Carl Guffey, Watts Bar: Federation Eastern Divisional, Bass, 10/16-17

[FishNews]

<br /> I spent all of last week pre-fishing and fishing the Federation Eastern on Watts Bar. The weather at best just sucked.emoRain It rained so hard Wednesday that I had to run the bilge pump at least every thirty minutes, just to keep the boat at a some what level position. After the rain a north wind cranked up that was causing waves on the main channel to run 3-3.5 ft.<br /> Sunday: I fished from Fort Loudoun dam to the rail road bridge at Loudoun. I caught no fish and my fishing partner caught three dinks on a small crank. Current at 4 miles an hour....<br /> Monday: Started off in Kingston fishing down town. I located some braking fish on a main channel ridge. I caught a three pounder on a Zara pup along with several smaller keepers. The rest of the day I rode around looking for similar situations.<br /> Tuesday: Launched from Caney Creek and spent the entire day fishing from the mouth to the rear of the main creek channel. I caught three dinks flipping in the rear of the creek (1ft. of water) and three dinks C/Rigging the mouth. Culled a lot of water.......<br /> Wednesday: Went back to Kingston to check fish from Monday. Pulled up on the ledge and caught three keepers in 15 minutes on a white buzz bait and left. I decided to journey up the Tennessee and check a thought that I had over night. In Caney Creek on Tuesday I did not catch any fish until I got into 2 ft. of water or less so I started running to the back of sloughs and checking for bait and brush. The second slough that I entered I found shallow brush. The first pile offered a three pounder, the second pile gave up a 5.6, and I left the rest of them alone. I fished several creeks over the next couple of hours with the same results. The fish were either in super shallow brush piles or no where. I was using a green pumpkin beaver T/rigged with a 3/8 sinker (not pegged). As the day progressed I decided to check a deep pattern in case the weather became a concern. I moved out onto the main channel and started C/Rigging main lake points using a zoom craw(green pumpkin) on the first area I caught several short fish and a keeper. The second spot yielded a three and a four, I quit for the day. Best five for the day 17.8 lbs.<br /> Thursday: off limits<br /> Friday: lake level up almost two ft., creeks muddy and the wind blowing. We went to partners area first , fished the same small cove for four hours....emoEnforce .... I could not catch a cold. During my time frame we ran to the creeks hoping to catch a few. Water was up and turbid which made it hard to locate brush and the wind was blowing a 8 ft. loop in the line. One of the critical factor for fishing these brush piles was that you had to get the bait dead center of the pile to get bit. When you can't see them it is hard to do. Results: 1 fish 2.72 lbs.<br /> Saturday:lake level still elevated, temps dropping and the wind howling. I talked my second days partner into taking my Norriscraft and was I ever glad I did. We ran up to Kingston in a light rain to the fish I had located Monday. Using a white 1/2 buzz bait, white spinner bait, and a shad colored lipless crank we caught three keepers two slicks and a three pounder. I decided to go deep from there and started stroking a 5/8 black blue jig in 20 to 25 ft. of water. First stop on a deep rock pile I caught a 14 inch dink and then a 5.95 largemouth on back to back casts. The rest of the day we looked deep with only dinks the rest of the day.<br /> A couple of good notes for the week: My fishing partner "lowdrag" finished third in the tournament and will move on as a boater to the Southern Divisional(he caught all of his fish shallow on a white spinner bait). Our team "Oddfellows emoGrouphug Bassmasters" finished second in the team competition and although I only caught four fish, I finished 12th out of 147. My 5.95 largemouth was second big fish and at least I got a check.