing it around and must’ve got worn out. I thought, if I had to chase my food around, I’d probably give up too. I sure wouldn’t be this fat, not cause of the exercise, but probably cause of starvation as I wouldn’t be able to catch it. Anyway, I had the stink on my hands, a few fish, nothing big, but decided it had been good and I could go home, eat and get ready for some football.

Well the rain never came, the football did not go as well as I had hoped, I am a UT fan, but the late morning on the lake was good. I haven’t pursued the stripers hard this year, not sure why but I am a bit of a phasey (not sure that’s a word, but I go through phases) individual. This phase is small fish, a lot of hits, but hard to catch. Maybe I’m just testing my skill level. I hope y’all had a great weekend, have a great week and God bless.