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Thursday afternoon 7/17
I took a young man out yesterday that is fighting an inoperable brain tumor. We got on the water at 3 p.m. and immediately headed towards the long rock point across from the abandoned Jones Mill ramp. As usual, I kept the boat in 30-35 ft of water and we were throwing on top of the ledge. After about 5 minutes of no bites, the water started boiling out behind us in the main channel. My partner threw a DD22 under the fish and hooked into a 2 lb hybrid. I picked up my white fluke and landed it in the middle of the school. I immediately hooked up with a 2.5 lb largemouth. Over the next 30 minutes, the school would begin busting in 40 ft of water. We would pick off a couple each time they came up. We ended up boating about 6 fish at that spot until two seadoos decided they would run right across the point in the middle of the school while they were chasing. That shut them down for a while. Figuring each point would be holding bait fish the same way, we motored up to the long point at the end of the Bryant’s Grove bluff wall. NADA…no bait…no fish. We moved over to the long point on the front of Hong Kong and nada on the bait fish. I threw a jig on top of the point and hooked a 3.5 lb largemouth. Nothing else came from that point. We went all around the island an never saw any bait fish with our eyes or on the HBs. We then came back towards Jones Mill and I stopped at the 1st big cove before you get to Jones Mill (has a good creek channel running to the back of the cove). We immediately saw fish busting in 50 ft of water. We picked up a couple of shorts before it became too much of a headache trying to guess where they were coming up next.
We left there and went back to Jones Mill. A boat was parked right on top of the school and was picking them off at a good clip. We rolled into Sister Cove about 6:45 and immediately saw bait fish working everywhere right below the surface. Then the action started…two massive schools of 12-14″ bass started working hard. We positioned the boat between the schools and it was game on. I was throwing a white fluke and my partner was throwing a Missile Baits Shockwave in the bombshell color. For whatever reason, the fluke outperformed everything else he was throwing, including a spook. We landed 15 fish out of those schools before they shutdown. We picked up and headed to the Weakley Lane bridge to find no action at all. Next stop was the long rock point out from the Stewart’s Creek ramp. I made one cast with the football jig before the water started boiling on top of the point. I picked the fluke up and it was game on again. We ended up boating another 10-15 fish there before the daylight left us.
I have had much better quality days on Priest, but nothing any better for quantity. My partner was in from East TN and had never seen fish schooling and busting like they were. He was as happy as a kid in a candy store. Birthday parties have Saturday and Sunday messed up, but I plan on trying again Sunday afternoon to see if they are still schooling.
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4 Replies
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Wore them out with the fluke today! Normally I only fish at night in summer, but the last few days have been irresistible. Just too bad fish don’t bite the fluke at night.
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I busted them on a fluke this morning also! We found BIG schools of bass busting between Bryant’s grove and jones mill ramp. I have been lucky and have been off work so got to fish the last 3 days straight weather has been perfect! The passed few days I did the same thing started at jones mill caught fish figured all points would be holding fish but like you said they weren’t. But this morning they were every where took my step son with me and he had a blast. No big fish but like the other morning lots of 14-17 inch bass. The fish haven’t touched a crank bait or by thing but they inhale the fluke when u pop it through their feeding frenzy. My step son landed a few descent ones and laughed the entire time it was awesome. After the bass frenzy we went and caught a few crappie for dinner and called it a day.
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What color fluke were you using on Thursday afternoon?
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Pearl white
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