I took off work May 1st to go fishing with my dad. The weather was awesome 80 degrees river running 4.7 on the gauge. We chose to go to area we don’t normally fish to often.  Made a 4-5 mile run up the river to the famous rock view train bridge. Oldest longest stone arch train bridge in the world. The bass up there were very boat shy as that would continue to be the story through the day. We did get some up there on cranks. Hit a few more areas up there with nothing

 

Made a big switch and headed to a creek and went up it till we could stop seeing the bass in it. I positioned the boat to sit at the end of a pocket. I was drop shotting into this big pocket with success. I pulled 6-7 bass out of it. My dad got a few as well. The bite then seemed to completely die so we called it a day. 
 

5/11:

The weather was a complete change from

the warming trends we have been having. Cold rains highs in. The low 60s have plagued us for a few days. Water temps dropped and the river level was 5.3 and rising. I ended up running a normal section I do. Since creek mouths and creeks have been working I ran up the river to keep this pattern going. I was crank baiting to start working it fairly aggressively. I did mange 5-6 fish on the crank then switched up to a ned rig and landed a few more. Most of these were small fish and a drunken large mouth.

 

I made the switch with about 45 minutes till I was going to be done switching to a big eddy I like about 3.5 miles down stream. I ended up getting a couple more smallies as well as 5 walleyes. This trip was about 3 hours long.  All in all some great trips. I am thinking too water should start to be a factor here soon.

 

 

Mixed bag to boot!! Cool bridge for sure 

@TnRiver46 that bridge was fully operational in 1902 . Two different construction companies started on either side of the river. Truly amazing feat and even through all the floods is standing thr test of time. There is actually 3 tracks on it. It’s the major connection between the east and west shore. So it’s seeing more use today then I’m sure it was ever imagined it would do when first built. 

very cool.  I might have seen you on the 11th as I was driving past on 78.  The river looked high and muddy from all of the storms.

@casts_by_fly the 11th I wasn’t up that way I was at another area. 

That bridge is beautiful and looks bassy to boot.

@ol'crickety that bridge you can see from a major interstate. However unless you have some local knowledge and even if you do it can be sketchy to get to. 

Sketchy in what way?

@ol'crickety damage to your boat. Extremely shallow inches at spots and very narrow channels to run.

Ahh, thank you. I was thinking iffy as in crackheads, but it doesn't look like a crackhead haunt. 

@ol'cricketythat is just most of the boat ramps I use.