Pickwick 9-27-12. Got my Fish'N Fix today!
 

Started out on the lake side. Due to heavy generation and I guess from some wind the day before....my Smallie point was not accessible. There was about a 5 foot wide pile of driftwood...trash....between me and the lake. Had to move over a little and started casting. For the first 20 minutes or so only caught a couple of 10 inch Smallies. I figured the Gills had to be deep as they had really pulled the lake down. Tied on a 1/32 Double cross jig head and put on a Trout Magnet body...Bison color. It fits the jig head but the collar is a bit too big and you only can catch a few fish before you have to change out the Trout Magnet body. Casted out and counted down 35 seconds.....as I started my retrieve felt the fish....nice chunky 3/4 pound Gill. Caught about 50 of them along with 3 dozen small White Bass. The Whites were closer to shore and so it was take my pick...Gill or White. The picture of the Gill is not the biggest ones I caught. I had some go the pound mark. I was standing in driftwood and was keeping an eye out for "Jake the Snake". Lucky for me he did not show up...LOL. At about 12:30 thought I might pack it in and go home. Decided to try the tail race below dam....glad I did. There was only one truck in the parking lot when I pulled in...I thought this is not good. Took my medium light bass rod spooled with 8# test NanoFil down to the catwalk and started casting with a Crappie Magnet in Killer Klatt color on a 1/8 Double Cross jig head....it matched the thousands of Shad in the water perfectly. First cast...a nice 2# White. From then on it was a battle until I left. I caught 30 Whites all at the 2 pound mark. In between Whites was catching Stripers in I guess the 4 or 5 pound range.....you all can judge but they were nice fish on light tackle. The pics are of separate fish but all of them were same year class. I left because I was cramping up...LOL. The Whites were battling me enough but those Stripers were giving me fits on that tackle in the cool water. Should have stayed until dark but it had been a great day and it was hot on the catwalk. I am pumped now. Just waiting now for the Large Mouth to show on the flats down there. The Whites and Stripers should be thick as cord wood for the next 3 weeks or maybe more.


Regards

Nice hat there alpha!!!!! Oh the fish arent too bad either.

Roy

Nice!!!

Another great fishing report!!!
Thanks!!

The Shad are schooling by the 10's of thousands down there. During the next 3 to 4 weeks should be awesome fishing there. Will go back next week and it is about time to check for Crappie at Nickajack.

Regards

Nice job Alpha..

I meant to ask you earlier but do you use the same rod/line for the magnets as the trout cranks?

Roy, you may know either of you guys is fine. Was going to get line a Bpro today if its different otherwise I'll leave it the same.

I have and those cranks on light line and and light action rod are great. I wish they dove a little deeper in fast water but the colors are great for trout. They also work well for bass. My biggest Brown on one of those was between 5 and 6 pounds. I hate having to remove those kooks from a fish though.....don't want to end up like browntrout and get a hook in me....hate those trebles but it is a necessary evil I guess.


Regards

Thanks, save me from buying more line. I will just use the SOS on my reels now.

Looks like you had a blast Alpha.

Yeah it was a lot of fun. Saw the post of you and a friend below Old Hickory in the kayaks. One could do that at Pickwick if you stay over by the wing wall....one question though. When you hook a good size Striper your going to go for a ride downstream....are you able to paddle back up....and I guess that would depend on flow.


Regards

Man thats an awesome day of fishing! Im surprised the stripers hit crappie magnets, definitely interesting. Id love to fish at Pickwick, you seem to have a lot of success over there but it's quite a long drive from Cookeville. Ill have to go one of these days after I graduate in May and Im done with cookeville forever.

Yeah its a long drive even for me. But for me to find those kind of fish I am going to have to drive somewhere. All we have here in Columbia is the Duck and the Williamsport Lakes. Funny you mention that about the Crappie Magnet. When I got to the catwalk there was only one guy on it. When I left there were 6 guys fishing and one of them was fishing for Cats. None of those other guys caught a single Striper or White Bass while I was there. Not that I am a Striper Guru...I am not....but I was fishing with what they wanted. The others were trying to get them to hit with big baits on top water....it wasn't happening. All of the Shad down there are about same size as Crappie Magnet and I was catching those fish about 8 to 10 feet deep. Now I am sure that when the Sun started to go down the fish most likely would have come much closer to the surface....but heck it was 3 hours before sunset. I have big baits...Storm jerk baits....Flukes....and so on and I use them when that is what they are wanting. I learned that lesson many years ago....give them what they want...but had a refresher course about 6 years ago...of all places at Pickwick. I had been catching White Bass down there for years and all I ever needed was a 3 inch curly tail grub....caught tons of them with that. I was fishing next to a man who was getting a White every cast. I was catching nothing...and I mean we were in the same hole.....we were shoulder to shoulder...LOL. I was getting pretty perturbed. He asked me if I wanted a couple of his jigs...I said sure. He had a card of a 1/16 Bass Pro Marabou jigs. It was nice of him to share as he only had a few left. I then started catching a White on every cast. So now I go through all the colors...all the baits...sizes.....to try and find what they want. Hoping to pick tk's brain a little at the Gathering on Striper fishing. I want to learn to catch them when they are in there but are being very selective.

Regards

Yeah! Nice work Alpha! Those are the posts from last year that I missed! Looks like I may have to head down there soon! If anyone wants to split gas, let me know!

Yep, 3 inch curly grubs have been a big producer for me with the white bass. Occasionally I'll catch one on a fluke but those curly tail grubs have been my go to lure for them. I see no reason why they won't destroy crappie magnets as well, as evidenced by your pictures.

One of these days I'll figure out how to nail the stripers like some of us on here can do. I'm about tired of everything else in TN water, being from south Florida I used to fish for redfish, snook, tarpon (only caught 1), peacock bass, and other fish that make your drag scream. After living in TN for so long now, I miss that feeling. That's why I like UL gear so much so even if I catch a 2-3lb trout I'll have that battle on my hands. I went to center hill dam the other night with some lures that I know catch stripers and wound up with all 3 of them at the bottom of "the pond" haha. I want to eventually target stripers more than anything else. More meat and a much more challenging fight.

Wow, you had one heck of a day there, Alpha! It just doesn't get any better than that, does it? Nice fish, and yeah, that is a nice hat :)
Speaking of stripers, my coworker and I went out on the Cumberland today and right at the corner where the Red River flows into the Cumberland, we watched a guy fishing from shore reel in a nice striper which looked to be around 10 pounds or so. At first we thought he was snagged in the rocks because of the way his rod was bent and how long it took him to reel the fish in but nope, it ended up being a decent striper. Seeing that got me all hopeful and I started throwing crankbaits and flukes, just hoping but nope, I'm still striperless :(.