Huge Bluegilsl Landed on Walker County Lake

I started by bluegill quest this past Tuesday with early morning temps in the mid-forties, quite chilly. Overcast skies kept the temperature cool most of the morning, but it didn’t affect the bluegill bite. I had the lake to myself for a couple of hours, which is always a plus when fishing Walker County Lake. As I have told you guys numerous times this is one of the most pressured small lakes in the state. My plan was to fish the east side of the lake where there is no access for bank fishermen. I know where most of the spawning beds are located year in and out on this lake; today held no surprises for me. What did surprise me was most all the spawning beds were void of fish. At my first stop, I counted close to 40 beds, after I landed 3 nice bluegills.

The sweet spot on this bank was located near the fallen log lying in the water. The bluegills had clean out close to 40 spawning beds to the right and left of the log.

The first gill of the morning, which nailed an Orvis size 12 legless tiny popper; a lot of fun on the 3 weight.

This fish loved the little popper, the very next cast produce another strong fish which hung my little popper and the fish in a tangled mess of underwater brush; so much for that popper. Wouldn’t you know it that was the only one in the fly box, another trip to Orvis?

Another group of gills was located at the end of this moss pad in deeper water; again lots of spawning beds but only a few bluegills left to fish for. The live bait guys did a great job plucking each and every bluegill out of their beds.

The Bar Nunn popper got the attention of this bull after my little Orvis popper bites the dust. I was able to land a number of bluegill from the moss pad area that someone actually left for me. As I moved from spawning beds to spawning beds I felt like I was cleaning up what was left of this spawn.

This guy was having a time landing catfish using chicken livers as bait. In fact, he was hauling one in when I snapped this picture. He had 7 or 8 rigs all hanging over the edge of the boat.

I left all my drinking water at the house so I had to make a trip to the bait shop and purchase a couple of bottles. As I was leaving the shop I noticed this lady painting a beautiful scene of the point area in the distance. She told me she had finished a number of paintings of the lake this past year.

The Pelican now has padded seats as opposed to those hard plastic seats I used for a couple of years. This is the 10 ft. version and will handle two fly fishermen really well-------as long as my line is down on the water and their line is up in the air or vice versa---I think you guys know what I am talking about!!

These are the best of the best for a very successful morning; these 10 will put a dent in my bluegill quest. I added 8 more that kept me filleting bluegill for a couple of hours after I got home. I will go after the big bulls on Smith Lake next week. I am now 40 away from my 50 quests; could this be my year to make it???

Natchez Trace,Little Jewel,Branch Streams

I spent last weekend in Mississippi visiting my brother and his wife. Thank goodness this trip occurred before my fall at the gym on the following Monday.
My brother wanted to spend Saturday revising some of the boyhood places we fished in Choctaw County, Mississippi which is where we were born. We find as we get older we like going back in time and reliving those moments in our lives. Our main objective this trip was to connect with some of the streams we fished years ago and hopefully find new ones that could be fished with the fly rod. Sorry to say we didn’t find any small stream that a fly rod would work well on; so on to our backup plan which enabled us to use our low-grade Tenkara rods. When I say low grade that doesn’t mean this rod is cheap in the form of performance but cheap in the wallet. We paid ten bucks each for our Little Jewel telescopic 10 ft. bream poles on clearance last year. These little light rods were the perfect match for the small streams we found throughout the afternoon.  

Fast water drops off into a nice pool here, which had numerous shiners that inhaled our wax worms. The Little Jewel was rigged with a 4lb test line tagged with a trout indicator float and a bb shot above a tiny bream hook. We were hoping to land some colorful sunfish, but none were present in this pool.

The wax worm doubles as a wasp grub; making these shiners take notice. One big drawback to using wax worms is temperature, they need to be kept in the refrigerator when not being used; they die when exposed to warm temps for 4 to 5 hours.

Some of the roadways are lined with creek channels which overflow across the gavel roads during the rainy season.

Nice hole in the bend of Hamrick Branch, which is located right off the Natchez Trace Parkway; fun using the Little Jewel in this pool. Even small shiners can put a bend in this pole.

Another scenic stream off the Natchez Trace Parkway, which probably could have been fished with the fly rod, but at the end of the day I just choose to stay with my newfound Tenkara.

This stream is located just off the parkway with easy access to its sandbars along its banks. Today’s road trip was not about landing a bunch of fish; it was more about time well spent exploring and finding future fishing streams along the beautiful Natchez Trace Parkway. As we headed back home we both agreed that today’s outing would have been an excellent field trip for young kids to get in touch with nature.   

Thanks to all you guys for giving me encouragement after my fall last week, the ankle is getting better.

Fishing Deep Slow Runs

Cold fronts, rain, and high winds have kept me off the lakes for the past week so the Sipsey was my go-to fishing fix. The deep runs of the Sipsey were my target for the afternoon trip. With my 9 ft. 3 weight Streamflex in hand I proceeded to wade up the gorge towards the deep channel of the Sipsey.  I was rigged with my dry dropper, in the form of an Adam with a size 18 Midge.  

Boulders and logs dot the bottom in this deep run providing an excellent ambush area for trout to feed.

A hungry midge feeder

Lots of patience and a slow drift was the key to get takes today. The trout were not interested in the dry and were hitting the midge light. At times the take was so light I missed numerous hook sets.

The midge bite slowed so the bead-head nymph took over at the end of the trip. The partial gill plate didn’t stop this bow from attacking the nymph as it floated over a submerged log.

I am thankful I made this trip last week because I had a mishap at the gym Monday that will keep me off the tailrace for some time. I fell leaving the platform area where I walk on the treadmills. I wasn’t watching what I was doing and missed the last step on the platform and turned my ankle and sprained my wrist; both are kind of black and blue. The trainer told me I would not be able to walk on the treadmill for weeks, so staying off this ankle is going to be a boring experience for me. He said the less walking I can do the faster the ankle will heal; really a stupid thing I did, but I have realized I need to pay closer attention to steps from now on.