By Marty Dixon/Staff Correspondent
The middle and end this past week brought muddy and fast-moving water to the lake. I was unable to get out on the lake until Saturday. Not because of the current but I had other obligations. Mitch Morgan did send a text with a couple of photos of good fish he caught from his pier throwing a big spinnerbait on Friday. He was trying to get a few casts in before work to keep from going into withdrawals.
I had planned on fishing some on Saturday before partaking in some college football games, but those plans had to be modified. It turned out that I couldn’t get out at all. I had to help my son Tanner get a few things done. “Honest” Eric Hubbard did give me a semi report for Saturday. He had a few fish out on the current breaks. I’m sure that he was throwing some sort of moving bait. I gave him a call to see what was going on, and he informed me his bite had sort of dried up over the last few minutes.
That was about the time I got home and was looking at the river. I told Eric that I can kill a bite just by looking at the river. The water was still moving really fast all day Saturday with three turbines and the spillway open. Eric caught several fish on Saturday before I managed to wipe out his bite by staring at the lake.
On Sunday I got out on the lake for a short trip with Captain Derick Smith before heading to Silver Lakes to work in the pro shop. We fished above the bridges for the most part. We went to the golf course and fished around before heading up a little further to fish a couple of canals. We threw some of every kind of bait, to little or no avail. I stunk it up in plenty of hangs and had a near meltdown with only one dink before going to work. Brother Butch scored a few nice fish on Sunday. He junk fished in several of the pockets, threw a spinnerbait and jig around some wood and wound up fooling a few chunky fish.
On Monday I learned just how lucky Tim “Bass Chaser” Heard is. He won a ton of prizes in the Loft’s Tackle Shop’s online giveaway. I suspect that Tim stuffed the box with his name. They kept drawing his name out for prize after prize, including a fishing trip with one of the professionals. Note to Tim: purchase lottery tickets while you are still on fire.
Tim has been on fire catching several fish in dirty water with his double secret bait. He sent me a few pictures of his fish this week as proof.
I was on the lake Monday and managed to land three or four fish in a couple of hours in one real nice spot. I was throwing a spinner bait and jerk bait around opening of coves close to home. Of course, I can’t have a week without something screwy happening. The trim switch on my boat went crazy while I was out and would not cut off. It just kept trying to trim down. I had to disconnect the battery for about an hour before it finally squared up. I called Lee Brown of Brown Outboards, and he informed me that I had a trim switch about to go out. So, I have that going for me. I also managed to break an eye off one of my crankbait rods, so I need to replace that.
Tuesday and Wednesday were extremely nice out on the water in the afternoon with low wind and some current. I ran into a guy on I’d met while fishing with Eric. He thought I had boat trouble and stopped to check on me. Once again, there are good guys on the lake. Fortunately, I was just fixing some equipment and waved at him as he was going by. He thought I might need help and stopped.
I managed to catch several fish throwing a crankbait and shaky head in the mouths of some coves Tuesday and Wednesday after lunch.
Wednesday was especially good for numbers, with no real chunky fish. I caught 15 or so fish. I caught several fat white bass in addition to the spots and largemouth. I hate taking them off the hook, but they still put up a good fight. One of the coves I fished in was loaded with shad. All in all, it was a good time. I would have liked to have caught some bigger fish, but with the way it has been for me, it was fun catching more than one fish during a fishing trip.
See you on the lake and wishing you full live wells.
Marty Dixon is a 1982 Sardis High School graduate and retired high school educator and coach. He was head coach of the Gadsden State women’s basketball team from 2015 to 2019. He and his wife Texann live in Gadsden. He may be contacted at fishn4funin02@yahoo.com and the Neely Henry Bass Fishing page on Facebook.
