Hi all,
Got out fishing on Old Hickory yesterday afternoon. Decided not to head to the steam plant as I felt like checking some of my other spots to see what the winter bite was like at them.
I caught some big gizzard shad right by the boat ramp and headed out to deepwater. I drifted a good area a few times but got no bites and a few snags. Another boat was fishing the area and he didn't seem to be doing that well, so I left for other spots.
Bounced around a few more places and got nothing. Then hit the mother load
I found a ton of threadfin shad in one cove. The whole cove was packed from top to bottom and in all directions. It was really cool watching the depthfinder. I could easily see the shad and predatory fish. I will post some pics from the depthfinder later after I download those.
I netted about a thousand threadfin in one cast and cast a couple lines out. It took a little while to find the best area, but I caught catfish all over the cove. I ended up keeping 10 eating sized fish, but released at least that many and missed a bunch more.
The bite was real light and a bunch of fish pulled off right by the boat. I guess they were just holding the tail of the bait. Water temp was 44 degrees, so they were not fighting very hard. No big fish, just good eating size.
I tried to cast for bass a little bit with a spinnerbait and rattle trap, but no bites. I could see what looked like bass and crappie in the shad, but I did not have much time to figure out how to catch them as the catfish kept me busy. Next trip, I will be ready with for crappie and hopefully will smoke them.
Looking forward to dinner tonight,
Jim