Tennessee Tornadoes, Hail, Wind, Bass and Panfish Report

Congrats to Greg - His First Fish on the Fly!

Wednesday in Middle Tennessee was a day of tornadoes and high winds, with heavy rains in the southern part of the state. All plans were put on hold and then delayed as waters cleared.. Friday in Middle and East Tennessee was much worse. Multiple thunderstorms throughout the day and reports of epic storms in Middle Tennessee, in the evening. East TN dealt with early storms and tornadoes and before the day was over there were reports massive hailstorms, tornadoes in the double digits and heavy rains. So Tennessee and most of the southern states saw our share of bad weather, we are all due some sunshine and calm days. Hopper season can't get here fast enough for me!

Panfish

The tailwaters were not really cooperative so Greg and Brent joined me for a day on an area lake. Greg was one of the anglers who I had the opportunity to fish with on the Calvary Outfitters trip in November. Greg's mission that weekend was to learn how to cast and learn the basics of fly fishing. As was the case with all of us there were other reasons to be there. Greg learned to cast that weekend and turns out, he is a pretty darn good caster. So when we unloaded the drifter at the lake he fell back in the groove pretty quick. 

Water Clarity Was......Lacking?

It is real tough to go fishing this time of year and not take the streamer rod. Soon Greg was banging the banks with a Galloup pattern and the sinking line was helping Greg feel the rod load. Brent was in the back of the boat putting the fly within inches of the bank. It was all good. The fishing was a bit slow, so we took a break and made some big changes. We made a move to more shallow water and soon we were back to work.  Greg was first to hook up with a nice bass. Then before we knew it he was hooked up with another bass and then a panfish. He was in a groove. We spent the rest of the afternoon bringing bass and panfish and introducing them to the boat net. The sun went down behind the treeline and soon it was a bit on the cool side. We headed back to the ramp, spooked a couple geese that were too noisy anyway and loaded up the drifter. Not a bad day of warmwater fishing for March. 

Spooked!

Brent Fishing as the Sun Went Down

Fishtails