A Question For readers

When I was forced to stop mu monthly lectures, I started to do at least weekly updates of this blog. I have no idea if anyone is reading these posts and if they find them useful, so if you are tuning in to the blog, go to the information on the right side and click on the most recent title. You will have a chance to comment. Just let me know that you are reading the material so that I can determine if it is worth continuing. Jake

Update on New Bait

Just a short note to tell everyone that the new Black Salty is still working well on all species. Even crappie are hitting this new live bait. Yesterday I got three nice bass, three channel cats and one nice crappie. The crappie didn't swallow the bait as all other fish did but it did get the hook. I still feel that most of the bait being supplied to the retailers are too big and I try to select the smaller ones if I'm permitted. The best way to insure that the fish are hooked is to hook the bait fish up through the bottom lip and then through the top lit as close to the front of the mouth as possible. The upper lip actually does most of the holding and it is rare that I have lost a bait fish to weeds or other structure.

Another great Tennessee Fishing Trip

Once again this year, the Tennessee River system provided me with some great fishing and even better weather. Normally history has threatened me with rain for this annual trip but this year the rain gods were generous and the sun was predominant. Booked a two day fishing trip with Bo Rice and took my Grandson Anthony along for his first REAL fishing experience. He certainly got a good dose of real Tennessee River fishing. Just a few photos below indicate his and my experiences. Each of us boated personal best fish. I caught my personal best smallmouth bass at over 5 pounds. I didn't break any of my own striper records buy I caught many above the 15 pound range. Anthony boated a 42 pound striper, a 25 pound black drum, a white bass and several 10 plus catfish. There was not too much water coming through the dam at Fort Louden but it was sufficient for good fishing even though we had to work a little harder than usual. There was so much bird activity that the osprey were diving down and taking our bait as it hit the water on a cast. That caused us to move deeper in the water and many rock hook-ups. We needed to adopt to a slightly different fishing technique but when we did we got great activity. Ala in all it was an excellent trip.

Identified the New Bait Fish

I have done my research and determined that the new bait being sold around this area is called the Black Salty. It is a form of goldfish and widely used in other areas of the country. It was developed by the Anderson Minnnow Farm in Arkansas. They live a lot longer than the golden shiner and will live in a tank for weeks if a bubbler is used. I have had good luck with this species and caught nearly all predators in the lake except crappie. But keep in mind that I normally don't fish specifically for crappie. Anglers that have used this bait indicate that it is better them the conventional shad or shiner. They are very active in the water but should be hooked up through the lips rather than close to the head or eyes. I have found that the smaller ones work better then the big ones but that is only my personal opinion.

The New Bait is OK

Last week I posted an item about the  availability of live bait. No golden shiners are available for some reason that I have not been able to determine. The new bait being sold has been named a "black and white" for some reason since it has no black or white color. The new bait shown below looks more like a carp to me but it has some different characteristics than a carp.

The mouth is more frontal than a carp and to me it has a higher frequency wiggle than a cars, although I haven't seen too many carp this small size swim. I have also had some success hooking the fish behind the dorsal fin and letting it wiggle wildly in the water. When hooking this fish through the front of the mouth it is necessary to make sure than the hook goes through the lower lip and the upper lip very close to the front of the lip. If the hook penetrates too far back in the head, there will not be enough of the hook showing to hook the predator fish and you will get a lot of bites that drop off when being retrieved. If hooked correctly these fish live longer than the shiners did. I have trolled this fish for two hours and it was still very active on the line.

One concern that I have is that continued use of this bait will eventually create a new species in our lake. To prevent this make sure that you don't dump your excess bait into the lake at the end of your fishing. I have contacted the Wildlife people to explore this possibility. I have caught all species of fish with this bait except crappie. I expect that they are too big for the crappie to digest.

A Good Week of Fishing

I had a house guest for the past week and fishing on the lake has been pretty good. Got about twenty fish each day with a good mixture including hybrids. The channel cats were again very active and bigger than in previous years. Also got hybrids in Davidson creek and the bass were larger then usual  as can be seen from the photos. My guest,of course was permitted to retrieve all of the fish both when trolling and when casting with crank bait lures. A few bass were in the 4 pound range. Had some shiners left over from previous week but most days we used the new carp as bait. Most fish were caught in 25 feet of water and a few were hooked by casting the dock areas but non were inder the docks.

New Bait Shortage

The Covit Virus is being used as an excuse for nearly everything that is going wrong in our lives lately. The freshwater bait supply is the latest area effected. The bait being delivered as Bass bait is no longer golden shiners by they are small carp. These small fish are much larger than the normal shiners but they do indeed work. There are three tips t hat I can provide when using this bait. First, try to get the smallest fish available. Some sellers will allow you to pick out your own fish and I do that and try to get the smallest ones available. Second, when hooking the bait on your line, use the front-most area of the mouth, The head on these fish are large and tough and if you push the hook through the head you will get a lot of break-aways because the hook does not set in the fish. The very front of the top and bottom lip is strong enough to hold the fish and still let the business end of the hook be exposed enough to hold the retrieved fish. The third tip is for a very slow troll or still fishing with this bait, you can try hooking the bait fish through the tail. This fish is very active when in the water and the tail hooking increases the swimming movement of the bait. I have had good luck with this hooking technique.