Thread: Dale Hollow Bruisers.

Bluegill fishing public waters in Tennessee doesn't get much better than Dale Hollow Gills. A friend and I together boated around 100 Gills all between 8-9 inches. The girth and shoulders on these fish are truly outstanding. Most fish caught on a Bison colored Trout Magnet with a few caught on white, and a few caught on a Midnight Blue Dancer. The jig head for the Trout Magnet bodies was a 3/32 ounce with a #6 hook. The jig head used on the Dancer was a Micro Fry white 1/16 ounce head. My buddy Larry was using SOS 4# test Ice Blue crappie line. I was using SOS 2# test. Larry also had two nice Smallies caught on a Bison colored Trout Magnet.....he had a great battle with those. The Gills fought hard.....once getting over the deeper water at the boat heading straight down....drags were screaming today. The pic of the warmouth is in there because I thought it was really colored up well in that clear water. We used a net on all the Gills....they were that heavy. Both of us using UL rods...best not to deadlift a heavy fish with JDM rods with tips only 9/10 of a mm in diameter. It was an absolute blast catching these fish. You had to keep the Magnet on, or almost on the bottom......we were catching these fish in 7-10 feet of water. They are not on bed...marked a lot of beds but nothing on them.....water temps were only 68 degrees with a few spots hitting 69 degrees. We would pull into a hollow.....then into the coves, and fish each pocket.....pulling 5 or 6 fish off of that pocket and moving to the next. Had two shellcracker. We caught fish for a solid 5 hours and were still catching when we both decided it best to make that drive back home. I am having the best spring fishing....ever. The new boat along with Trout Magnet...JDM rods.....makes for a deadly combination. I have been waiting for years to get on the Gills at Dale Hollow. I will continue to fish up there until the bite is over or school is out, and the lake really gets crowded. Did my best to stay away from Smallies up there today focusing on Gills. All fish released for another day. Life is very good!


Regards

You are killing me with all the great pictures. To think I spend two summers at Cordell Hull and never went to Dale Hollow is making me ill. Also learned from the previous post that a Rock Bass and a Warmouth are two different species. Saw the one you posted had the 3 spines on the anal fin where the Rock Bass has 6 or 7.
Learn something new everyday on here. Keep the reports coming.