bankerbasser

Roadwarrior magic strikes again !

Eric the best tournament weights are coming offshore on the main river and creek ledges. If you don't know any of those spots you can use your electronics maps to locate. You can always catch fish in the marina mouth and banks within the marina itself. Also the rip rap along the bridge road and areas between the bridge pilings all the way out to the main channel. Crankbaits, football jigs, c rigs, big worms and shakey heads are all catching fish. The topwater bite is there, but unpredictable. The lake is 3 ft below summer pool due to lack of rainfall in the TVA system so be careful when running. There will be very little current due to the low lake levels so don't expect to see much water movement.

We fished the Federation State Tourney last Friday and Saturday. Caught lots of fish on points and deep banks, but the better fish were caught offshore on swimbaits, carolina rigs, spoons and crankbaits. You can catch good fish on most main lake points with a shakey head, jigs or soft plastics.

You really dont need a boat to fish in our club as we have plenty of people with boats. We meet on the first Monday of each month at a local restaraunt and we'd love to have you come to a meeting and see what its all about.

Daktn, we've got a bass club in Brownsville thats prob 30 years old. We currently have 15 active members and fish all over West Tn. Our 2012 schedule is Beech River Watershed lakes, Pickwick, Gibson County Lake, Tn River at Paris Landing, Tn River at Birdsong, Hatchie River and a classic to be determined in the fall. We used to fish Reelfoot a lot, but haven't in the last few years. Who's your buddy on Coburn ? I'm from here and have family out that way so I probably know them. We are always looking for new members in our club and you are welcome to come to a meeting to see what its all about.

There are several people from W Tn that are fairly active on here. I'm from Brownsville. Welcome, you will learn much and prob make new friends !

Went today and caught fish, but nothing like last Saturday. My boat caught 5 SM with the biggest around 3 lbs. My buddies boat caught 8 with a 5 and a 4.5. Beautiful day, ran out of minnows and caught a couple SM on artificial bait. Had some nice fish on that got off, but we all have those stories.

I think I'm going back again Saturday for a repeat performance ! If I catch just one over my current PB of 4 lbs 9 oz I'll be satisfied. I'll give a report when I get home. BTW, I finally figured out the picture posting deal. My biggest problem was that my networked office computer would not let me select a parent album, but my home computer would. It then took me a little while to figure out how to get the pics in the post. I was just before using photobucket, but finally got it. Thanks for your help !

Here are the best 5 SM we caught on 2-25-12

The only striper Ive caught was one about 8 lbs one day last fall below the dam in a creek mouth on a jerkbait. I thought I had a world record smallmouth ! On that day I caught a 4 lb smallmouth, 2 lb spotted bass, 4 lb largemouth and that striper. I bought bait at Roger Gants BP station. The first time I went back in January, one of my bass club buddies (my chief financial officer !) and I went. Roadwarrior told me to get 2 pounds of the largest minnows they had. Neither one of us had bought that many minnows before, but we followed instructions ! Since we were in my boat my buddy bought the bait and snacks. We met Roadwarrior at the ramp as he was fishing with someone else and got the scoop on what to do. We didn't have a good day due to weather, fish bite, not knowing what we were doing, etc. but we stuck with it. After a long spell of no fish I asked my buddy how much the bait cost. He said well, everything cost $54.23 ! Long story short, minnows are $14 per pound so you want to make them stretch a long way. We bought 2 lbs on Saturday and had 5 or 6 left when we quit around 3. Tony was definitely a rock star ! Watching him play in high school was fun, but watching him win the National Championship at Kentucky and getting MVP of the tournament was really special. He has taken care of his family, especially his parents.

There is no substitute for time on the water and I also need much more. I've tried the topwater striper fishing below the dam a couple of times with no luck. Our local bass club has at least one tournament a year on Pickwick, usually during the spring. The best luck I've had has been fishing jerkbaits on creek and main lake points as well as Redeye shads in the creek flats. Are you fishing the Big Fish tournament out of JP Coleman on March 31 ? I fished it last year and it was a lot of fun. The format is pretty neat and there are multiple ways to win cash. I'm probably going this Saturday below the dam again, hoping for similar results or just one big fish ! My biggest smallmouth is 4 lbs 9 oz caught on a Spook in the fall of 2010. I caught 2 that were almost that big Saturday, but nothing bigger. Good luck on the water ! BTW would you happen to know Steve or Wes Hoggard ? They used to own the John Deere small implement dealership in Olive Branch. I went to college with Steve at UT Martin in the mid 80's.

I've had several of those days myself ! In fact, Saturday was the first day I've caught them like that so it was really a treat for me. The wind was definitely higher on Sunday. We didn't catch them steadily during the day. We had some spurts of action 3 or 4 times where we caught most of the fish. I hope ya'll have better luck next time !

