Labman, Riverpark, Bass and others, 06/25/2010, Solo

[FishNews]

Hit the Riverpark ramp at 5:15 to try for some bass. I love to fish the boils before daylight when a good current is running. Launched and ran up to the dam. It looked like 2 generators running and a pretty good current going. Still pre-daylight and only see a few fish working the bait schools. Bait is everywhere in massive schools.<br /><br />I start out throwing a 4" plastic on 1/4 oz jig head. Fish it jerking and darting in the current breaks. Hookup on second cast to a decent smallie of about 2#. Fishing is not real fast but picking up an occasional fish. I keep moving and working the currents and see a lot of action in one area and I drift over there and it is wild. I catch a bass on 17 consecutive casts before I come up empty. You don't have to worry about a missed strike because another fish is hitting it instantly. Then a school of whites comes through and I pick up a couple of them. Still into the bass, smallies and spots and all of fair to good size. Largest just under 3# and no real small fish. <br /><br />Get a real slam of a hit and dive to the bottom. I am using lite spinning rods and 4 & 6# line. After 3-4 minutes I get the fish up where I can see it, a big GAR. I wear him out and ease him over to the boat and unhook him in the water. About 5 minutes later I hook another but smaller and somehow he stays hooked up too. <br /><br />I decide to play, and switch to shorter crappie rod and 3"bait on 1/8 jig head. Makes no difference they keep hitting. Have another really hard hit and dive to bottom and have the fish on for about 5 minutes and can never get him up. Suddenly line is cut and he is gone. Probably another large gar. I don't know how they stayed hooked today, usually throw the bait early in the fight. Finally TVA did there thing and changed the generator pattern and the current changed and fish stopped dead. <br /> emoBang emoBang I hate when that happens. Any way I ended up catching 12 smallies, 17 spots, 2 whites, 2 gar, and 1 small drum. A really fun early morning, and I was the only boat there for about an hour. Great fun and I was home with the boat in the garage before it got too hot. Only bad part is getting up at 4:00 am.<br /><br />Regards, Labman