31airborne, Chickamauga (a little long - sorry, doods), bass, 19-26 April 2014, Squire (FoM partner)

[FishNews]

Steve (Squire on our home fishing page) and I were part of the FoM event on the Chick this past week. Apologize for not posting anything more substantive before this but I didn't have anything to share until we went down for practice and the tourney. Hopefully this will help settle the bill for lurking and stirring up the pot about SEC football the past few weeks.<br /><br />First of all, a huge shout out to the people of Dayton and Rhea County. I've had the chance to fish pretty much coast to coast during my time on active duty. Never have I experienced a warmth of welcome or generosity of spirit as I did this past week. When you look up Dayton, TN on Google you get a little info, mostly telling you it's a small southern town on a huge lake. Until you go there and meet the people you don't realize what a treasure this little piece of east TN is.<br /><br />Secondly, a shout out to the founders and administrators of this site. Y'all do it right, IMHO. We have a similar site in VA (va-outdoors.com - check us out sometime) and we're pretty proud of it. I can tell by the content and the volume that this is a good place to learn and grow as a fisherman. I really enjoyed hanging out here.<br /><br />Now down to business . . .<br /><br />Practice (19-23 APR). Steve and I planned to use what we saw of the water and biomass to make any decisions on how to go about attacking this beast. We guessed that the weird winter had most of the fish behind schedule like they are in VA. We knew there would be some in about every stage but guessed most would be staging. We had some info from friends about places to check out - Sale, Possum, Mud, and Soddy Creeks; the area around the state park; a host of main lake cuts and coves - and systematically went about exploring them a piece at a time. Early on in our practice we developed a solid pattern on wood and breaks near secondary points with plastics or jigs. We found fish in numbers and size holding on anything they could find - brush, rocks, stumps - in depths ranging from 8-14'. We dialed in this pattern to a point where we could call when and where we'd get bit. Was kinda cool. We were able to make this pattern repeat in about a dozen different places on the lake in the first couple days. I had to break away for a quick business trip MON-WED so Steve continued the exploration process alone. He found a couple stretches of water down lake that had well defined breaks loaded with stumps and brush. One stretch in particular was positioned such that any time TVA was pulling water the current would flow right onto it. This area held the densest biomass we saw during the week.<br /><br />We threw lots of cranks, spinners, chatterbaits, and topwaters with little luck. Squarebill crank bite was good on one morning and that was it. We did not throw an a-rig the entire week. Dunno if that was a miss on our part or not, but what we saw on our electronix and what we learned as we explored told us to use baits we could get into and keep in wood/brush. T-rigs, splitshot rigs (more on this in a minute), and jigs accounted for 99% of our fish. This was a good thing since Steve and I like to fish slow. It was also a collection of presentations that could be easily adaptable if water or weather conditions changed. Our key baits were the SK anaconda, Zoom's speed worm, Zoom's magnum trick worm, and Zoom's critter baits (craw, brushhog). Any color worked as long as it was GP. Glitter didn't seem to matter but the base had to be GP.<br /><br />We saw a wide range of water temps in the first few days. Some areas in the backs of the upper creeks were in the upper 50s. Temps steadily climbed as we worked our way downlake - upper 60s vic the state park, low 70s in a couple main lake cuts near the dam. Clarity was kinda hard to pattern. One creek would be stained (2-3' of viz) while the next one down was clearer (5-6' of viz). Water clarity did improve as the week progressed. We had equal success in clearer and stained water. Clarity didn't seem to matter where and how we were fishing.<br /><br />A little more on the splitshot rig we were throwing: Steve and I were in a tourney in northern VA a few weeks back. The c-rig was the shizzle at that time. Fish were killing anything you put on the ol' ball-n-chain. During practice I hung a good fish that got away when the line broke at the swivel. Happens all the time, I know, but I thought about how I could take that out as a variable or point of failure. I remembered using smaller pegged sinkers on spinning tackle during tuff conditions in clear water. I decided to give it a try w/ a little heavier gear. I pegged a 5/16 oz bullet sinker on my t-rig rod (12 lb test fluoro) about 16" about the hook. When I tested it in the water I could see that the bait would fall slowly, fluttering as it fell. That gave it a different kinda look. On the third cast I hooked up w/ another solid keeper. I ended up fishing that rig for the tourney. It caught all of our fish. I've used this version of the splitshot rig a couple times since then. I've been getting much more aggressive strikes than I got on the carolina or texas rigs. Decided I would try it on the Chick. I was pretty pleased w/ the results. I did try it on heavier line (up to 17 lb fluoro). A lil harder to cast but still effective. Key thing you have to do is check the line above the pegged weight regularly. Dragging that weight along the bottom puts a lot of stress on the line at the front end. Doesn't take much to knick up 12 lb fluoro. Check and retie frequently.