Jason, I understand your frustration as I've just started fishing below the Pickwick dam in the last few months. I've fished above the dam for years and it can be a very tough lake at times. I believe all the success above the dam is due to several factors combining for a rare opportunity to catch big fish. We've had a mild winter with no shad kill, so there are lots of baitfish. We've had a lot of current due to above average precipitation and that has kept the fish active. Most of the better reports are from fishermen using the A Rig which is a new technique the fish have never seen and triggers their natural predatory instinct like nothing else we've seen. Roadwarrior and I were talking about this the other day and we think there are probably 30 or more fish over 10 lbs that have been caught at Pickwick in the last couple of months so there is definitely good conditions. But, you still have to know where to fish for the big ones and that is generally offshore on current breaks. As for below the dam, I think the recipe for success is very simple. Use live bait on a splitshot rig and your catch will increase tremendously. I am a tournament bass fisherman so I'm not a big fan of using live bait, but for fun fishing and trying to catch a truly big fish it is the only way to go.

Just got home from the second best day of fishing in my life, with the best day being in April 2010 when I caught my PB LM of 11 lbs 12 oz at Gibson Cty Lake. We caught 17 smallmouth, 5 drum, 1 kentucky and 1 crappie. The best 5 SM weighed 23 lbs 2 oz ! The second best 5 weighed a little over 14 lbs ! It was a beautiful day, the water was perfect and the wind stayed low much of the morning. The fish were all caught on large minnows on the Botel bank with many of the better fish caught in the eddy of the Botel point. Every time we caught a big one we just knew it would be over 5, but the closest was a 4 lb 14 oz "slaunch" as Zona would say. I sent Roadwarrior some pics this morning just to remind him of what he was missing and he really appreciated it. LOL ! We tried fishing the opposite bank, but the current or wind was too strong, plus we were catching fish on the other bank, so why leave ! Thanks to Roadwarrior again for sharing his knowledge, you are a good man my friend. My fishing partner today is a very accomplished bass angler, but he had never fished for SM this way. He caught the first and 3 largest fish and is hooked for life ! I'll post pics tomorrow from my office !

Anybody know anything about this fish ? I saw a pic in a thread on another forum, but the thread poster was very vague. Also saw a pic of a 6 pound Crappie that was supposedly caught on Kentucky Lake !

Anybody fishing for smallies below the dam tomorrow ? I couldnt get Roadwarrior in the boat with me due to "honeydoes" so one of my bass club buddies and I are going. The water flow and levels look good so hopefully we'll catch some good ones tomorrow.

RW it was a good day ! The weather could have been better and we could have caught some more brown fish, but I had good company on a beautiful river. What more could a man ask for ? Ok, I would ask to see that fish that broke my line, but nothing other than that ! I really thought we would tear the brown fish up after catching 4 largemouth in the first few casts, but it didn't happen. I have learned a lot fishing with you, made a new friend for life and look forward to our next trip ! But, I am not fishing in the cold rain again so let's make sure the next trip is guaranteed sunshine !!

RW, we weren't close to 27 lbs unless u count all our smallmouth ! LOL ! You did catch one a little over four and some others around 3. Brad and I learned a lot, had a great time and I'm looking forward to Monday ! BTW, the Commissary was great !

Thanks for the invite and the fishing info ! Hope you have a good crowd and hope I send you a pic of the winning big fish on Saturday !

The "Atlantic" brand map is what u need. It is blue and white, you should be able to find it at most outdoor stores and maybe walmart. Or you can order it off the internet.

I fished my local club tourney today out of Stateline in Yellow Creek and I would agree 100% with this post. The fish are definitely freaked out !

Fished PW Friday & Saturday, pre fishing for club tourney Friday for tourney today. I was really surprised at how tough it was. I really thought we would all catch a lot of fish but it didn't work out that way. First place was 4 fish that weighed 9 lbs. Big fish was 5 lbs 6 oz. Most fish were caught shallow on Redeye Shads or square bill crankbaits. A few jerkbait fish were caught. Water temps started out around 56 and warmed up to 61 by mid afternoon. I caught several 14.75 in fish on flats that were just getting into shallow water. The main river was stained, but most of Yellow Creek, Dry Creek, etc were ok. I guess that's why they call it fishin' and not catchin' !

Yes, that is correct. Also this past Saturday on Kentucky Lake the Tn River Trail had its first tournament out of Mason's Dock, just north of New Johnsonville. It took 26 lbs to win with top 5 coming in 24, 23, 22, 21. The big fish was 11.39, second bf 10.7, third bf 10.07. There were several fish over 6 lbs weighed in. You can check it out on tnrivertrail.com. Things are looking good on the Tenn River system !

Fished PW on Saturday from 10 till 2. Hit main lake points and secondary points from JP Coleman to Yellow Creek, water temps 41 to 44 later in the day. Threw jerkbaits, jigs, shakey head, crankbait to no avail. Shad kill still happening. It was beautiful with snow on shady banks, sunshine and very little wind at times. I'm ready for spring !

I'm headed to Pickwick mid morning tomorrow. Not expecting much, doing as much looking offshore as fishing. Prob throw jerkbait, jigs, biffle hardhead jig, etc. I'll post what I learn tomorrow night.