Caney Fork 3-23-12
 

Well some days the fishing Gods just smile upon us and there is nothing we can do wrong! Well Friday was just that for me. I fished the boils of the generators and caught tons of fish. Many stripe, about a dozen trout, and actually had 4 largemouths! 1 was decent too! I have never caught a largemouth down there before! I managed a 22-23" brown...never measured it, but that would be my guess.. Unless you guys have a better estimate. A just under 22" rainbow and about 6 other rainbows and browns 14-18" and another half dozen smaller. Also caught my first brook, a 14 1/2 incher! It was a blast! I lost another brown that was in that 20" range also! I had nonstop action from fish the whole time I was there. Trout, bass, stripe, and skipjack!

Can you access the area below the dam without a boat?

looks like it was a ton of fun.:D

i once had a TWRA officer tell me there are no largemouths in the caney up by the damn. then i pulled it up and proved him wrong. hahah.

and yes Blue you can acces the caney below the damn without a boat. man places to choose from.

Nice fish!

Those are some beautiful trout. So far this is turning out to be one of the better fishing years I can remember.

Man that's a heck of a fishing day! What lures were you using?

I threw a small heavy spoon a lot, a 3-way with a 3" white grub, and a 3-way with minnows. The minnows obviously worked best, but they were crushing the spoon too! All the largemouth and a few very nice rainbows came on the spoon, along with a bunch of stripe. Also through a large 2oz bucktail jig with a 7 inch white plastic worm on it to see if the rockfish were there and caught a largemouth and 2 stripe on it! HA! They were hungry for some reason!

I've been trying to get into the white bass in a lot of rivers around the Smyrna area and haven't found them yet. I guess I'll try below Center Hill next time I'm in Cookeville since you're not the only person who has mentioned catching them there lately. They're great to eat and fun to catch.

Very fun to catch. I kept 11 nice ones and they are in the fridge, but have never tried them before. I am going to fry some of them up tonight!

hey jimmy. have you tried the place i told you about? the white bass should be in there now. but in the next two weeks it should be on like donkey kong.

I actually did, I got there early Saturday morning and fished it for a few hours. Not a single white bass :( I think it may still be a little too early.

I caught a bass, 2 trout, and a stray crappie though.

All good fish, but that is a real pretty brown.

Jimmy did you try the West Fork? Way up the West and the East normally get good around this time of the year. Caught a few around the pier at Stewart's Creek boat ramp.

How deep is it around there? I have been wanting to take my boat down there, but I am worried it will be too shallow. I have a 16' duck style boat with a 50hp evinrude outboard.

I went there over the weekend but it was so crowded on the pier I didn't even bother. I don't like to fish elbow to elbow with people so I walked to the left but the water was too deep and it was all rocky, not the type of environment they like so I left. Thanks for the tip, I may go one evening after work and try to get some of them. I'm sure it will be much less crowded

Nice job, all those fish look great.

You hear people all the time say there are no bass in there or at the least no smallies. That is simply not true. At different times during the year about everything can be caught in the river. The largemouth you have is by far the best I have seen. There's a guy on here that caught a really big smallmouth around 6lbs or upwards out of the Caney.

About the only thing I haven't seen is a crappie and I am sure that one may have been in there at some point.

I have got crappie out of there. Around happy hollow. Very unexpected....

Well there you have it... everything can be caught in there. :D

I knew it wouldn't take long.

I caught about a 8" crappie from the rocks below the dam on the caney last summer on a rooster tail. I guess there really is everything in there!

I've caught several nice largemouth below the dam on low water while fishing with a crankbait. I also lost a few crankbaits doing it so I quit haha, too many rocks down there. I've never caught any crappie in there though, that would be quite a surprise.

Good smallies on the Caney
 

I fish for walleye in the caney a lot and I've caught a few small mouth by accident. They're not numerous but they're there and they're big. No pressure on them at all. Caught most of them between the junction of the Cumberland all the way up to Wilson's bridge. Good luck

Caney Fork to Priest ?? <'TK><