29 Oct 2016
Evaluation Complete
New rod complete and testing was in order. I piddled around the house with some leaves in the morning then headed out in the afternoon. I saw bait flipping quickly and it didn’t take too long to snag a dozen up and I was off to fish. I stopped in deep water to give me time to put out the shad as I through the Ned Rig to the bank. After getting out a couple of rods, I grabbed the new pole and made a cast.
First cast a bit, hook set and fish on, not bit but it was great. I paused thinking that usually when I catch one on the first cast, I get nothing the rest of the day. Hoping this doesn’t hold true, I cast again, another bit immediately, I didn’t set hook, but then another as it continued falling, I missed him. I was feeling pretty pumped by this point, two cast, three bites, gonna be a good day.
As far as the bass fishing goes, I ended up catching 4 small ones, all while in deep water 30-40’, but hits were close to the bank not quite that deep and all on Ned Rig. The new rod is a light saltwater, why that, well it was on sale.
As far as the striper go, I lost two shad on the flat line, one was when he was attacked, I got to see that one, the other I am not sure what happened. My thinking, something did a sneak attack when I wasn’t looking and was too subtle to make a sound, these fish are getting sneaky. Or perhaps it was a gar. I was in Candy Creek and I think they were gar rising up all over. I had my down line get taken 3 times but no hook set. The only problem with that theory is one of the takes didn’t get the bait and it sure didn’t look like it was in real bad shape.
The striper still aren’t hitting, at least for me, like I figured they would in October, but hey, maybe November is the time. We are getting close to the holidays and just a few more weekends at most for me in the boat. I will be getting the fly rod out soon and hit the river. I hope everyone has a great Halloween and hope I get to start November off with a few nice fish. Have a great week and God Bless.
23 Oct 2016
Pics are Below
I have delayed writing this up and my apologies, however, I was trying to figure out what in the world to write, well, I got a little something. Last weekend was windy and not to be that guy, but fighting it is brutal for me. So Friday and Saturday I walked outside multiple times to talk myself into going, however, I just couldn’t knowing that I would just get frustrated, the boat moves quite a bit in the wind. However, Sunday afternoon rolled around and the wind was calm at the house.
I remembered seeing the stripers busting last week at Davis and decided I’d go after the big boys. The launch went well and guess what, some wind was a blowing. I saw a shad flipping in the shallows, and one net haul did the work, at least 20 nice ones for striper. I put out the lines and began the day of fishing.
When striper fishing I tend to try to get close enough to a bank to try to catch a bass or two and today was no different. I threw the ‘ol faithful Ned Rig PB&J and did not get a hit all day, funny cause it works at the free ramp pretty well. While trolling along my down line (10’) had three hits, I don’t think it was a striper because they never took the shad. It had a marks on it, but the striper usually inhale that thing and there is no doubt you have one. The rod bent hard three times, but no takers. This summed up the entire trip, three hits on shad and no fish, I left there thinking it was time to tie up some flies and put the boat up for winter, but that thinking won’t last a week.
So that was a quick write up and really nothing embarrassing to talk about, that is why I thought I would tell what I did while thinking about going fishing. I finished my rod I have been working on for a bit. The purpose of this rod was really for me to do some experimentation. Each guide took me longer than I had anticipated to wrap but I like how it turned out. On first look my honest daughter said I don’t really like it, but when I told her why it was the way it was, she then said well that makes sense and it’s cool. My son thought it looked great, he is brutally honest as well, and the wife liked it.
Anyway, this is my Marine Corps rod 7’ light saltwater with carbon fiber grips. Each one of the guides are wrapped in the ribbons/medals that I received during my service with the exclusion of one. I could not figure out how to wrap that one. They are in order with the exception of the hook keeper, this one had too much going on to go onto a smaller guide, I needed more space so I put it there. My thinking is that this may not be as consistent across the rod in appearance, and someone who sees it may just think, that’s odd. However, I like the idea of a personal attachment to what I am using.
I have the rod business operating, although I am not really seeking out much right now as I have one I need to get done for a customer for Christmas and working a full time job. Right now I have been as busy as I need to be and still able to get one or two done for display. If you have stayed to course and read this far down, send me an email and tell me what you think. I get folks asking how much for a rod and I will say that it completely depends on what the individual wants. There are so many options that I just don’t want to limit anything for the customer. If it is custom, well, it is custom to the individual, anyway, here’s my email: TFR @TNFishingReport.com
16 Oct 2016
Lessons Learned
My daughter has been wanting to go fishing with a friend of ours for a while, it just hadn’t worked out, but Sunday afternoon, we finally had an opportunity to hit the lake. JD is a hoot to be around and a good fisherman, I figured I may learn something and he said maybe K (my daughter) could teach him something. Daughter and I got on the water about 45 minutes before he got there, we went to catch bait just in case we decided to put out a line for stripers, then started on a bank. We get 2 hits and then I finally caught one before JD arrived.
He jumps in the boat and we are off. The first bank is a honey hole, I caught a couple there once, and we start. Shortly after starting, K brings one into the boat. She reaches down, lips it, takes out hook and poses for the pic, official score 1-0-0, she don’t wanna count my first fish. A little bit later, she reels in another and it looks like she may be pitching a shutout. JD comments, she’s in the back of the boat fishing used water and wearing us out. My theory was that we were waking up the fish and got them ready to bite.
We are all throwing the PB&J Ned Rig, it has become my go to bait, and I start getting hits. I was informed after getting them close to the boat that they were not going to count them unless I got them into the boat, witnesses and rules put a real damper on the number of fish you catch. JD was getting a few hits, but decided to switch it up to a worm. As the day went on more fish were caught. We landed about 8-9 total for the day. JD was getting plenty of hits on the worm, but they just weren’t taking it, couldn’t get a good hook set.
