31 Aug 2015
Sorry for the tardiness in posting, it’s been a bit busy and I get a bit wore out. I did piece together a video, however, I need to make some changes. I sped up the reeling part, which just consisted of me being out of breath and demonstrating the complete lack of in shape mess that I am, and the video was still 3 minutes long. As I have been told, folks don’t wanna watch 3 minutes of this mess, life is too short and attention spans are even…… wait what was I saying. Anyway, within the week and I can’t find music to go along that I am able to go with so, it will just be as is and the reeling in skipped over. Do know that it took me about 6 minutes to get the striper to shore.
Well what happened the last weekend of August, I decided to fly fish. I did this near the striper honey hole and on Friday I only lasted about 30 minutes. I had left the house, fished, and arrived back home in about an hour. Nothing to do with fishing, more to do with physical condition, no pity, just an explanation of no info.
Sunday afternoon I went back out. I headed to South Holston River armed with the fly rod. This river is no secret and usually a good crowd. Well I was in one of those moods to enjoy the outdoors so I ended up in downtown Bluff City (at the ball fields). I figured it was worth a shot and I began my effort. I fished for a while without getting a bite, at least not feeling one. I was using a midge #24 and I’m not sure how they see the little guy, but I never felt a bite. I switched out to a split case pheasant tail with a green weenie behind it. Why that combo you ask? In short, the pheasant tail had a tungsten head which would help get my green weenie deeper.
I fished for a few and bam landed one. I thought the green weenie strikes again, but to my surprise, it was the pheasant tail. I continued on upstream a spell and the green weenie did its thing, landed about an 8” rainbow. Nothing huge, but a pretty good day. I didn’t by any means slay the fish, but I did get a chance to get out, walk around in some cool water, fool a couple of fish on something I tied up, and it was a nice peaceful afternoon. By the way, I didn’t see the stripers at all this weekend, at least I landed one this year. Hope everyone has a great weekend coming up, good luck and God bless.
21 Aug 2015
Finally
Well the title says it all, Friday came, the race is in town and I decided to give the stripers another go. I head out and catch some bait in about 15-20 minutes, wow things are looking good. I head to the honey hole, which can now be officially claimed as a honey hole seeing that I caught a fish there, and start to fish.
I ran into a couple of young men, great folks, that were doing a little fishing also. I tossed out my line and within just a few minutes, I got a short run. The rascal didn’t take the bait but apparently was just playing with it. I noticed the striper were swimming in and out so I ventured on downstream. Yep, there were quite a few of them swimming back and forth.
The first run apparently put a hurting on my bait as it had no life, however, I figured I would continue with it, maybe jerk him around when a fish came through. I fished for probably 45 minutes with no other bites, then the young men came back through.
We began talking and I noticed that my braided line had sunk and caught under a stick at the bank. They began walking off and I thought I’d undo the line when a striper came up and nailed my bait. I set the hook, the bait went downstream and I thought I had missed it. This is when the fight began.
The striper pulled and the braid came free from the obstruction. I walked down the bank to fight this guy, didn’t want to tighten drag too much, I’ve lost too many fish. He probably ran at least 100 yards, I walk a decent way. I kept thinking to myself, this did not look like one of the real big ones, why is this thing fighting so hard.
He finally wore down and I could bring him into the bank. When he arrived, I realized that this was my new personal best. Now I am terrible at guessing weight and the pic may not do it justice, but if I were a guessing man, I would say a hair more than 30 pounds. The young men were still there and I asked them to take the pic, they were kind enough to oblige. I would have held the fish with extended arms to give the impression of huge, but really, the fight was hard, I’m in bad shape, and I am not sure I could have held it like that.
Anyway, I got this on video and it is about 6 minutes long. I plan on posting, however I am considering adding music and have to decide whether or not to do that. I’m not sure how all that stuff works. Check out the TNFishingReport youtube page in a few days, I’ll share it on there then post here. Let me just say, finally, the day has come. By the way, I had considered keeping me a striper for supper, however, the size of this one would have fed us for a while and I’m not sure I could have lugged that thing all the way back to the truck. Y’all have a great week and God bless.
The Fun Continues 15 Aug 2015
Friday came and I figured I’d try the stripers in the river again. I headed out armed with what I thought was appropriate equipment and much excitement. I got to the river and began the challenge of catching bait. Now I am finding this to be the most difficult part. I attempt to catch bait for about 45 minutes with no luck, so I head down to the honey hole. Sure enough the striper were there, at least a couple of them, so I grabbed some plugs and began casting. I used about everything that I brought, even resorting to a pink jig from last year’s salt water vacation. Nothing was biting so back to trying to catch bait. To sum up Friday, I didn’t catch anything, but tomorrow would hopefully be different.
Saturday I decided to head out to Boone Lake in the float tube. I have been hearing stories of a few hybrid being caught and I thought that would be an adventure in the float tube. I decided to launch at Davis Marina; now by launch I mean get in my float tube and walk out in the water, no place for a boat there yet. I start off and catch bait about every cast from the bank, you know it’s gonna be a good day when that happens. So I take my 5 shad in a minnow bucket (just hoping this works) and step in the float tube and start walking in the water.
This was an adventure in itself, the mud/ muck/ thick junk was not much fun. With each step I would sink further down. After having sunk in the mud 4” past my ankle, I struggled to remove foot and then just sat and pushed off with my hands. The departure spot was not where I would take out, that was a mess, but let’s get to fishing.
