Center Hill Smallie December 31, 2012

Had a chance to fish today...finally!  Cold and overcast but the rain won't be coming in until this evening so spent about 5-hours on the water.  I only caught 2 fish - this SM and 1-spot.  I spent most of my time searching for schools then targeting them with blade baits, spoons and drop shot.  However, as usual, the two caught came on a football jig.  I saw some old timers on the lake and they were catching many small Smallies on the float and fly.
Water temp was still 49-50, ambient about 38 and at WOT about Zero (LOL).

Center Hill Lake - November 20, 2012

Well, an interesting day on the lake.  I got on the water about 10AM, drove over by the bridge and promptly caught 6-bass; 5-Small Mouth and 1-Large Mouth.  I moved spots and never caught another so I went back to the bridge to see if anymore had moved in.

When I got there, I saw two Army guys  (Trevor and Matt) crawling down the bank to the lake.  When they saw me they waved and we struck up a conversation.  Long story short I asked them to join me for a look at the lake.  One was from Georgia and the other from Ohio and both had visited the local High School for recruitment.  They were based out of Fort Cambell, KY.

We had a great couple of hours fishing (turns out they both had TN fishing license) and seeing the lake.  When they had to leave they wanted pictures of the 2-keepers in the live well.  So I took some of them and they took some for me.

The SM was about 2 to 2.5 pounds, 19" and the LM was between 5-6 pounds and I didn't measure him.  Ambient Temperature was 65 and surface water temperature 59.5.  A light breeze at 5mph and mixed sun and clouds.  Fish came from 12 feet of points with Zorro Hand tied Hair Jig, 1/2-ounce and Zoom trailer - Watermelon Green in color.

Great day!  Thanks to the military folks for allowing us to do all that we do!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Been-a-while

It's been a very busy fall and regretfully I haven't fished the best part of the season.  I traveled around the world from Sept 25 through October 20th visiting Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Singapore and Japan then had lots to catch up on after that.  Took a little weekend with Sweetie up in North Carolina last weekend.  The Fall colors where OK, but past their peak.

I got back my Humminbird today - it wasn't recognizing the transducer - they replaced some kind of chip.  Thankfully, it was under warranty; or at least they didn't charge me anything out of kindness.  Either way, I was glad of that.  Now I have to try it out and thankfully it's a beautiful day today in Middle Tennessee!

Have a great Thanksgiving and God Bless!

Old Hickory Lake - July 19th, 2012

Our Worship Pastor's Dad was in town from Maryland so we fished Old Hickory Lake in the AM for about 5-hours.  Weather was nice, slight wind up to about 10-mph, water clarity good and surface temperature 87.  We both caught fish including LM, SM and he even caught a Catfish on a T-rig.  Enjoyed the time on the water and the company.  He's actually thinking about moving to TN and would like to be near Tims Ford lake.

A first for me...

Having put new spark plugs and fuel feed lines in the boat, I ran out to the lake during lunch hour to test everything.  While cruising past a bluff I saw a dog in the middle of the lake.  There were no other boats anywhere and since the water was about 200' deep and the distance to land at least a 1/4-mile, I idled toward the dog.  Having a dog of my own I started talking to the dog - it kept swimming - when I get almost next to it, it opened it's mouth and I saw some very long and sharp teeth and it gave some kind of hissing sound.  Much to my surprise, it was COYOTE swimming back to the mainland from the big island.  Amazing.

Tuesday, June19, 2012 - Center Hill Lake

Had another few hours of fishing this pleasant but warm evening.  Ambient temp. was 92 and water at 87 with a light 5mph wind.  This fine #4.5 Small Mouth treated me to a great pull and again today, was the only one I caught.  Great fun.

Center Hill, Monday June 18, 2012

Sweetie is in SC with my Son, his wife and kids so, late this afternoon I went fishing for a couple of hours.  Only had one bite but was able to bring it to the boat.  About a 3# Small Mouth on a Zorro 3/4-oz Football jig and Zoom Trailer in 10' of water dropping in to 40'.  Water temp 85-degrees and ambient about the same.  Water was a bit dingy with visibility to 3'. 

Center Hill June 6, 2012

Another Grandson showed up so I took both him (Walter) and Ryan out to Center Hill yesterday for a little fishing. 

