6 Attachment(s)
Watts Bar tailwater report: 5/22/2017
This morning, Dr Phil and I hit the tailwaters below a popular dam and we were fishing for Striped Bass aka Rockfish. TVA was running 47,000+ CFS. It was a perfect cloudy morning for fishing.
It took a while before we figured out exactly where the fish were and what they would bite. But, around 7:45, we finally hit on a pattern that produced 4 bites on consecutive drifts. We landed 3 of those and the other one pulled off after a 2-3 minutes fight, but it was a bigun. Grin.
Dr Phil caught a small striper on our second drift, but it took us well over an hour before we really got onto the Rockfish. I have to tell you about my first one this morning. This is not a fish tale. It was the same Rockfish that I caught on May 9th. It weighed 27 pounds on the 9th, but only weighed 25 lbs today. How do I know that it was the same fish? It had 3 sores on its belly in the exact same spot as the fish that I caught on the 9th. It was released again. Grin.
Phil and I both had our lines broken on big fish and two pull offs. About 5-6 white bass gave us a little action and of course, I had to catch 2 of my pets. Alabama Smallmouth aka Drum.
I was a little surprised at the technique that finally got on onto the fish. With that much current running you would expect to be throwing heavier jigs, but I finally settled on a 3/8 oz shad head chartreuse painted and a 5" Super Salty Fluke. The fish would not touch any of our other swim baits or colors that we threw.
At one point, I had 4 hookups in four drifts and wouldn't you know it, a guide boat from North Carolina came running up the bank that we were fishing right next to the rocks where the fish were located and anchored about 20 yards above where we needed to be. We never had another bite after that. If I wasn't already worn out with the big fights that I had endured, I would have been pissed. Go back home to NC boys.
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