Warmwater Fishing Report

Middle Tennessee continues to receive rain and those afternoon thunderstorms. These storms mess with the clarity of the tailwaters, not to mention the added water to the lakes. All this rain starts a chain of events that lead to generation. But, Spring is here and not just in theory! Daytime temperatures in the 70's and 80's, birds singing and snakes! We saw this year's first snake this week. Consider this a public service announcement or a heads-up, or whatever, but Mr. No Shoulders is out and about so watch it...

Fish Tails and Plaid

David K and I decided to hit some warm water fisheries and chase the musky while the tailwaters cleared. The conversation, via text, went something like this..

"Hey Dude we need to get out and chase that musky you have been wanting to get"

"I'm in, same time and same place?"

"Yep see you there" 

So we were off to boat David's musky. We were on the water with some new bullets on the line. David stayed up late tying and brought a cool new/old patterns to try. I decided we would fish out of David's box and went to sleep early. 

Sun-up and the River is Just Over That Hill

The Plan? The plan was for David to catch that musky. I settled into the rowers bench and passed rods to the front of the boat as needed. Although the water was high from the storms the day before, off color, and 60 degrees, David opted for a non-weighted streamer on a floating line. We fished the usual spots and then it happened, just like that and not long into the float. David hooked the musky, fought the fish's attempts to run and brought the fish to the boat. The fight was over quick and before I knew it we had a musky in the boat with us....the fish was mad and hot. Now bringing a hot fish in a boat is one thing when it is a trout, or a bass or even a catfish, a hot musky is a whole other animal. The teeth are sharp and if the fish gets away, a slap to the face with that tail can cause some serious pain.  We got the fish under control pretty quick, snapped the appropriate photos and released it to fight another day.

We sat at anchor for a while and took in the morning. We discussed rowing upstream back to the ramp, against the current and going home. We thought about loading up and going to the nearest tailwater. We could throw nasty streamers to big browns or we could just float the rest of the way and toss meaty flies to mad fish. I pulled up the anchor and backed the boat out into the current, then gave a shove on the oars and we were off again throwing meaty flies...

Incoming!