A Crazy Trip To Brown Town

[everythingthatswims 5,314]

I got to fish South Holston Lake in Tennesee on Friday, I have family nearby and was in town for our Christmas celebration (boat in tow, obviously ). Cloudy and rainy, but those conditions have been good to me at that place historically. As with the stellar largemouth fishing two days before, I had no clue what was in store for my brother and I that day...

 

We started off catching a couple fish on a 2.8 keitech on points, that stupid little bait knocks their lights out in east Tennesee, because they feed on tiny alewives a lot. I wanted them to eat a jerkbait but I couldn't get them to, and after fishing a handful of points, my brother in the back of the boat had proved that the 2.8 keitech was the way to go.

 

We headed down the lake and after rounding a corner, I looked ahead and saw what we refer to as a "beehive" on the Chesapeake Bay, birds diving in such a frenzy that the constant movement looks like a swarm of bees! Upon closer inspection, we could see smallmouth coming out of the water underneath them. We idled to about 100 yards and then closed the distance on the trolling motor (not many people do this unfortunately!)

 

I lobbed an A-rig out off the end of the point, but fish started blowing up, so I set the rod down and cast another bait. I didn't get one, but my brother hooked a good smallmouth on a LC Staysee. I went to pick up my A-rig rod and it had snagged in something 50 feet down. During my lure retriever antics, my brother boated 3 smallmouth in 3 casts on the Staysee, one of those casts he had a double but lost one of them. As quickly as it began, it was over, and we began fan casting on the point to no avail.

 

Fish were sporadically breaking, and I actually got one to eat a pencil popper in 50 degree water, unfortunately it came unbuttoned. We soon saw another beehive of birds on a different point, and headed over to see if it was more smallmouth. It was, and we doubled up on deep diving jerkbaits on our first casts! We caught a couple more after that, but there were a lot of fish showing themselves compared to the bites we were getting, time for a bait change. I fished a 3.3" keitech on an underspin, but no dice.

 

My first cast with the ol' east Tennesee 2.8 keitech proved that it would be the bait of the day, and we began doubling up on every cast after that, it was insane! Mother nature was displaying so much visible carnage on this point, that I was waiting for David Attenborough to start narrating. Birds were attacking the alewives from the air, and smallmouth had them pinned to the surface! The waves of activity came and went, but for the most part, we sat on this point all day, landing at least 50 smallmouth, it was happening far too fast to keep track. Because it poured rain for the first half of the day, we somehow had the lake to ourselves, and no one ever saw any of the birds or breaking fish, it was beautiful!

 

Towards the end of the day, we started catching some of them on a spybait, which is a bait I have very little experience with, so it was good to do some learning! The spybait ended up producing 3 of our best 5 fish for the day, so there was definitely "something to it".

 

East Tennesee is a wonderful place, I am jealous of those who are lucky enough to call it home!

A little over 17lbs for a best 5. Broke my biggest 5 LMB and Biggest 5 SMB during a 3 day period!

 

[A-Jay 25,173]

You're The Man ~

Way to Double Down on some Beautiful Brown Bass

Congrats

A-Jay

(btw ~ You're Killing me ! )

 

 

[everythingthatswims 5,314]

3 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

You're The Man ~

Way to Double Down on some Beautiful Brown Bass

Congrats

A-Jay

(btw ~ You're Killing me ! )

 

 

Only 4-5 months til ice-out! Not sure how you do it.

[A-Jay 25,173]

1 minute ago, everythingthatswims said:

Only 4-5 months til ice-out! Not sure how you do it.

I hear ya ~ 

Hoping it's closer to 3.

(The trips to Mexico help - another one coming up here in just a bit)

A-Jay

 

 

[Smokinal 1,438]

Dang man! You are killin it!

 

Great to see!

[Bankbeater 1,837]

Good job on those smallies!

[IneedAnewScreenName-987345 5]

I'm very jelous! I love small mouth bass but in colorado there isn't many places like that to offer such good smallie bite.

[TnRiver46 2,153]

Awesome job. I have also been seeing smallmouth blast topwater in 50 degree water recently. When people ask my why I love winter so much I may just let them read this report for a better understanding . East Tennessee: where a spook works great in the snow 

[BassNJake 588]

Awesome job!! South Holston is a feast or famine lake for me. Glad you were able to slam them also great write up on the largemouth from the other thread!!

 

East TN is an anglers dream from the lakes to the rivers: smallmouth, largemouth and spots.

Plus, there is always the chance to hang a big striper/rockfish.

 

In the next month or 2, I'll be making several trips to Chickamuaga to try and break my PB on one of those FL strain/hybrid bass.

[Choporoz 3,300]

Another great report.  Thank you!

 

Especially liked the part about not even waiting to get one rig in before deciding to cast another....I've done it when snagged, but don't recall quitting on the retrieve....lol....hope you got it back.  I lost an a-rig to the bottom of SML the first day I tried it and said to heck with that nonsense...haven't thrown another since. 

Also loved hearing about South Holston.  Wife and I've talked about a walleye trip there, but didn't realize the smallmouth fishing was so good. 

[roadwarrior 6,707]

GEEZ!

 

Great day.

 

[Oregon Native 1,803]

It's so nice out here....even in all this wet weather there are waters to fish with a mystery could happen on any cast.

[everythingthatswims 5,314]

On ‎1‎/‎2‎/‎2019 at 1:36 PM, Choporoz said:

Another great report.  Thank you!

 

Especially liked the part about not even waiting to get one rig in before deciding to cast another....I've done it when snagged, but don't recall quitting on the retrieve....lol....hope you got it back.  I lost an a-rig to the bottom of SML the first day I tried it and said to heck with that nonsense...haven't thrown another since. 

Also loved hearing about South Holston.  Wife and I've talked about a walleye trip there, but didn't realize the smallmouth fishing was so good. 

Better head a little further south to Watauga if you want some walleyes! And if you're in NOVA, I'd just go to Deep Creek unless you're looking for a change of scenery. Deep Creek is fullll of them!

[Choporoz 3,300]

Spent all of one windy day on Watauga in kayaks a couple years ago.  Only got a couple spots ...but such a beautiful lake....would love to get back.

[TnRiver46 2,153]

41 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Spent all of one windy day on Watauga in kayaks a couple years ago.  Only got a couple spots ...but such a beautiful lake....would love to get back.

The wind blows everyday there, sometimes is pretty scary. Enclosed cabin deep v seems to be the way the walleye guys do it