Harvey shows out at FLW event on Holston!

     Three TNCBA members headed to South Holston lake this past weekend to contend for the title at the second stop of the FLW's, Bass Fishing League - Volunteer Division. The lake was a mixed bag with fish being on the verge of erupting onto the beds. Pope and Dison would miss the bite and find themselves in the bottom 1/4 of the field. Kelsey Harvey on the other hand, enjoyed the rewards of being in an area where fish were coming to him. Harvey would capitalize on his five bites, not losing a fish, for a five fish limit weighing 15 lbs 15 oz.

     Harvey's bag was enough to earn him 7th place and a check at South Holston this Saturday. Dison, Pope, and Harvey will travel to Douglas Lake on May 14th for the third stop of the 2016 FLW's, Bass Fishing League - Volunteer season. The top 50 in points on both the boaters and co-anglers side will qualify for the Bass Fishing League regional on Kerr Reservoir in Virginia. On the boaters side, Cody Dison sits in 44th and Ryan Pope sits in 77th. Kelsey Harvey jumped up to 13th on the co-angler side and sits comfortably inside the top 50 after South Holston.

Team Harvey makes it Two for Two in 2016!

Bob Harvey - 12.30 lbs.

Bob Harvey - 12.30 lbs.

Bob and Kelsey Harvey made quick work of the, short lived, early morning bite with two keepers each. The Harvey's then worked their way through a long dead period, and with two hours left in the tournament, turned to the A-Rig and returned to their primary area. Bob and Kelsey the proceeded to crush them, putting six keepers in the box. The Harvey's bested second place by eight pounds with a tournament total of 23.81 lbs. at the second stop of the TNCBA season on Cherokee Lake.

Complete results and photos to follow...

Kelsey Harvey - 11.51 lbs

Kelsey Harvey - 11.51 lbs

"TNCBA Dock Talk - Cherokee"

Spring is in the.....oh wait, what is this I see on the 5-day forecast.....a blizzard is coming?

Welcome to Spring!!!!!

Well, we all knew it was coming, the gorgeous blue bird skies and highs in the upper 70's couldn't last forever. A harsh cold front will hit our region this weekend.

But don't despair quite yet!

http://origin.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php

Using the barometric pressure forecast link above, it appears that we are going to be on the front side of this front. With this being the first major front these fish have seen in a couple of weeks, this could be a recipe for a great day on the water.

We all remember the woes of last year on Cherokee, but it appears after a couple of larger tournaments this Spring, Cherokee is back on the rise. The word at the local tackle shops is that those solid bags were caught on tightline flies and Kitech swimbaits. Since those tournaments the water has warmed considerably and fish are a little all over the map as far as location goes. The warming water temperatures have pushed some fish shallow, but the water was falling all last week on Cherokee and that probably stalled their move somewhat.

Water Level: https://tva.gov/Environment/Lake-Levels/Cherokee/Cherokee-Operating-Guide

As of Tuesday the water on Cherokee has stabilized and is even on the rise which should help the shallow bite and we have had high sunny skies each day leading up to Saturday, which should also help. Based on the fishing reports from some of our TNCBA members the shallow bite is there, but it is sporadic. The deep bite is still the most consistent bite throughout the lake.

Saturday, just as every other day on the water, will be all about confidence. FISH YOUR STRENGTH!

-My Game Plan-

When we launch our boat on Saturday it will see 30ft of water and it will see 2ft of water. There are enough keeper fish still holding on the 45's and bluffs that I will begin my day there before the wind gets up. As the day begins to warm and the wind picks up, I will begin alternating between shallow and deep. If I am able to get a limit early on my deep spots, I will spend the bulk of the rest of my day shallow. The big girls are moving shallow, there is no question about that, so I will hope to cross paths with one of those mommas and put a kicker in the live-well. 

My confidence is in the middle portion of the lake so I will not venture up beyond Falls Creek or below German Creek. (Go where your confidence is the greatest.) I will have four rods on my deck in the morning: 1. Tightline Fly   2. Jig   3. Crankbait (10')   4. Crankbait (Lipless). 

Always have some sort of goal when you head out on the water. For this Saturday my goal will be to catch four 2.5 lbs bass early and then run head on into a 4+ pounder shallow, before the day ends. I would like to have somewhere between 14-15 lbs. for the tournament.

I wish everyone the best out on the water and I look forward to see you all Saturday!!!

Cherokee Fishing Reports

Lynn Feagins Report: Tuesday, March 15th

I fished Cherokee from 930 am to 230 pm yesterday. Put in at the white church and fished the upper end down to the berry farm. Water temp was 56 to 60 degrees and the water was muddy to stained depending on location. Caught several slicks on a TD Minnow and a small crankbait. Caught one walleye on a crankbait in Poor Valley (go figure)! Did not have a keeper bass.

Dison's Report: Thursday, March 17th

Conditions: Bluebird skies with 5-15 mph winds picking up after noon. Air temperature started in the 50's and warmed into the mid 60's.

Water Clarity: Stained with 1-2' of Visibility

Water Temp: 60 - 62 degrees from Falls Creek down to Macedonia. Main Channel basically as warm as pockets.

