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Cumberland River:: 9/7
Weather: Mid 70s and Overcast
Time: 4:30-7:00After finishing up some errands, I decided to try my luck out on the Cumberland. Since I was getting a late start, it was an easy decision to run over the Shelby Park launch, which is approximately a mile from my garage.
Once I launched, I immediately noticed that the current was absolutely ripping! I catched the TVA app before heading to the launch and it said ‘2 or more’ but sometime that can be quite vague, at least from my experience. To start I ran upstream about a half mile where I started fishing a bank that transitioned from a steep bluff wall to a gravel flat with scattered rock. I caught one dink, maybe 6″, bass on a crankbait and that was it.
From there I ended up moving upstream another mile or so, around the area where the General Jackson boat is typically docked. In this area, there is a bunch of scattered rock piles mixed in with wood and mud/clay banks. Started fishing this stretch along a large tree stump that remained close to shore. I was fishing a small profile jig with a twin tail trailer. I made a couple flips from upstream of the snag to no avail and then I swung around back of the snag and on the first flip I lifted the rod and noticed my line was nowhere near where I had originally casted. After rearing-back, I knew I had a good fish. After about 10 jumps (or so it felt like), I landed a good smallie!
I continued fishing the stretch and I have to admit, river fishing can be quite frustrating… In approximately 2 hours of fishing I think I had to break off four times and I can’t tell you how many times I was snagged but able to get the lure free. Ugh, this can be a pain when the current is rippin’ like it was. After breaking off my shakyhead rig for the second time, I picked up a drop shot and caught another micro-bass, much like the first fish I had caught. At this point, I had finally gotten enough time to sit down and re-tie my shakyhead rod, except this time I tied on a tube and man, am I glad I did! First cast, I hopped it a couple times, felt a knock, reeled down and made the boat rock! Not a state record or anything but by far my PR when it comes to spotted bass and definitely one of the FATTEST fish I’ve ever seen in person.
All-in-all, it was a good day!
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4 Replies
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Nice catch!!
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quote rolltide:Nice catch!!Thank you, sir!
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well done!
we fished up river on Sunday afternoon from around 10-3pm. the current was really ripping further upriver. we ran up river from the stones [put in at donelson ramp] to about half a mile below the OH bridge. we basically drifted back down the river fishing rockpiles and tight to shore with everything in the boat. we caught a few fish on crankbaits, buzzbaits, jigs, etc… but nothing of any size. mostly 10″ spots and largemouth. I was getting a lot of bites on the jig, but most of the time, the fish ended up with the trailer, and i ended up frustrated. I’m glad to see you hammered them. the water temp was right at 75 on the stretches that we fished. if we had it to do again, i think i would have fished out a little deeper – which is counter intuitive, but the larger fish just didn’t seem to be holding up tight to the bank where i though they should be with that amount of current. congrats on the smallie and nice spot.
j. -
Nice smallie!!!
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