It has been a minute or two since I put down any words about a tournament. But for the two years since I retired as a mfg engineer, I have been telling myself I was going to fix that and talk about my often less than average fishing skills.
So….here we go.
A tale of the Tennessee Bass Nation Kayak Series event on Cordell Hull – hosted by Explore Jackson County.
Prepping for a tournament to me consists of:
watching videos and reading about an area
studying maps
choosing location(s)
pre-fishing
keeping an eye on the weather, on wind
learning the water temp
choosing lures and lure color
deciding how many clothes to carry…shoes
It seems even deciding the way you hold your mouth or what you have to eat can affect your day. When you think about it, and I often overthink it, bass fishing is taking all of your past experiences combined with all new variable and hoping to figure out what is working.
Then just getting lucky enough that the fish cooperate.
I almost didn’t fish the Tennessee Bass Nation Kayak series event on Cordell Hull because I know this is one of the most difficult times of year to put all of that together. It is pre-post-current spawn season and the fish can be all over the map (kinda like my thoughts some days). That accompanied by the fact that you couldn’t find a lot of past tournament info or videos to study about Cordell Hull was leaving it to the me to figure something out…and despite all of my years doing this…this is the weakest part of my fishing.
I had an option to attend a golf scramble on Good Friday and I thought that sounded more fun than pre-post-current spawn fishing – so when a couple of CAKFG guys asked if I wanted to go pre-fish for a day, before signing up, I agreed just to hang out with my Caney Fork Outdoors boys Jay Minor and Richard Bartosczek. It would also let me know if I had any chance.
Wednesday:
After a two hour drive, we launched from our first choice, a mid-lake location. Water temp, clarity and spawning time can be different from one end of a lake to the other, so it felt like a good enough start. I personally favored this ramp because it was on the northern side of the lake; benefitting from the warmer southern winds; it also had another similar creek about a mile and a half upstream; not out of reach just in case.
The weather was predicted to move from 40-70 degrees with calm winds. Too cold for my old body to start, but it was going to warm as the day went on.
The water clarity at the ramp was stained and the water temp was only 58; it went to clear toward the back of the creek and was very stained and flowing fast when you got out on the main channel.
I went left, Jay went straight across and Bart went toward the mouth before heading up stream to the next creek.
I caught a few smalls in sight of the ramp, then I went under a bridge to explore. They came on topwater, chatterbait, shaky head, lizard…nothing solid and consistent. But I did catch a small limit junk fishing.
Without enough to skip a golf scramble (which is another thing I suck at, but love), Jay and I took off at a blistering 3 mph for 1.5 miles toward the next creek. The current was so strong that was all the Torqueedo could do.
We pulled in and I went straight to the bridge and roadway; it had more bank along the road and is always a spot I check out when in an area.
I started seeing sporadic grass clumps on the fish finder but the senko wasn’t picking up anything. I reached for a shaky head with a Zoom Moccasin Blue lizard and fished through the grass and got a 14, then a 16, then some 12’s. I moved up the bank and the pattern continued the whole distance…all small. Then I moved back to a black w/blue flake weightless Senko as the water got shallower…flipped it right against the rocks and caught a 15 inch bass. A few more 12’s later, we moved back to the original creek and…nothing.
Bart wanted to try another location, so we moved farther toward the dam…tried the same lizard pattern…and it worked. Nothing else did, and they were still small.
I still hadn’t caught enough size to tell me that this would override a golf scramble with people from my old job. Then Bart sent me a text: Ryan at Caney Fork – during the long day – had told us that we (Clarksvilles Caney Fork fishing team members) could spend Friday night at one of the cabins they have available to rent. I really didn’t want to fish this event, but I always welcome an opportunity to hang out with folks, and I do love fishing…and Caney Fork has been good to me…so…I said dang it…and committed.
Two days later:
Friday morning, I drove up in time to see the sunrise on the lake at a new location on the southern side of the lake; to do a bit more pre-fishing. Map study showed me things that I like in locations; deep water with points toward the mouth, a creek in the back, some flats…an island. The temp was in the mid-sixties, the water temp was right at 60…but the wind was supposed to reach 15 to 20 mph.
Bart and I launched, fished the back of the creek in dead calm water. We caught a couple under the 12 inch limit, but the place felt wrong for the season.
As we moved out to the mouth, the predicted 15-20 mph winds picked up. We sat in an area where the water was being pushed around the bank and over a small point; just out of the wind. There were a lot of fish in the area and we kept catching them. I do not remember any being 12 inches, but the same lizard was bringing them to the kayak.
We buckled down, held our hats, and moved to the opposite (west side of the creek) finding some grass a bit out of the wind. After a few casts, we caught a some keepers with the same pattern from the previous trip. But it still looked like we were going to have zero chances of doing good…except for hanging out together and eating barbeque.
