Thread: Checking WB tail waters 2/27/2020

Phil and I are gluttons for punishment because we lack the sense that some people have on cold mornings and 80,000 plus cubic feet per second flowing below Watts Bar dam. Grin We were the only boat trailer in the parking lot this morning. 30 degrees and 11 mph NW wind will give you quite the wake up call.

We spent the first of our two hour trip fishing all the various drift patterns that we normally fish. Notta bite. More birds up there than I have seen in a very long time, so the fish just had to be there someplace, we just had to find them

Finally after the first hour of fruitless drifting and getting the ice crystals out of our rod guides, I finally suggested that we run up below the floodgates near the lock discharge and cast toward the lock entrance rip rap bank. There were 13 gates spilling water from the lock discharge toward the wing wall that separates the turbine discharge from the gate discharge.

On the very first cast on that drift, I quickly hooked up with a Striper that I had on for well over a minute and got about halfway to the boat before it pulled off. Boat rule says Drum, but this was no Drum.

Second drift, I hooked and landed our only fish today, a Striper in the 4-5 pound range. Pics were taken and this little Striper released to get trophy size one day. Not another bite even though we repeated this drift pattern until we gave up around 10:00.

We used 1/2 and 3/4 oz shadhead jigs that I pour up and powder paint with 5” chartreuse flukes on them. They would not hit white ice color today.

People may think that it is dangerous to fish the waters that we did today and it could be if you did something stupid, but with me being a DuPont retiree, safety is always first. No fish is worth the risk of giving your life up to a careless mistake.

Glad you went and tried, you can sit by the fire when you get old! About 40 years from now!


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