Walter is a newbie so much of the time for him was spent teaching, showing, untangling, etc. I was hoping he'd catch something but no go.  Ryan made me proud as he spent so much time tutoring Walter with both kindness and skill. 

Ryan and I caught one fish each.  Mine a 3# Smallie and his a 3# Large Mouth. 

The new Garmin 300C I installed on the bow worked great - a nice sonar for the price. 

Mostly sunny skies with wind from 10-20, ambient temperature 80 and surface water temp the same.  Fish were on rocky points.

Pleased to have some time with 2 of my grand sons.

Old Hickory, Monday June 4, 2012

My Grandson is visiting this week so we took some time yesterday to drive to Old Hickory for some fishing.  We enjoyed ourselves about 6-hours and got home just as it was getting dark.  Ryan caught his first Sauger (Walleye family) and two large mouth bass.  He caught all his fish on a Zorro Shakey head and Zoom Shakey worm.  I caught 3-bass and a big Crappie.  The Crappie hit a crank bait but my other fish came on a Zorro Jig and Zoom trailer.  The weather was great, water temperature 85 and ambient about 78.  Water clarity about 2-feet with a brownish tint and the lake level was at high normal pool.  We enjoyed our day and a nice steak for dinner.  Blessed for sure!

Boy Scout District Camporee - Camp Tubb - Rock Island, TN

No fishing this time out but I enjoyed the Black Fox District Camporee with our Troop 347 folks.  We did have about an hour of T-Storms and hail, but the tents stayed dry, the food was good and the company even better.  The Scouts won the "Golden Skillet" as the best dinner on Saturday night.  We had about 15-folks total.

Boy Scout Campout, Davies Island, Center Hill Lake 4/27-29/'12

I had a great time this weekend with Boy Scout Troop 347 camping out on Davies Island, Center Hill Lake.

We had two pontoon boats and my bass boat filled with 18-Scouts and Scouters and all their gear. 

The camp site was nice and the weather cooperated too.  We had to carry in and carry out everything we used including fresh water.  There was an old out-house on site though so that was good. 

All tolled we caught 3-LM, hundreds of small bream, 2 channel cat in the 15# range, 2-yellow cat and this nice nice 4.5#, 21" SM. 

The weather was great although just a few sprinkles Friday late afternoon.  After that, clear and sunny.


My neck is burnt but my heart is happy!  Thanks to all the adults who give up so much time to help with our next generation leaders!  Cudo's!

Tims Ford Lake with My Doctor

 Wednesday, April 25, 2012:  Had a great day on Tim's Ford Lake with my doctor, Will S.  He called me Tues evening and invited me to go fishing...he's off on Wednesdays.

We headed out about 5AM, arrived about 6:15 and started fishing about 6:30.

Tim's Ford has good quality bass...both LM and SM.  The average we caught looked like these two.

At the end of the day, we caught 16 bass, a mix of SM & LM, and 2-nice walleye.

Water temp was about 65, ambient 79 and WINDY!

The morning bite was the best, fishing points and saddles.  We caught them on Spinner Baits, Swim Baits, Jerk Baits and of course, Jigs.

Will has a nice 20' Stratos with 200 horse power Yammy.  A great day with my doctor, Co-Boy Scout leader and friend.  Really enjoyed this Doctors visit!

Bass Boat Central Southern Rally VIII - Pickwick

Just spent part of last Thursday, all day Friday and most of the day Saturday (March 15-17) attending the BBC Southern Rally VIII at Pickwick Lake in Florence, AL.

Jim (Reel Doc) and I fished pretty hard but with less than stellar results - we caught fish but it was a mixed bag with only 2-keeper LM.  We caught quite a few Stripers...Jim is holding one in the picture.

I had a chance to throw the A-Rig for the first time and caught several Stripers on it as well as a nice SM. Throwing it is hard on the shoulder but it retrieved easily.

It was nice to meet some of the BBC guys and I enjoyed the fishing.

Center Hill Lake - Tue 3-13-12

My 13-year old Grand Daughter is visiting this week so we had a little fishing trip this afternoon.  Three hours on the water, and sadly, she didn't even get a hit.  The only fish was this nice 4lb. 13oz. Small Mouth I caught on a Stan Sloan Zorro Football Head Jig, 3/4-oz, Green Pumpkin with Zoom Super Chunk in Green Pumpkin.  Hope we can get away tomorrow for a little while and see if she can't get hooked-up.

