Mixed bag with CUonthelake 12/18/18

[drumking]

There we were fishing in the middle of the day with a slight north wind blowing, TVA spilling water over the flood gates around 83,000 cfs, surface water temp at 50.1 degrees, and sunshine on, off, and back on again. The fish bit good when the sun was shining and huddled up to talk strategy when it was cloudy.

We had a great time fishing from 11:30 until 2:45 or so. We were targeting big Bluegills, but in addition to gills-biting, we caught crappie, yellow bass, and I got the bragging rights today with a 5 lb 4 oz Largemouth bass on a B&M Sharpshooter rod and 4 lb test Hi Vis Suffix elite line on a Trout Magnet gold color and #6 hook tipped with a Chartreuse Powerbait crappie nibble.

I really dont know how many gills that we caught but I only kept 11 that were 8.5-9.5” long. That was my self imposed slot limit today. Grin. We threw back many 8” gills that could have been kept.

I tied our jigs with with a loop knot about 12” or so above a split shot that maybe was a 1/32 oz. We had a great time and Candi was fishing with an ultralight 5’ rod and 2 lb test line and she probably caught 8 to my 1 until I tied on the gold trout magnet. I sort of held my own after that.

We caught several small crappie in addtion to the keepers that we caught.