May 5, 2012 (Sam Simons)
I originally had a guide trip planned for catfish, but I rescheduled. I decided to check on some post-spawn bass (with live bait, of course). Bait was hard to locate. I found a small pocket in about 50 ft of water sitting 15-20 ft deep. It took some work, but I finally had enough shad to fish.
I dropped the anchor on the sweet spot and started fishing. It was a combination of white bass/largemouth. I was messing around with the bass, when about a 6 lber jumps and shakes the hook. "Oh well, that was fun," I thought. Then, I hook a big ole' fish, wow, what a largemouth. It jumps, maybe 8 lbs, and it shakes the hook. "Ok, I better get serious and start landing these fish," I tell myself. Solid, solid, fish, stripping a lot of drag. That is saying a lot for a largemouth. A couple of the toads took what seemed liked a few minutes to surface on 8 lb line, the excitement building as you can't wait to see a big bass surface that feels like a catfish.
My initial plans to striper fish at Watts Bar didn't work out today, but I tried to make the best of it with the bass, and I obviously can't complain.
May 5, 2012 (Richard Simms)
I had the fine honor of escorting Jeanette and Bob Rose from Estill Springs today. They were referred by previous clients who caught some monster catfish. Obviously the Rose's were hoping for the same, so the pressure was on <Eek!>
My big fish bite has actually been off in the past couple of weeks, but Bob brought his lucky charm because we hadn't fished long when he hooked a beast. Fishing light tackle, 72-year-old Bob was in for a serious fight... but as you can see, he was up for the task.
We caught decent numbers of "eater cats" which went in the cooler to go home to Estill Springs. But later in the day, Jeannette managed to stick a bragging-sized blue as well. I think the Rose's went home happy.
May 6, 2012 (Richard Simms)
Turnabout is fair play... a while back he took me on a fancy, dancy trout trip so today guide, outdoor writer and friend Joe DiPietro joined me. Sam Simons came along hoping to get his picture taken... he said he might even smile:-) The morning was slow except for one striper which broke Joe off in a heartbeat, and one decent smallmouth Joe captured in the shadow of the Tennessee Aquarium. You know somebody has fished a lot, and caught a lot of fish. When the smallie hit, literally with two seconds (after having caught several cats and white bass) Joe said, "That's a smallmouth." Two more seconds and the brownie cleared water in confirmation. It was a cool catch.
Sam got summoned home by his lovely bride to do some shopping for the upcoming nuptuals. It was sort of sad that we waited until Sam left to find "the sweet spot." And it was VERY sweet!
For about four hours me and Joe took turns going toe-to-toe with big cats on light-line spinning gear. Every fish we caught was averaging about 20 lbs... some smaller, some bigger. Tops was a 30 lb. class fish. Joe, who originally hails from Florida, compared the big cats on light tackle to "freshwater amberjacks." If you've ever caught an amberjack, you know what that means. It was one of the most amazing four hours of catfishing I've had in a long time... and we actually "left 'em bitin'!" We were just both smack dab wore out. It was a very "good tired," which means life is good and gettin' better every day.
Outdoor writer Joe took most the photos I'll add later, but here's just a couple from the iPhone.
I originally had a guide trip planned for catfish, but I rescheduled. I decided to check on some post-spawn bass (with live bait, of course). Bait was hard to locate. I found a small pocket in about 50 ft of water sitting 15-20 ft deep. It took some work, but I finally had enough shad to fish.
I dropped the anchor on the sweet spot and started fishing. It was a combination of white bass/largemouth. I was messing around with the bass, when about a 6 lber jumps and shakes the hook. "Oh well, that was fun," I thought. Then, I hook a big ole' fish, wow, what a largemouth. It jumps, maybe 8 lbs, and it shakes the hook. "Ok, I better get serious and start landing these fish," I tell myself. Solid, solid, fish, stripping a lot of drag. That is saying a lot for a largemouth. A couple of the toads took what seemed liked a few minutes to surface on 8 lb line, the excitement building as you can't wait to see a big bass surface that feels like a catfish.
My initial plans to striper fish at Watts Bar didn't work out today, but I tried to make the best of it with the bass, and I obviously can't complain.
May 5, 2012 (Richard Simms)
I had the fine honor of escorting Jeanette and Bob Rose from Estill Springs today. They were referred by previous clients who caught some monster catfish. Obviously the Rose's were hoping for the same, so the pressure was on <Eek!>
My big fish bite has actually been off in the past couple of weeks, but Bob brought his lucky charm because we hadn't fished long when he hooked a beast. Fishing light tackle, 72-year-old Bob was in for a serious fight... but as you can see, he was up for the task.
We caught decent numbers of "eater cats" which went in the cooler to go home to Estill Springs. But later in the day, Jeannette managed to stick a bragging-sized blue as well. I think the Rose's went home happy.
May 6, 2012 (Richard Simms)
Turnabout is fair play... a while back he took me on a fancy, dancy trout trip so today guide, outdoor writer and friend Joe DiPietro joined me. Sam Simons came along hoping to get his picture taken... he said he might even smile:-) The morning was slow except for one striper which broke Joe off in a heartbeat, and one decent smallmouth Joe captured in the shadow of the Tennessee Aquarium. You know somebody has fished a lot, and caught a lot of fish. When the smallie hit, literally with two seconds (after having caught several cats and white bass) Joe said, "That's a smallmouth." Two more seconds and the brownie cleared water in confirmation. It was a cool catch.
Sam got summoned home by his lovely bride to do some shopping for the upcoming nuptuals. It was sort of sad that we waited until Sam left to find "the sweet spot." And it was VERY sweet!
For about four hours me and Joe took turns going toe-to-toe with big cats on light-line spinning gear. Every fish we caught was averaging about 20 lbs... some smaller, some bigger. Tops was a 30 lb. class fish. Joe, who originally hails from Florida, compared the big cats on light tackle to "freshwater amberjacks." If you've ever caught an amberjack, you know what that means. It was one of the most amazing four hours of catfishing I've had in a long time... and we actually "left 'em bitin'!" We were just both smack dab wore out. It was a very "good tired," which means life is good and gettin' better every day.
Outdoor writer Joe took most the photos I'll add later, but here's just a couple from the iPhone.
