Read about all of my Fishing Adventures!
Follow my Fish of 2018
November was an incredible month to fish, at least one Wheeler. I didn't really give it the proper due on here, though you can read about our two tournaments we fished in the month of November by clicking the links below.
Fishing Report for Wheeler 11/22-23/2018
Obviously, I focused on the tournaments and not the days leading up to those events. While we concentrated on big fish areas, there were other patterns that we didn't use that produced incredible numbers of fish. Truth be told, most fun-fishing days, we were catching between 20-30 fish in just a few hours.
Once I found the big fish, I left those patterns.
But, starting this month, the instability in the weather, which I believe is a combination of wild temperature swings combined with heavy rain, thus creating heavy current, has essentially shut down the spots that I had been catching monster smallies and magnum spots upon.
It didn't shock my when my two best spots quit producing. I knew that eventually we would catch every five-pounder if we hammered them long enough. But it was strange to see the spots disappear, too. Over the course of three trips, I attempted to fish these areas. First trip, we caught a few fish. Next two trips, nothing.
So, I went back to the two patterns that had been working for numbers. On bright days, I was covering rip-rap with crankbaits, typically a Spro Rock Crawler or a Strike King 3XD. On overcast and rainy days, I was throwing a spinner bait tight to wood.
Wouldn't you know it, those two patterns quit working. So, instead of doggedly sticking to those patterns, I started scanning alot, which sucks when it's raining and cold. But, that's what you gotta do. I found that bait was scarce and so were the fish. Occasionally, I would mark some arches and on my last two trips, I caught just one bass. One.
It was interesting to scan isolated rock piles that had initially held spots, then smallies because drum had now moved in. Of course, I didn't know that until I caught three on consecutive casts. I ended may trip on the 14th without a single bass, though I did have my first triple white bass attack on an A-rig, which was cool.
After a lengthy "discussion" with my wife about me and Josh fishing this Sunday, I was cleared to fish until around 1PM. We decided NOT to fish any of the areas that I had fished the last few trips and instead go back to building on some patterns that had been producing around the dam.
White bass, drum, and one decent spot were all that were produced, initially. With TVA pushing 100,000 CFS and the flood gates being open, we eventually figured out that current wasn't the deal and it didn't matter if you were fishing the dam or down at Triana. At this point, we started fishing hard current breaks with jigs. This would include areas like Butler Basin and Ditto Marina, itself. We immediately found more bait and more fish. However, the bass weren't jumping in the boat and though we may mark what we knew were a school of bass, typically 15-20 of them laying on the bottom, we couldn't catch more than one at a time. In the end, we caught just seven fish with the best five MAYBE pushing ten pounds.
It's tough right now, but starting Sunday afternoon when the clouds lifted, we are experiencing several solid days of stable weather, which should really turn the fish on.
Water clarity on the main river was less than two feet with it being negative visibility within 10 yards of any bank. TVA is steady at 100,000 CFS, so fish have acclimated to current and I don't think it's driving them to feed. Water temps are down to the very low 50s in the afternoon with morning temps being between 45 to 47 degrees.
Just a reminder that we will be hosting a Wildcat tournament on December 29th out of Ditto, open to anyone. It's $20 a boat with $10 big fish and optional $5 side pots for Smallie and Spot.
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