Fishing Report Archives

Hey Y’all. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned Ryan Hall, Y’all.

Ryan Hall is ,in my opinion, the best weather person on TV. Saying TV might be a stretch since his broadcasts are on YouTube. That said, it is finally a great feeling not having to watch him daily. A stretch of nice weather is our current forecast. We are due. Sunday started out great but once the winds shifted to Northwest, our catch rate suffered. That has been a regular occurrence this spring.

I spent much of last week fishing unfamiliar waters with experts on both. Tuesday found me on Lake Chickamauga in eastern Tn with Captain Scott Lillie. Scott has developed a tactic that I’ve been very interested in. We spent several hours checking different areas of the lake. One big plus for both lakes I fished is aquatic grass, something I miss from our lakes in the past, but on this day it became hard to fish crankbaits because of floating grass that was quick to foul our lines. After moving around a bit, we settled in on an area bordering the TN River that held good numbers of nice crappie. Scott is like me in that his clients keep their catch so putting crappie on the table means fishing a day off from guiding. We were able to provide quite a fish fry for him and his wonderful family.

Wednesday found me on Dale Hollow Lake with Captain Jeff Brown. Jeff was very insistent that we needed to be pulling cranks for crappie. Jeff has been catching group limits of huge crappie most days. My reason for being at Dale Hollow was to pick up tactics for walleyes that could be used for sauger and possibly walleye locally. Jeff was great to accommodate my wishes.

We hit several areas that will be holding big numbers of walleyes later but my timing was early. I understood that going in. We still caught some fish including some short walleye, a nice walleye, and the largest white bass I’ve ever caught.

I left with a positive attitude that the tactics we used will produce here. Jeff is a great teacher as is Scott. I felt my time and $ were well spent. A good guide should value the teaching aspect of their job as much as catching fish. Both of these fine guys do.

It appears the longer days and warmer temperatures are making the crappie move quickly toward traditional summer locations and tactics. Deep drop offs and channels will always be my warm weather destinations. The recent rains have washed a lot more pollen into the water and I think the fish over the weekend were sensitive to it.

It is very easy to see the layers of pollen in the water on my Humminbird Solix units. We caught several crappie that were suspended well above the bottom. That is exactly why I always say your electronics will tell you all you need to know about where the fish can be caught. The problem so many fishermen have is they spend a chunk of their retirement on fancy boat electronics but never put any effort into learning how to operate them. Come on! Those electronics will rarely help if you don’t know what you are looking for or at.

I did end up my latest trip with the tale tail signs of a recent willow fly hatch. We are coming into the June full moon and that coupled with willow fly hatches will mean great fishing for bluegills. The catfish, as well as most other fish species, will never miss a chance to pig out at such times. Surface white bass action is starting to take off due to an excellent shad spawn and hatch on the water, as well. The surface temps are approaching 80 on sunny afternoons.

As Alice Cooper so brilliantly said “School’s Out for summer!” Boating traffic is increasing as is traffic at ramps and on the many rural roads in our area leading to resorts. Be careful out there. Wear your PFD, even if you think it makes you look like a nerd. A live nerd is much better than a cool dude that the rescue squad is searching for. PFDs save lives!

Leave the booze on the bank. I hate trash thrown into the lake. Much of the trash I see on our lakes are beer cans, whether thrown out or blown out. It is still unsightly and unnecessary. If you take it out, bring it back to the bank with you.

Be careful out there. Welcome to our slice of Heaven.