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Sept 22
Today I hit the lake for a few hours. I put in at Fall Creek boat ramp to see if the bait has worked into the creek. Once the boat was launched I idled to the right to the first point and put the trolling motor down. The water temperature was 76 and the 20+mph north wind was blowing directly into the bank. I trolled up into 3ft of water and started casting my 1/2oz Lucky Craft Shad rattle trap and burning it back to the boat(recently a fast retrieve has produced a lot of reaction strikes). There were shad flipping here and there with a few bass surfacing. I worked down 30 yards and BOOM….short bass out of 1ft! I fished another 20 yards, BOOM….another short bass. I fished the entire right bank(around 300 yards) without another bite until I reached the PVC pole. There is a rock pile around the PVC pole so I picked up my 1/4oz swing head jig with purple/blue flake Big Bite Craw and chucked it near the pole. On my 3rd cast I had several bites, but none that would commit. The next 12 cast I had several more bites with the same results. I pulled up trolling motor and fired up motor.
I motored back into Fall Creek and stopped on the right bank across from the boat ramp. The wind was pounding this bank and it looked prime for bass to be feeding on bait. I worked my rattle trap down 100 yards without any action or much bait on my side scan and decided to make a move.
I moved to the Smyrna pump house cut through and fished the first flat on the right coming in from the Fate Sanders side. As I trolled up I noticed bait and bass feeding! I tied on my Hoppy’s 3/8oz Hawg Buzz(white) and started casting into 1ft of water. There were bass busting behind me, in front of me, and beside me. I made cast after cast and could not get a strike. I backed out a little and chucked my rattle trap……nada. After 45 minutes I packed it up and let the bass win that one.
Next I motored to the Weakly Lane bridge, but saw a kayak there once I got within 50 yards. Be care everyone, they blend in so easily.
I saddled up and drove to Lamar Hill. I scanned for 100 yards and found a lot of bait, but not many bass feeding on them.
Lastly, I headed back to Fall Creek and flipped my swing head jig from the point to the boat ramp where I launched. The channel from the point to the boat ramp was not covered with bait and there were a few nice bass feeding, but I could not get one to turn on my bait!
It was a short day with few bites. Looking forward to Saturday when BCGS Jacob Jewell and I are going to fish the Saturday morning tournament. Also, I’ll be on Old Hickory for while tomorrow and will put up a report on how it goes.
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5 Replies
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I fished from 3 to 6 pm tonight with the poor results. Just a few LM – all short fish. Even though they were feeding all around me they would not bite well. Only thing they would hit for me was a white 4 inch grub reeled fast. I tried crankbait, spinner, popper and fluke but they seem hard to fool right now. I was fishing the flat right past Jefferson bridge and the largest flat on the left before e/w fork split. All my fish were in less than 3 feet.
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Thanks for the report. One pattern I like during this time of year when the bass are on the flats and wont seem to bite OR they are all little is to fish the closest deep water, preferably a transition to a bluff wall. Fish the transition with a slow bait like a jig or Texas rig worm or craw. A lot of times this is where the bigger fish are.
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Last week individual fish were blowing up on very tiny Shad. They wouldn’t hit lipless, top water, tiny Cleo spoons, spinners, etc. Finally began to catch some on a blade bait like a Silver Buddy. This was in Lamar Hill.
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Thanks for the tip Brian. I caught around 20 yesterday afternoon and 15 last Saturday in 4 hours all on Rat 2.75 Sexy Shad Chrome and Sexy Shad with only a few keepers. I will try your suggestion on my next trip and hopefully move up in size.
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I was able to get out on the lake Monday morning for about 3 hours. Didn’t have a lot of luck but did catch a 4 lber on a buzzbait and another short fish. Also had maybe 5 blow ups on the buzzbait that missed. Fished Bryant’s Grove cove early then ran around trying to find some schooling fish.
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