<br /><br />We had some good fish in practice. No giants but enough to help us appreciate what the lake was capable of producing. Steve hung one a little over 6 on SUN (20 APR). I had many around 4 lbs throughout practice. Consistency in size during practice drove us to choose the little stretch Steve found near the park as our day 1 starting point.<br /><br />Day 1 (THUR, 24 APR). Steve and I make the run from Dayton City ramp to the park in about 29 mins. Was a lil cool. (So ready for this winter stuff to be over.) As we pull up to our starting point we were pleased to see no one in site. The entire bank was ours. Took only about 15 mins to catch our first fish. Was a little slow for about an hour or so after that but picked up and stayed pretty active from 9 AM on. We had our limit by 11 (had to weed out a few shorties along the way), anchored by 5 and 4 lb fish. The rest were just solid keeps. We managed to upgrade once by only by a few ounces. We finished the day w/ 15.86.<br /><br />All of the keeper fish we caught came off of breaks in 8-12" of water where brush or stumps were nearby. Some of the bites were very lite. I mean so subtle that you could not feel a tap or see the line twitch. The line just kinda loaded up and started tracking away. A few of our bites were pretty aggressive - thump, run, set the hook. These were primarily shorter fish. Took a while to figure out that the fish weren't completely taking the bait when we detected the initial strike or saw the line tracking. After a few misses we adjusted a bit and let the fish have the bait for a second or so longer. That did the trick. T-rig and the splitshot accounted for all of our fish. Better fish came on the splitshot rig.<br /><br />Observations on day 1: 1) When there was bait nearby we got bit. When the bait was absent we didn't. 2) Dial up the sensitivity on your electronix to see the detail on and around brush piles. We missed seeing some fish early on because they were lost in background. After dialing up the sensitivity we started seeing them better. We were able to catch a couple after making this adjustment. 3) Stained water was better than clearer water. 4) Brush and wood away from docks was better than cover on or next to docks. 5) Brushpiles were better than rock piles, but not by much. Key was to target anything that represented a change in the contour. 6) Worm was better for numbers, critter bait was better for quality.<br /><br />Day 2 (FRI, 25 APR). For everything we did right on day 1, we failed miserably on day 2. Yeah, we didn't weigh a huge bag by y'all's standards but for 2 guys who hadn't seen this lake before we were pretty stoked. When we saw that the lake level had been drawn down overnite we weren't too worried. We were targeting deeper fish to begin with so they would be less affecting by the water level drop (so we thought). Wrong. Steve and I returned to our day 1 starting point and marked fish holding on brush and stumps just like the day before. The bait was still present altho' a bit deeper and more over the channel. Steve whacked a shortie almost right away on a t-rigged worm. We didn't boat another fish until almost noon. I had some execution problems in the AM. I broke two fish off on hooksets on the splitshot rig. Around noon we made the move to Possum Creek to work a stump field we'd fished during practice. A couple more shorties but nothing more. After an hour we jumped up to Sale Creek where we worked the creek channel about half way back. We'd found a rock pile in practice that wa sin about 12-14' of water that held some quality fish. We targeted this area w/ t-rigs and the splitshot rig and got bit almost right away. I lost another fish due to a line break. Steve had a solid keeper spit out a hook after a weak hookset (line bow due to the wind). Once we got our stuff together we could manage only short fish. We fished hard all day without a fish to weigh. And that's why they call it fishing . . .<br /><br />Observations on day 2: 1) The water level change wasn't so dramatic we thought. Dunno now. Maybe y'all can shed some light. The rain wasn't that heavy we thought. Dunno now. Maybe y'all can shed some light. 2) Bites were much lighter today. Many times the fish would thump the bait, then quickly turn it loose. Lotsa swings and misses. 3) We made our adjustments throughout the day, all of them wrong. We put in some serious effort in our practice. Our lack of experience over time and season hurt us here. We made the wrong adjustments based on what we thought we'd learned earlier in the week and on what we knew of other lakes. Some knowledge transfers. Some does not. 4) Presence or absence of bait didn't seem to matter today. Nothing we did was right.<br /><br />Conclusion. This is an amazing lake. Healthy, rich, tons of options for attacking it. Y'all are blessed. We look forward to coming back. More specifically, we look forward to coming back to enjoy some more of that Rhea County hospitality. Again, thanks for the effort that goes into making this site so good. If you should ever make your way up into VA for a fishing trip, please check out va-outdoors.com. I post there regularly under the same handle. If the reports don't give you what you need, send me a PM and I'll fix you up.<br /><br />Best to all.<br /><br />ATW,<br />B