The girl got tired so we shut it down after just a couple of hours, but we had a ball. A little ribbing, a lot of laughing, and learning a lesson not to pick on the daughter too much as she may educate me on the water.
Next trip may be Friday, maybe. My anniversary was this weekend and we may go out of town this coming weekend. The weather is going to cool off a bit but I did see a striper chasing some shad at Davis on Friday when we went there for the Fish Fry. So maybe I can get a striper pic or two up next week. I hope everyone is getting a chance to get out this fall, the weather has been warm but you may be needing a jacket soon. Have a great week and God bless.
07 Oct 2016
Gotta Make Some Time
Same old story, but honestly I wanted to go fishing, but just didn’t feel up to too much. So I just figured I’d see if I could land a trout. It’s a short trip from the house to a sweet little honey hole and I wouldn’t have to stay long. If I get the boat out, I feel obligated to fish for 4 hours or so, but this way, I can leave in one and feel just fine about it. I loaded up the fly rod, put on the leaky waders (I need to fix that before winter) and headed to Bluff City.
Fortunately not too many folks fish here in the afternoon, I have no idea about morning, but it’s been dead the past couple of weeks. I put on the deadly pheasant tail, but this time got a little crazy and put a small zebra midge to follow. I make a few cast and get nailed. I lift the rod to set the hook and for a split second I was in bliss. But this was similar to a UT football game, sudden rush, with sudden heart break, but I knew pure exhilaration would follow.
I continued casting because hey, I just missed one, but then in the cast I heard the dreaded whip sound. I decided to check my line thinking the small zebra was gone when I saw the line had broken (came untied but broken places the blame away from my tying skills). This is when I realized that my last 3 minutes of casting were a waste of time, but oh well, exercise. I put on a bead head pheasant tail and gave it a shot, nothing, not a bit one. I switched back to a non-bead head pheasant tail then the hail Mary time.
Big bite and a hook set, I fight easy with the current he has some real pull, this time I brought my net (who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks). As the fish is getting closer, my arm is getting a bit tired. Now if I hadn’t posted, this year I was fortunate enough to tear my bicep, now I am not supposed to lose much strength, but apparently, I didn’t have very much. As I pulled the fish closer, my arm began to give, so being creative (that’s a word for having to work around weaknesses your whole life) I placed the rod in hand and behind my neck. This allowed me to push the rod to bring closer, I was kinda proud of my ingenuity although embarrassed of my strength, I should’ve just left this out. Anyway, I finally landed the beast and took the snapshot you see above.
I didn’t measure but I’m going with better than 15”, if you don’t agree, that’s ok, I don’t mind you being wrong (just kidding, I should measure my net to see). I released the beast as spawning comes in a bit and well, I just wasn’t in the mood for trout. I fished a bit longer (think of celebration after a game) and then headed to the house. I fished about an hour and the weekend brought too much wind for me to get out (I know fair weather angler). Fighting the wind is not one of my most relaxing things, so I continued to piddle with a rod that I am working messing with right now. I have this idea and wanna see how it looks.
Anyway, hope everyone got out, fall is here and I really need to go after a striper and a smallmouth, maybe even toss in a largemouth as a bonus. Good luck on the water, be safe and God bless.
01 Oct 2016
Sorry for the past couple of weeks, I did make one fishing trip to Boone, caught quite a few on a Ned Rig, but the way I’ve been feeling, just difficult to pen anything down. This weekend rolled in and I told the wife, I got to get out fishing. Honestly, I really didn’t feel much like it, but I am committed to the 3 dedicated readers on this page. So instead of dragging out the boat, I grabbed the fly rod and headed to Bluff City.
The weather was great and it looks like fall has finally arrived. Last trip here I couldn’t tie on anything small due to seeing multiple hook eyes when I tried, man that’s frustrating, so I put on a 16 pheasant tail. Began fishing and low and behold I began getting hits. I hadn’t fly fished in a coon’s age so I was missing the first few. Finally after 3-4 misses, I got a hook set. My fly line is 20+ years old and looks pretty rough and I was trying to slowly bring him in to me. I realized I had forgotten my net so I thought a good tiring out may do the trick. This was a nice one, at least 15” rainbow and as I was getting ready to bring him right to me, he releases.
Hmmmm, I think, boy I wished I would have brought the net. I continue fishing and another nice one hits. This one was a bit bigger and I figured we were about the experience a similar event. I fight him for a minute then whip out my phone. As he comes up, I take a pic, I took a couple thinking I will have a shot of him. However, as you can tell by the lack of photo above, I was not as quick with the trigger as I thought, I only got pics of the river. The fight lasted a minute or two and the he released, hmmmm.
I switch things up as I see some small one hitting the top and a few bugs flying around, and go with a sulfur. Now I didn’t see any sulfurs but why not, I didn’t have a huge assortment of flies at my disposal. Low and behold I got one (see pic above). This was a small one, but very photogenic.
I continued missing a few probably 10-15 for the day. Hooked another one for an extremely brief amount of time, but no other photos. It was a well spent 1.5 hours of fishing, I was done and the Vols will be playing in a bit.
Hopefully I can get the boat out soon, the past few weeks have been too busy to not be too wore out by the weekend, but maybe things are gonna slow down a bit. The daughter has a regional golf match this week, good times right there, and depending on how that goes, we will see about next week. But Lord willing, I hope to bring you some more stuff next week, y’all have a goodn’ and God bless.
