November 11th Cumberland River

I heard the smallmouth bite was happening on the Cumberland River so I had to try it out. I got started at daylight and paddled towards the spots I wanted to try.

 I picked up some small shiners on the way to try the live bait bite. The water temp was in the mid to high 50s and ait temp got up to low 70s. It was a perfect day for fishing in November. I never quite figured out the shiner bite and stayed hooked on the bottom most of the time. I did pick up one small smallmouth on a shiner.

I ended up catching another small mouth on a shadrap along with a small Kentucky and a bream.

The highlight of the day was seeing a deer swim across the river. I chased him towards the shore for about 200 yards since he swam straight to the bluffs. I steered him towards an opening wher he could get up on shore. It was a decent 6 point. The picture is not very good but you can barely see him.

My trip got cut short by a sick kid and wife so I only got about 2 hours of fishing. I really am starting to enjoy fishing the Cumberland River.

Cumberland River July 14th

After checking out some maps I decided to hit the Cumberland River today. Looking at the forecast rain was supposed to hit later in the morning but early morning looked good. I was one the water by 5:30 and ready to go. After a pretty good drought Nashville had finally got some rain the week before. My hope was the rivers would be up and they would be letting some water out of the Old Hickory Dam. The smallmouth bite was what I was after. Well the rain started around 6 with a light rain. It rain off and one the rest of the morning with some really good down pours.

I started off throwing a crank bait and caught a small smallmouth pretty quick. I didn’t want to waste a lot of time messing around by the boat ramp so I moved on to the Cumberland River. This was my first time on the actual Cumberland River because I wasn’t too sure about what I would do if a barge came along. Well it happened.

I had just paddled upstream from a spot that had a little beach area and was now next to a rock bluff. I paddled back down stream to the beach area and got ready to face the barge. It ended up not being a very big deal and the Frontier handled it without any problems.

My hopes of a good current did not work out. Paddling upstream and fishing was no problem with the lack of current. I had switched over to a hair jig and a baffle bug but did not catch anything else going up stream. By this time it was around 8:30 so I decided to paddle back towards the ramp. I ended up picking up one more bass that wasn’t very big.

I will repeat this float sometime. I really enjoyed it and I know there are some fish to be caught.

4th of July

 Monday the 2^nd I came in to work on to a report of hybrids on Percy Priest Lake. My buddy at work said he was fishing a point and all the sudden fish started blowing up everywhere. There were two boats out besides him and they both caught at least 6 and one guys had his line break on one. My buddy didn’t have the right equipment so he never caught any. This was all I needed to hear to plan on hitting JPP on the 4^th. Every since seeing the Stripers on Caney Fork I have wanted to hook into one. This was my chance. 4:00 the alarm went off and I was ready to go. The bait shop didn’t open until 5 so I had to wait until then. By the time I hit the water and started paddling it was close to 5:30. It was a perfect looking morning and I just knew I was getting ready for a sleigh ride.

Well when I got to the area I wanted to hit there were at least 12 boats.

Apparently work got out and folks had the same idea I did. A couple of small fish were caught by others but besides that the action did not look too good. I was trolling two shad and casting top waters and throwing a large pearl fluke. Bait Fish were showing up on the depth finder but very spotty for the most part. I did have two pretty good hits but no hook ups. I do not know if I had the shad hooked wrong or what but both times I reeled in with no shad so I figure something hit them and stole my bait. I was off the water by 8 with nothing to show for my morning.

Caney Fork June 18th

Blake from NuCanoe e-mailed about a month ago to let me know that the Frontier Tour would be coming through and he wanted to go fishing. I am always up for meeting up with Blake to fish so I was ready to go. He wanted to try the Caney Fork which is cold water below the Center Hill dam and is a pretty good trout river. We tried to fish it last year but the generation schedule had us messed up. This year things looked better so the trip was planned.

We floated from Happy Hollow to Betty's Island. It ended up being Blake, James from Team NuCanoe and my buddy Jamie floating with me. The day was close to perfect with weather in the high 80s. The water was super clear because of lack of rain. We saw tons of fish and some really big ones. I ended up catching a couple of bream, a brook trout, and a 13" rainbow.

 I hoped for many more fishing but today was not the day. All in all it was a awesome day for fishing and floating. I hope to get back soon to catch one of those big Stripers I saw in one pool.

May 20th Old Hickory Lake

I made it out Sunday morning for a quick trip on Old Hickory Lake. The water temp is already in the mid 70s so summer is here. The top water frog bite was not happening so I tried some other things. I switched over to a chatter bait and picked up a little 13” bass before deciding to try a spot I had always looked at but never paddled to.

After a mile paddle to the spot it looked like the area I bought my Frontier for. It was really shallow and I know no bass boat could make it back to it. We are low on rain for the year so normally this area would have more water but for the time being it was only around 3 foot deep in the deepest parts. I picked up a couple of 12”-14” bass on a wacky worm but more important I found a spot that needs to be looked at again. This area will be awesome if the lake comes up some. I did not catch anything on the frog but this spot is made for it.

I did not get any pictures and I wished I did. The fish were not that impressive but the day was. I bought some stuff to mount my camera but still need one part. I am just about completely rigged up on the NuCanoe Frontier getting ready for my June 18^th trip with NuCanoe down the Caney Fork.

Crappie

Sunday afternoon I set out in the Frontier to find some crappie after hearing everyone talk about the bite being so good. The spot I ended up at was on Percy Priest I fished in college but I had not been back since then. The weather was pretty close to perfect in the 70s with a water temp of around 67-68. The only bad thing was the wind which blew around 10 mph. After wasting a couple of hours catching bream and trying to catch bass without much luck I finally got on some crappie. They were off the exposed brush in about 12 foot of water.  I ended up catching 6 with 3 keepers before time to go. Too bad it took me so long to figure out the pattern or I would have had a mess of them before time to go.

Maiden Voyage

I finally got the NuCanoe Frontier out. The day started out with me getting to the boat ramp around 8:45 and 35°. After 30 minutes of rigging my poles and messing with setting up the Frontier I was off. Fishing started off slow but I hooked a 13” largemouth about 2 hours in so the skunk was gone and the Frontier had its first fish.

I was seeing fish on the depth finder but they didn’t want what I had to offer. After that I was seeing fish on the depth finder but they didn’t want what I had to offer. I didn’t get anything else so I moved spots. It was getting late in the day so I switch over trying to catch some crappie. I landed a couple of bream and a small bass. I figured I’d finish the day off trying get another bass and that I did. I caught a bass just over 20” which is my biggest bass from a kayak this far.

To top it off I caught it on a pole I had just completed wrapping on Friday. The day was good. It could have been great if I would have tried my second spot first and tried for bass only.

Let me know if you have any questions or if I can get a picture of something I missed.

Kevin

NuCanoe Frontier

I got my new kayak on Monday. It is a NuCanoe Frontier. I tested it out when Blake and Deanna with NuCanoe were passing through TN on the NuCanoe Frontier Tour. So far I am keeping things pretty simple as far as rigging but will go with four Mighty Mounts in the spaces provided.

Close up of the Might Mount which I will use either for Rod Holders, light,flag or camera pole.

Besides that I will add an anchor trolley but everything else will be on the track system provided for the seats.

I have to get some pretty pictures outside but for now here are the messy garage pictures.

I am going to Tube rod holders on Ram Ball Mounts that can either go track system or Might Mount.

Mighty Mounts up front.

Mighty Mounts in back.

Fish Finder on Ram mount on 1" ball. Can be used on track system or Might mount.

I hope this weekend to get it mostly rigged up and get some better pictures.