Caught a GREAT ONE yesterday - 8.9#

No!  Not a bass - my newest grand daughter was born yesterday morning.  Meet Miss Camryn, 8.9# and 20" long.  She is my 11th grand child although I have 2-more "bonus" grand kids from a marriage, making Camryn a total of 13!  What a blessing and what a beautiful baby.  Baby and Daughter in law are great and I was told this morning, the baby slept well through her first night.  I couldn't be more thankful or proud!

ICRBE 2012, High Point, NC

Had a great week visiting customers in North Carolina with my friend and colleague, George.  We visited some very good customers on many different airports and were well received.

I took Friday off and stayed in High Point so I could attend the International Custom Rod Building Expo reception (Friday night) and the exhibits today.  I knew what products I wanted so ran through the hall this AM, picked up what i needed and got on the road back to Tennessee about 9AM, Eastern Time.  I arrived home about 2:30 PM.

At the reception and show, I got to meet up with my fishing buddy, Denny, who is a pro-rep for Seeker Rods.  Denny is on the right and the GM of Seeker on the left.  I met him last year at this show.  It was good catching up and he gave me a Seeker cap and fishing shirt.  He's planning on coming to TN to visit his kids just after Easter so I'll take him to Tim Fords for some spring lunker bass.

This years show is the largest ever - lots of suppliers, training and displays and all the who's-who in custom fishing rod building had a booth.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Cheers & God Bless

This week's Happenings - 2-9-12

A weird week - drove to Atlanta Sunday afternoon as I had a Wellness Screening at our office in Hapeville scheduled for 9AM Monday.  Checked into the Airport Hilton, parked and locked the car in their gated lot, went in and watched the Super Bowl game and went to bed.  Next morning, up early, went to the Tahoe and it had been entered and my Nike prescription sunglasses, GPS, phone charger and camera were gone -Argh!  So, checked with the hotel, called my super in Dallas and went to the screening - of course - my BP was up and they had to read it 3-times to get something to write down without calling an ambulance.  Drove home to TN after the screening and realized I left my wireless mouse in the hotel.  When I got home, the kitchen sink drain had come loose flooding the cabinet.  Great day so far, right.  Anyway, the company agreed to replace everything so a new GPS arrived yesterday, the camera will get here next week as will the new prescription shades.  The drain had just come loose so that was an easy fix.  I picked up a new wireless mouse and guess all is well now.

My boat has a bad wire or something and can't seem to get that fixed.  I'll take it in next week and have it re-wired...tired of fooling with it and I need to get fishing.

The end of this month is the International Custom Rod Building Expo in High Point, North Carolina and I have my reservations to attend.  Hope to find some blanks to build a Muskie Rod, A-Rig Rod and Float-n-Fly rod.  I have an 8' FnF rod for tournaments but for normal fishing I'd like to build a 10'.

I'm registered with Reed Doc to fish BBC Southern Rally T at the end of March.  Hope to have my boat ready by then but Doc has a nice Triton if not.  Looking forward to a great time there.

I finally found ACT Lures who have agreed to custom make some buck-tail football jigs for me.  Those are on order and I'm expecting them in a few weeks.

So thankful God has given me the where-with-all to enjoy this sport and so many good folks to share it with!

Cheers!

P.S.  A new Grand Daughter should arrive March 7th!  Woot!  Woot!

Center Hill Lake - Sunday, January 22, 2012

My son was kind enough to fix my boat electrical problems while I was in TX last week so I took it out for a few hours this afternoon.  I caught 4 bass (Large Mouth) - 3 that measured about 13" (and one of those was 3#...fat little hog for being so short), and this one that weighed in at 6-pounds 3-ounces.  All caught in 18' feet of water on a 3/4-oounce Stan Sloan's Zorro Football jig in the Cumberland Craw color with a Pumkin Green Zoom Trailer.  Water temps was 47 and ambient temp 63!  Yes!  A beautiful day for about the 3-hours I was fishing.  Very thankful for my Son and for such a great day in the middle of January!