I tossed out a shad and headed down stream. I saw what I believed were a couple of striper or hybrid hit the top water, they tend to have a unique sound when they consume food on top, not even close to a fish jumping. I continued fishing for a while and nothing, not even a bite. I take off the big shad and go with a smaller one, fishing this for a spell and nothing. I finally figured to use a tube and fished the banks a while. Again, not even a bite.
Well, apparently my weekend would have best been served doing chores, so I figured I would head on back to the house. I found a spot that I hoped might be a little rocky to get out or at least firmer mud and set my course for this little area. I get within arm reach of the bank, footing felt “solidish” and went to stand. Apparently I need to go on a diet as my left foot sunk almost to my knee. This started a 2 minute act of me trying to get my leg out of the mud. Now it went in quick and easy, but let me say that it did not come out that quick and easy. When you are unable to get much support due to everything being soft around you, the mind starts trying to figure stuff out. If you saw something foolish looking at the banks of Davis Marina, it was me. I probably should have had someone film this for a video, perhaps it would have gone viral. But after the struggle, I was finally able to break free.
I rinsed off as best I could in the mud, not a lot of people rinse off in mud, and headed to the house. I learned this day that I need not launch a float tube at Davis Marina again, and I am just gonna have to break down and get the boat out. Fall is coming and when it cools off a bit, maybe this will happen, I do need to use a little vacation. Anyway, hope your weekend saw more action than mine, have a great week and God bless.
08 Aug 2015
One Step Forward Two Steps Back
The weekend arrived and I was pumped. I had a couple of stripers break off last weekend, but Saturday I was gonna be ready. I met a couple of buddies at the honey hole about 6:00am. This is unusual for me as I get up before 5 through the week and tend not to get in a hurry on the weekends, but hey, the big fish are calling.
I get to the honey hole and notice first thing that I cannot catch any bait. This is a bad sign as I have had no luck with my limited choice of lures and such. We fish for about an hour or so and with no bait, the idea of catching the stripers was gone. We loaded up and headed to down the lake.
We get to the spot and from the bank it almost looked like rain with all the bait fish flipping. We began launching everything we had in the water, and just when I was ready to give it up, boom, that beauty you see in the picture above bit my white jig. We tried a bit longer but no luck.
I headed back to the house and did a few chores, by few I mean as little as possible. Then thinking that hey, I was out in the afternoon last time, I need to go back out them, I headed to the honey hole alone. I attempted to catch some bait and after quite a few close calls, I realized that today was just not my day. I went down to the spot where the big ones like to frolic and again, I saw nothing. Well, I did see some largemouth and smallmouth, but not the stripers I was looking for.
I decided after a couple hours of fishing to call it a day, perhaps Sunday afternoon I can head out. Well, it’s Sunday afternoon now and I have battled a migraine all day long, since waking. This day will result in no fishing and difficult time writing. However, I have a plan. If the generating schedule is kind, I should get an afternoon in sometime this week. I did hear of a bunch of hybrid being caught and since it is on the South Holston side of the lake, I may try the float tube, we will see.
My apologies for the lack of pics from the weekend, but I do a lot more fishing than catching. Hope your livewells were full folks and you had a great weekend, just 5 more days to the next. Have a great week and God bless.
01 Aug 2015
Another weekend and a step closer
First I would like to start off with something I usually do not do, however, I would like to mention Mountain Sports Limited in Bristol. If you live in the area and do any fly fishing, let me recommend that you stop by and check them out. I have gone by there for a while now and I just wanted to say they have bent over backwards to help and answer questions. They aren’t paying me to say anything and have no idea who I am, but in this day when a store treats you right, I figure you orta brag on them a little.
Anyway, August is here, school is starting tomorrow, and the Vols are starting the preseason ranked. I’ve not caught a striper this year and with the temperature so hot, I’ve not been getting the boat out. Last year in the heat there were shade trees in the mouth of the river and the water was cool. With Boone down, well, the trees are too far off the shore line to help, I guess I better get used to it from the news this week. Anyway, it was time to try the stripers.
I found them from the bank and headed to my spot to give them a shot. The big rod that I haven’t hooked a fish on this year was in my hand and ready to roll. I get there, heat of the day and the stripers are present. I hook up the bait, toss it out and within minutes, fish on. I give slack to make sure he has the bait. I am using a hook that will not bend like the ones last year, I flip the bell, line gets tight and I set the hook. It was a thrilling 1.2 seconds until the line broke.
I wanted to get mad, but hey, I just hooked up on a nice one, I justified the line by saying it must have been frayed. I check the line, put on another hook and load up my final bait, didn’t do well catching bait, and toss it out. I see the bait rise to the top and get pumped, a striper is in slow steady pursuit. As the striper begins to start swimming away, I tug the bait, it is half alive, the striper gets interested. This goes on for about 20 seconds then the striper inhales the bait and swims slowly swims off. I flip the bell, line gets tight, hook is set, this lasted for all of 0.5 seconds and the line breaks.
These were some very nice fish, good size, not even gonna try to guess, but I learned a vaulable lesson. I am going to have to replace the line on this rod, but for now, I shall use a different rod. I went back in the afternoon on Sunday, but no stripers. The fish have been located, and with a little bit of good fortune, in the next week or two, I should have a pic or two. Good luck to you and God bless.
