30 Aug 2019
The weekend has begun early, wife, daughter, and I head out to the lake Thursday evening after work. We start off trying for some striper. They had been generating pretty hard and the cold line was down past Davis boat dock. The bait wasn’t in the typical spot, but in our secondary location, we caught plenty with the skills of the girl on the front of the boat. Side note here, if you have any shad in your livewell, remember to remove them before going home, it will stink.
We began fishing for the striper. Previously we had seen them busting plentifully, but today was different. We saw a couple in the hour and a half we fished, but they didn’t seem to be as active as before. With the wife’s rod, within seconds of throwing it out, she got a run. It was a quick surprise and the hook did not get set. The shad did get descaled, but no fish.
As we started going over some more shallow water, the wife got one more messing with her line. It never did take it, just messed with the shad for a while, this was not turning out to be a great striper day.
So daughter and I began our little bass tournament. I chose to go with a mud minnow, she went with her standard PB&J. She caught the first one, then I caught a rock bass almost the size of the shad we were using. I have to explain to her every trip that the smaller ones should be worth more because they are much more difficult to catch. She still isn’t buying that line of reason.
In short, she wore me out. She more than doubled my effort and I don’t think that she caught one as small as the ones that I had caught. She had a real good night. The bass fishing was pretty good, we laughed and had a ball hanging out. It was a real good time.
31 Aug 2019
Real quick, I have built me a 3wt fly rod and took it to the South Holston River. Let me say it is a great rod. I had never used a rod this low in line weight before, think ultra lite. Yet I can cast it pretty well and even the small trout put up a bit of a fight.
I used minima guides instead of the snake guides, the line seems to flow through it very well and they are light, not snake guide light, but light. I ended up catching 6 or 7, nothing worth photographing, and missed quite a few. It’s a neat fun little rod. I built it for streams as it’s about 8′ and to help on the river with me casting the smaller flies. It’s a blast.
I hope you got out this weekend, have a great day and God bless.
15 Aug 2019
I had my 40 hours in by the end of the day on Thursday and the girls wanted to go to the lake. I rushed home, loaded the bait tank, added my new homemade filtration system, ready to roll. We headed out and the girl (Kayleigh) told me to get behind the wheel, she’d throw the net. I think this time took her 2 or 3 cast and we had more than we would need. I discovered by the end of the day, I would have to revise my new homemade filtration system.
We find an area we are wanting to fish, and let me just say it was a pretty good day. I didn’t get the weight or length of any of these, pretty good size is pretty much where they were, one was bigger than the others. As we began fishing, the girls line took off, she ran back to get her rod out of the rod holder and the fight was on. Drag was being pulled and she was having a blast. I think the first was the biggest, but she battled it to the boat. I netted it, then looked at the treble hook. I have no idea how this fish stayed on, the treble hook was split and one hook was bent, it looked like an umbrella. Pic taken, fish released, and new hook was put on her line, this was not a treble.
Shortly thereafter, the wife gets one ( I may have the order messed up, but it was something like this). We watched her fight the fish and it was a pretty good battle. We had replaced her reel with a much nicer one, not expensive, but nicer. She even commented, mercy this reel is much better than the other one. We landed this striper, took a photo, let it go and kept fishing.
I started seeing some breaks and grabbed the baitcasting rod with the TFR Custom Jig (yep, anything I make is custom), it’s a bucktail with a swim bait, pretty effective. I hook one for about a minute, but it got off, not a very good hook set.  I cast a few more times, then hand to daughter as I go to bait a line or something. This is my favorite bait casting rod as it is rated from 5/8 -6 oz, yep the range is incredible and it pretty much cast itself. Anyway, she makes about 2 cast and boom, she’s hook up. She fights it, drag is a bit loose on this one, and we finally boat the thing. It was another nice one and they just keep busting water all around us.
I think we caught one more and then prior to us leaving, the girl gets another one. She fights it all the way to the boat and it gets off. It was a really good evening and glad the girl finally got a few of them into the boat. It’s been a tough year for the striper for us, but maybe we have figured something out. Saturday’s trip is below.
17 Aug 2019
Saturday, I decided to go out about 11:00am, yep, the time most folks are coming home. I didn’t want to fight race traffic that night and I had worked Friday on a new filtration system. This one was not bad, not great, but not bad. It kept all of the fish alive without any red for about 3.5 hours in the heat. 2 shad had died but they appeared to have gotten under the filtration unit, still a few bugs to work out. Anyway, I went in search of some striper.
It was a nice day and around 12:00, I hooked up with the one above. It was a good fish, good fight, and I thought what is this crazy thing doing biting at noon. I thought, boy I have got these things figured out now.
I fished on until 2:30 or so and I had gotten one more swirl on a flat line, but not a take. Another flat line got busted twice but I thought it may have been a large mouth, just didn’t hit the shad like a striper. Then when I was flipping one out, the shad took off and I saw a large white flash in the water. But it did not get it. So Saturday was hot but I did land one and got messed with a few times. Apparently, most folks were at the race cause I didn’t see too many folks on the water.
I hope everyone had a great weekend and that this weekend you can get out and wet a line. May your lines be tight and your hands smell like fish, have a great week and God bless.
10 Aug 2019
The initial plan was to go Friday evening, but that all fell through and as Saturday rolled around, we decided to go to the lake for the evening. The wife was wanting to try to catch a striper, I thought, I’ve struggled with them this year, but why not, let’s give it a shot. I went a bit early to catch some bait, this did not take as long as I had anticipated. I putted around a bit, still trying to get a good understanding of the electronics and she showed up.
We decided to give a place a go, put out some lines and began trolling. I was throwing a jig and might’ve got a bump, but did have a good size striper follow it to the boat. Shortly after the follow, I heard the familiar sound of a striper busting the top water. This sound is very distinguishable from the carp or anything else for that matter, I compare it to a bowling bowl being thrown in the water. We looked up and there were breaks all around us. She had one take it in the back, but it did not hook up. She handed me the rod to let me bait it up.
She was holding the other rod in her hand and I tossed the one she had given me another direction, hit anchor mode and waited just a minute. Bam, it was a nice one. I let it run a second, the tightened the line, he began to pull. Not to digress here, but I did tear my bicep a couple years back and the cramp like feel was messing with me. The pull was hard and the drag was too tight, the line snapped, it was about 20lb test but apparently the drag was torqued. In all fairness, this reel had come with a combo and had seen better days. A few trips to the saltwater, the rod was toast a year or two ago and should’ve replaced reel as well. Anyway, fish off and we continued.
Wife started to get a run, the line was taking off, I said pull, she really pulled, and my anxiousness cost her a fish. We baited again, tossed in the shad, and within a minute or two, of casting, I said, wow, that shad sure picked up steam. She tightened the line, set the hook, and the fight began. She was using the rod I had lost one on earlier, the drag was a bit loose. She said I can’t stop it, I looked at the reel and said, anchor mode off, we shall chase her. We started gaining ground, she was tired and said reel a minute. I kept pace for just a second or two, then gave her back the rod. She brought that thing in like a champ.
When I netted the striper, it was touching metal with head and tail, it was big. I went to lift by the jaws and it felt like way too much weight for that. I handed the beast to the wife, she grinned, pic taken and fish released. I was wore out, the heat was getting to me. She was tired and not sure she could’ve handled another, so we slowly headed to the house.
It was a great day, we fished a couple of hours, pulled out at dusk (I know, best time to fish), but we were both tired and thrilled at the day on the water.
I hope you were able to get out, looks like the striper are doing well right now. I would let you know where I was, but I might head back this weekend. If you see me on the water, I’ll let you know. Have a great week and God bless.