Tournament day:
Jay opted for a new location on the north side of the lake. Bart and I decided that we had at least caught small limits at the first spot we tried, seemed that a simple pattern was working and we wouldn’t get skunked. The creek upstream did feel out of reach due to predicted winds, but I had caught a limit at the launch and said whatever.
I immediately caught a 12 incher on a topwater bait. Then had a big one blow a Zara Spook out of the water…missed it…then hit it again…and it missed again. In a few minutes, I caught a small one under a tree that overhung the water on the lizard…then a big ole white bass smashed my Spook and I caught him before moving to rocks on the side of the road. I hadn’t found grass here, but I tried for a couple of hours to fish the same pattern that we had found….nothing.
I have always paid attention to movement on the water, to flickering bait, to bugs getting popped by smaller fish. As I dragged a lizard (anyone who knows me, knows how painful it is for me to fish this way) I saw a swirl against the rock and picked up a Senko and tossed it in the area.
I felt a bump.
I threw it back in the same spot, something grabbed it, pulled then let go.
I tried the spot with the Senko, the lizard, a Yamamoto craw….nothing. Nothing. With small fish, and zero hope…
As I came out from under the bridge, I saw Bart dropping a 20.25 inch, egg filled beast into the water. it had come from under the same tree where I had caught a small one. I cried inside (cussed out loud), and told him I was making the run to the other creek…despite the 15 mph wind forecast. I knew I would lose thirty minutes with the current, but would get some back because the flow would allow me to reach over 6mph coming back.
I went to straight to the rocks along the road, and the grass clumps. At this point I was just hoping for a limit. And caught nothing. Not even a bluegill nibble. As I said before I hate draggin’ baits across anything, but I slowed down and pulled the lizard even slower.
Still nothing…I turned and tried to catch some little fish on a small windblown point because I had seen that work the day before when nothing else did….still freaking nothing.
I pulled out the black Senko again. I really like fishing the bait and had decided that if I wasn’t going to catch anything, I would at least enjoy not catching anything.
Then bump. Not a solid bump…come to find out it was the Senko falling into a rock and deciding to never return. Dang it. Dang it. Dang it. I tied on another Gamakatsu 1/0 EWG hook…all I fish with except a 1/0 EWG shaky head or a lure with it’s own hooks…then I opened up my box full of Senkos.
Usually I go through a progression from black w/blue flake, to Baby Bass, to what I always call 955 (Yamamoto color), to 927/31 laminate, to bubblegum….told you I like fishing them and have a box full…but before I left home, I had tossed in a single bag of Smallmouth Magic Senkos that I had received as a prize during another Tennessee Bass Nation Kayak event. It was on top and I said what the hell, let’s see what happens.
Like I said, I had seen the swirl at the last location and had also seen Bart release an egg filled 20.25, so I felt that they could be spawning along the rocks and a Senko usually works for me.
I was very focused on a limit so I picked apart every indention in the bank. After about 20 ft, thump.
I set the hook and nothing.
Tossed it back in, thump and a pull. Set the hook. Nothing. Dang it.
I picked up the lizard and as soon as it bounced off the rock an 18.5 inch bass headed under the kayak with it. Fish in the net!
Ten more feet, another fish. Then another…and another. Nothing big, but I easily caught two limits along the path down. Then several on the way back up.
I had beaten it up pretty heavily and only had two and a half hours left, so I ran back to the launch area after a very sketchy, windy, face full of water, gripping tight, 6.5 mph in the current ride through white caps….and headed to where I had missed a good one on the rocks.
Tossed in the Smallmouth magic and thump…it took my Senko (I had already lost half the pack).
Picked up the lizard…nothing.
Put a new Senko on, tossed it…thump and pull. Set the hook fought it for two reels and was wrapped around a limb. It was a big bite, but it was not coming back now.
With less than two hours left, and nothing hitting by the bridge, I moved to a bank I had not fished at all. Honestly, it didn’t look promising and Jay had fished it on our first day there and not gotten a bite. But the wind was blowing a current on it, it was 3-5 ft deep, had some sticks and rocks; and I later found a bit of grass…and about four casts in, I started upgrading to 15+ after 15+. All on the free pack of Smallmouth Magic Senkos…well, until I finally lost them all and moved to a similar Baby Bass and continued to catch smaller fish.
I caught close to 15 fish in the last two hours moving back and forth on a wind-blown bank, with rocks and underwater grass. Everything I had learned to look for during pre-fishing and as the day had progressed.
The original Moccasin Blue lizard hadn’t panned out except for a couple bites, but the types of structure and cover was still producing until lines out…and watching the water, catching that swirl early in the morning had helped me to move to a bait that produced between 20 and forty keepers.
And luck…grabbing that bag of Smallmouth Magic Senkos and slinging ‘em…had made a third place finish on a lake I may never fish again possible.
Topwater Moon 