I decided late to take a trip to my home waters today. I got to the ramp around 9:30 a.m. and was able to launch w/o waiting. I say this because we used to have two ramps at this site and we are now down to just one (arrgghhh!).
When I returned at 1:30 p.m., the parking lot was filling with pleasure boats. Many of the trailer parking spaces were taken by single cars w/o trailers... There are plenty of parking spaces for cars, but these inconsiderate boater guests fail to see the purpose of parking in them when they have such a nice and long trailer parking space available...
The power company was pushing well above normal amounts of water through their gates. Although a ton of water was entering the pool, it wasn't filling. That means the other power company was pulling water at the same time... Oh yea, the water was moving!!
I was able to catch close to 20 bass on spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and soft plastics. The largest bass were in the 14.5" range. Not too big, but with that current, they felt like 18" bass fighting and pulling on the other end.
The spinnerbait was by far the most productive lure. It accounted for about a dozen bass. I was concentrating on throwing the 1/2 oz. War Eagle in swifter water along current breaks and around chunk rock and boulders. The smallies hit the lure with a vengeance!
The power company let up on the flow several times which allowed me to move about more easily. When the water flow would pick back up, I would tuck in behind a rock ledge or boulder and toss the crank and spinnerbait. I used the soft plastic for small island eddies.
Last Friday, when Dell and I were out, I missed a bass on a soft plastic that was laying in an eddy. I returned to that eddy today and tossed the same lure. It only took three casts before a nice 14.5" smallie inhaled it... "It took a week, but I gottcha!"
The water temp was 74.5 degrees. There were passing clouds at times, but most the day I had bright sunshine that made the spinnerbait chrome blades flash. There was a stiff westerly breeze b/w 10-12 mph. This was funneled by the hillsides surrounding the river. The air temp was 57 degrees this morning and rose to 79 by 1:00 p.m. Just beautiful for an August summer day.
Three summers ago, there were two bald eagles born in this area. I saw two more immatures today and one mature eagle flying about. I also had the opportunity to watch two osprey fishing/diving for a meal. Actually, one was fishing and the other was hoping to steal a meal... LOL!
It was definitely a beautiful day on the river. The water was still a bit dingy and stained. I had about a foot or so visibility. That along with the chop from the breeze made some of the goonies much harder to see. I tapped and knocked into quite a few today with my TM.
dadTB
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