MidTennFisher
Well-Known Member
I floated from the dam to Betty's Island yesterday. Started out just after sunrise while the generators were still on throwing jerkbaits. I got one small trout and then started getting bombarded by skippies so I went ahead floating downstream.
That's when things got tough. Almost 3 hours went by and I caught 2 or 3 trout. I threw everything, mostly the TM, and couldn't get a sniff. Drifting it under a float was completely useless and twitching it was getting them to follow it but never take it. I figured something out and want to share it with you all since I know a lot of people have trouble sometimes learning to use the TM.
I started fishing it very slow, almost as slow as you'd fish a worm on a shaky head. Jigging it on the bottom and taking advantage of the fact that on the Caney you can clearly see the bottom 6 feet or more. I'd stand up in the yak, throw it not too far from me and slowly bounce it on the bottom. The cool thing was I got to watch every strike. The trout wouldn't hit it when it bounced, they'd just pick it up off the bottom. I've never seen them behave like this and I've never heard of anyone fishing the magnet this way but it sure worked. I caught about 40 including my new personal best rainbow at just a tad over 19", what a fight on 2# test. I even got it on video.
I was bummed that it was in the PLR so I couldn't eat it so I snapped a quick pic for Kayak Wars and tried my best to revive it. I'm not so sure it made it but I hope it does so I can catch it when it's over 20" and send it to the skillet. It actually squirmed out of my hands back into the water before I could get a pic but wasn't looking so good so I netted it again, got my pics, then revived it and it DID swim off just fine. I wanted to set up the GoPro to get a pic of me holding it but needed to get it back in the water. I got the release on video and some underwater footage.
I saw an abundance of wildlife and beautiful scenery, even horses which was a new one on that river for me, and enjoyed every minute of the float.
That's when things got tough. Almost 3 hours went by and I caught 2 or 3 trout. I threw everything, mostly the TM, and couldn't get a sniff. Drifting it under a float was completely useless and twitching it was getting them to follow it but never take it. I figured something out and want to share it with you all since I know a lot of people have trouble sometimes learning to use the TM.
I started fishing it very slow, almost as slow as you'd fish a worm on a shaky head. Jigging it on the bottom and taking advantage of the fact that on the Caney you can clearly see the bottom 6 feet or more. I'd stand up in the yak, throw it not too far from me and slowly bounce it on the bottom. The cool thing was I got to watch every strike. The trout wouldn't hit it when it bounced, they'd just pick it up off the bottom. I've never seen them behave like this and I've never heard of anyone fishing the magnet this way but it sure worked. I caught about 40 including my new personal best rainbow at just a tad over 19", what a fight on 2# test. I even got it on video.
I was bummed that it was in the PLR so I couldn't eat it so I snapped a quick pic for Kayak Wars and tried my best to revive it. I'm not so sure it made it but I hope it does so I can catch it when it's over 20" and send it to the skillet. It actually squirmed out of my hands back into the water before I could get a pic but wasn't looking so good so I netted it again, got my pics, then revived it and it DID swim off just fine. I wanted to set up the GoPro to get a pic of me holding it but needed to get it back in the water. I got the release on video and some underwater footage.
I saw an abundance of wildlife and beautiful scenery, even horses which was a new one on that river for me, and enjoyed every minute of the float.
