Smithville 5/8

[APKape]

Windy, cold, and no keepers; what a day. Water was 62 degrees, dingy, with about a foot of clarity. Main lake was pushing 2' swells. Camp Branch had 1' swells.

Bait used was 1.5" blue/chart and blue/white jigs with a bobber for the bank spawners. When I fished the W Bridge I switched to black/chart and blue/chart and casted.

With the wind blowing from the northwest, I decided to hit Camp Branch today. I first hit the large cove north of Camp Branch. I was all over that place and didn't get one bite. There was nothing on the finder anywhere in the cove. I kept my eyes on a couple of boats that were there with me and they weren't catching anything either.

My second spot was a cove that I fished last year. I thought for sure that this would be a great place for the spawn. There is a deep channel almost all the way in with large flats on each side. Not sure if it was the cold front or not, but I didn't catch any keepers. Most of my luck was in the little coves. I fished with a jig and bobber, 12" deep. Most of my hits were in about 2' of water. They were all blacks and nothing over 8". Oh, I did manager to land a 14" channel cat. Nothing like a cat on an ultra light rod!

My last spot of the day (out of desperation) was the W Bridge at Camp Branch. The fish were anywhere from 18-22 feet deep. There was nothing but shorts here today. After that I headed home.

I did talk to a couple of people while I was putting in, some as I was leaving, and the park guard about what they were catching. Everyone said they were catching a lot of shorts with only a few keepers this week. Not a good report by any means.

Well that's it for me this week. If it's going to be windy tomorrow, I'm staying home. It wasn't too much fun fighting that wind today. If anyone else made it out, I'd like to hear how you did. Post a report.

[jray705]

Was off the bank of sailboat cove for 4 hours and caught 1 keeper and nothing else. Caught 1 fish all day... What gives?

[blackdogs]

The first cove you fished holds nice fish in the Summer. The deep trees in the middle. I've never pulled a fish out of there with water temp less than 75. We caught 7 off the main lake in the treed coves S of W bridge. You give great reports, Thanks.

[keeferfish]

Alex, did you read the trash can for the report?

Stay with it and better luck next time.

[APKape]

Alex, did you read the trash can for the report?

Stay with it and better luck next time.

Bill, I didn't want to belive what the can was telling me.

[APKape]

The first cove you fished holds nice fish in the Summer. The deep trees in the middle. I've never pulled a fish out of there with water temp less than 75. We caught 7 off the main lake in the treed coves S of W bridge. You give great reports, Thanks.

Thanks for the info. I’ve only fished that cove once before and it was at the mouth of it. Landed a lot of dinks. Never tried the middle of the cove.

Thanks for the encouragement about my reports.

[TnRidge]

I think the cold front killed the bite . I might go out for a few hours this morning . I think the cloud cover might help the bite .