Notes: Caught 16 fish total with 10 keepers. Big fish being between 2.5 - 3 lbs. Ten fish came on a tightline fly, five fish came on a crankbait, and one fish came on a swimbait. The majority of keepers came on bluffs and 45 degree banks with the fly, with a couple coming on crankbaits in 2-10' of water.

"TNCBA Dock Talk - South Holston"

*Each month, before we fish our tournament, I will be writing a "Dock Talk" article to provide my opinions and view points on the upcoming tournanent.*

Dock Talk: an anglers attempt to play up or play down his or her day on the water. Often used to play mind games with other competing anglers.

     So should we lend our ears to the local dock talk? If we all had the ability to spend countless hours on the water as we prepare for our upcoming tournament, I would advise you to trust your abilities and get as far away from the local dock talk as humanly possible. Unfortunately we don't have that luxury. Some of us are able to get out on the water the weekend before and put together a pattern that we hope doesn't get blown to bits by coming cold front or torrential downpours that muddy our water. Some of us wont even get the chance to wet a line before we launch at 7:30am Saturday. So with those being the facts, sometimes dock talk is all we weekend anglers have to go by. 

     Now lets decipher some of the dock talk that is going around and I will let you in on my game plan for this Saturday on South Holston.

     I feel pretty sure that 8 out of 10 people that you talk to right now are going to be saying, "Damiki, Damiki, Damiki," but lets think about that statistic. If we were to put 100 boats on the water, that means there are going to be 80 people out there trying to Damiki. I promise you there are not 80 good Damiki spots on that lake.

     With that said, I am not going to lie to you and tell you that I am not going to try and hit a Damiki hole or two early Saturday morning. But, if your are not familiar with the Damiki technique, I would forgo that bite and head for the bank. During the past two days that I have been on the water, there are very few people that are beating the bank. Those fish on the bank have seen very little pressure while the fish out deep have been bombarded.

     My game plan for Saturday begins with 3 primary setups; Damiki ; Tightline Fly ; and SilverBuddy. I am going to spend 1-2 hours focusing on active Damiki fish and then I will head to 4 bluffs and channel swings where I have found fish. After the first two hours I will begin to rotate between my bluffs, swings, and Damiki holes in 30 minute increments. Once 1 pm arrives, I will begin to make added adjustments and location changes throughout the end of the day.

*Extra Notes:

-When you find fish, focus on that small area. Fish often group up during the Winter.

-Pick up some Reel Magic for Saturday. A few sprays on each rod guide will reduce icing during those cold morning temperatures.

-Don't get caught up in what you see everyone else doing around you. Stay focused and keep fishing.

SoHo Fishing Reports

Friday 2.19.16 - Report from Ryan Pope

River has more color and is a few degrees colder on Thursday temp was 43 in River. Not much happening up that direction.

Bite seems to be best mid lake to lower end. Main channel all the way to the last points in the backs of the creeks and pockets seems to be producing some smallmouth. An occasional largemouth is mixed in with them. Morning bite is best with fish pushed up in feeding schools. Once the sun gets out they scatter for the most part and or suspend. water temps are coming back up from Thursdays temps. 46 degrees was highest for me. Winter bite is definitely in full swing with the Damiki bite as king. 30-50 feet deep. Jerkbait bite seems to be slower now that the water temp has come down. Rig has not turned on yet. Only had one rig bite at 30 feet deep. Knocked slack in it but didn't eat it.    

Friday 2.19.16 - Report from Dison's

Water Temp - 44 degrees and warming to 48 degrees

Water Clarity - Upper End: 0-3 ft / Lower End : 7 ft +

Conditions - Mostly Sunny Skies / 30 degrees warming to 58 degrees / Wind - increasing throughout the day

Notes:  We started our morning of around Ob Know fishing main lake points and channel swings without any bites. Then moved towards the middle of the lake where we found a couple good schools of Damiki fish, but could not get any to commit. Damiki bite is short lived early in the mornings. Then hit a few mid lake channel swings and caught three. Moved down to the spillway area around noon and graphed fish suspending in about 5-15 ft, but no takers on that end of the lake. Finally, we moved up into Virginia, but the water was more stained and about five degrees colder than the rest of the lake. Bites on Thursday came on a SilverBuddy, Tightline Fly, and Smoke Grub.

Saturday 2.20.16 - Report from Dison's

Water Temp - 45 degrees and warming to 46 degrees

Water Clarity -  Middle: 7 ft + / Lower End : 7 ft +

Conditions - Overcast/ 45 degrees warming to 58 degrees / Wind - steady throughout the day

Notes:  On Friday we focused mainly on our productive areas from Thursday. We worked channel swings and bluffs on the middle and lower end of the lake. With overcast skies the water temperatures never really changed. Damiki fish were still finicky as the morning wore on, but we did manage to catch two. From that point on we focused our attention on our other two most productive baits, the tightline fly and SilverBuddy. We managed to catch three more throughout the rest of the day off of bluffs and channel swings.

*Over the course of two days we had 8 fish with 6 of them being keepers.

Tackle Breakdown:

Damiki - 2

Tightline - 4

SilverBuddy - 2