Submitted by Fisher X (ip 209.107.239.72)

Date Fished: 7/7/2007
Water Temperature: 80
Water Clarity: 1 foot

Smithland Pool Prefishing 5,6 July, Club Tournament 7,8 Jul 2007

Prefishing: We arrived at Golconda Marina late morning 5 Jul 07. The water was perfect. About a foot above the river very clear just the right current, Lusk creek clearer than normal (White SB visible almost 18 inches). We fished for an hour and caught one on a chugbug. Then a huge thunderstorm descended on the river dumping over 5 inches of rain in 3 hours. The day was ruined and so was any chance of creek fishing.

Prefishing 6 July 07. Hot and steamy. Water temp about 80F. The storm the day before left the creeks in absolutely horrible condition. The water was total reddish chocolate milk. They remained this way through the weekend. Crekk fishing was out of the question-any creek. Luckily they were not pulling the river and the mud stayed in the creeks like a dam was across the mouth of every creek. The bass and bait that were flushed from the creeks had gathered at the creek mouths and it was a shad slaughterhouse. We ended up with 18 keepers. Most caught on topwater (chugbugs). They bit topwater all day even though the sun was out and it was 90 F. It was definitely a river fishing deal. Creek mouths and island tails were the hot spots. Since they were not pulling hard almost all the timber on the river was submerged and easy to fish.

Tournament day 1: The river dropped over a foot the night before and they were pulling hard by 10:00 am. Of course the day was clear and Hot hot hot. I went to the upstream side of creek mouths and immediately jumped my first two bass of the day-on the chugbug-both 2lb fish. As the day progressed the river got dirtier and tougher. I went to the island tail (where the water remained clear) and found 3 fish with the chugbug and jumped a fourth. Should have had a limit but instead only 3 fish that went 4-8. The best bag was 12-6 and second place was 6 lbs. So my 4-8 held up for third place dollars. Very disappointed in my execution because I had found a limit of fish under very tough conditions and let it slip away. But that’s life with a topwater bait. First place guy used a Tx rig lizard on the Golconda timber. Second place guys used shaky heads in the same timber.

Tournament day 2. The river dropped further and muddied a little bit more. I stuck with my pattern (chugbug at creek mouths) because I had found the limit the day before. Unluckily the second day started just like the first. I jumped a 3 lb. bass at the creek mouth FIRST THING and missed two more blow ups.. Then the creek mouth pattern dried up. The day got hotter and the river dirtier. Everyone was having trouble getting bites. I went to the island tail with the chugbug and missed two more blowups. Then the amazing happened. Bass started busting about 30 yards into the stumps. I revved the trolling motor on high and made a desperation cast as far as I could throw. In two casts then a good fish ate the chugbug jumped, stayed on and went down. I tried desperately to keep the fish down but the water was only a foot and a half deep. The fish jumped again and amazingly there was now TWO bass on my chugbug rig. I reeled them in and had two nice fish in one cast! I felt a little better about my bad luck previously. But the day grew hotter. I threw to a staub and a fish blew up right when the bait hit the water. I jerked down to set the hook and to keep the fish down. But sickeningly the fish jumped and threw the bait. Damn. Everytime I jumped a fish I checked my hooks and they were razor sharp but the fish were just grabbing it funny. I couldn’t get them to bit any other topwater or plastic on the island tail. At the end of the day they stopped pulling so I headed up the side of the island and flipped a worm at the visible staubs at the edge of the drop off and ended up nailing two 13 inchers just before quitting time. I ended up with 6 lbs. when I should have had another limit. The shaky head guys had 8 lbs and the Tx rig guy had 10.I ended up with 3rd place again.

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