Center Hill Bass Fishing Reports

[MotherNature]

I had the opportunity to fish with two great guys the other night on Center Hill.  David Bryant and Kelly Davis made the trip from Franklin Tennessee to try their hand at night fishing the Hill. Considering it was a holiday weekend things went real well. Saturday night was beautiful with a full moon a slight breeze and some hungry bass. This was David and Kelly's first night bass trip and they handled it like pro's. We fished lizards and worms on a Carolina Rig and tossed the new "Secret Weapon Spinner Baits" secretweaponlures.com This bait is a real winner. You can feel the throb of the blades all the way through the rod and the bass ate it up.  The heart break of the night was a 5 pound smallmouth that came up and broke of right at the boat. We had a great time and these guys were great to fish with. David and Kelly I look forward to fishing with you again.

Bill Campbell

tennesseebassguides.com

[MotherNature]

Fished the hill last night .From about 9:00 untill around 2:00. It was a beautiful night for a change .The moon was up untill about midnight and they have got the water down around 644 . Four ft. below summer pool. That's about where I like it . The bite for me came after the moon went down behind the hills. I had four fish in the boat. One smallmouth over 3 and 3 largemouth one of them over 4 the other two good keepers . Lost 2 more off . And one LARGE drum , fun for a little while. all my fish were caught on a spinnerbait . Blk and red 5/8 oz with blk/red pork. I ran into a couple of friends that had some good fish. They had caught their fish on hair jig's and small worms . All caught befor the moon went down. And none after it went down. Theirs best 3 fish weighed over 9 lb's one smallmouth was 3.10 . They had talked to another boat and they had a largemouth over 5 lb's . If you havn't been, it's time to go to the hill. Lot's of boats on the water . So turn your light's on .

Be safe,
Billy Campbell
Tennessee Bass Guides

[MotherNature]

The Ed Rogers Open was held on Center Hill this past week end. It was a beautiful day to be on the lake with clear sky's and no wind just right for jigging a spoon or use a drop shot. My son Jason and I had about 15 keepers and several other smaller fish. I talked with some of the guys that caught as many as 45 keepers throughout the day. We caught fish from 18 to 45 feet deep with surface water temps running about 68 degrees. The temp needs to drop about 10 more degrees to slow the shad down. Weigh in for the day went like this. 1st place was 14.72....2nd was 13.72...3rd was 13.45...4th and 5th tied at 12.49...6th was 12.30...7th was 12.06...8th was 12.04...9th 11.85 and 10th was 11.33. Big fish was a 5.12 and 2nd big fish was 4.70. This is a great time to go to the Hill and catch a lot of Ky's while the weather is so nice. Oh by the way me and my son had 14.72lbs. Remember you can't catch them if you don't go......Billy Campbell Tennessee Bass Guides

[MotherNature]

Center Hill 11-06-04

I fished Center Hill this past Saturday in a tournament sponsored by Charlie Preston. The first Saturday of every month Charlie has this tournament from 7am to 4pm and  costs $20.00 per person to enter. This week there was 12 boats and it took a little over 10lbs to win and 9lbs for second place.  Most of the guys were jigging various baits-some were throwing grubs and hair jigs. I started out throwing crankbaits and buzz baits with no results. We switched to a Carolina Rig and caught 2 short largemouth. At that point we began looking for minnows and had a hard time finding schools that weren't scattered and moving fast. At 1:00pm we found a good school and caught 11 Kentuckies of which 5 were keepers that weighed 7 pounds. The water temp is still in the 70's and needs to drop at least another 10 degrees. With these cold nights that we are having things should turn on. Most of the fish I caught was in 30 to 40 feet of water...I'll keep you posted....Billy Campbell Tennessee Bass Guides

[MotherNature]

Center Hill 11-17-04

Today I met a good friend of mine Jeff Priza from Wyandotte Michigan at Center Hill to do one thing only and that was to use a "Drop Shot" and "Spoon" and lay all other techniques aside. So we set out at 10am and chased the minnows until it was almost dark. It was cloudy and rained all day, which for this technique "Is Not" the type of weather we needed.  Believe it or not "Bright Blue Sunny Skies" are by far the best when your spooning on Hill in the winter months. I know that sounds contrary to the normal thinking about a good Center Hill weather day, but believe me for this particular technique it's true. As you can see we did catch some good quality fish-but the numbers were slim. To help you understand this technique and catch more fish Rick McFerrin and I are going to finalize a monthly Tennessee Bass Guides Article next week entitled "Winter Time Vertical Jigging-Tip's For The Beginner" This article is loaded with pictures and all the information you will need to catch fish "Spooning" on Center Hill and other area lakes. This is one article that you don't want to miss.

Good Fishin-be Safe!
Bill Campbell
Tennessee Bass Guides Inc.

[MotherNature]

12/4/2004

Tennessee Bass Guide Bill Campbell wanted everyone to see the difference in the lake conditions you will be faced with on Center Hill for the next several days. The lower end of the lake is Gin Clear with water temps running near 64 degrees on the surface. What a difference in the upper end of the lake where the water is a MUDDY 52 to 54 degrees with logs and trash floating everywhere.  Having first hand experience with hitting debris on the Hill....I can tell you, be careful and wear your life jackets when the boat is moving. I actually believe that Center Hill can be more dangerous in this type of conditions than Old Hickory. But! Can you catch fish in this type of drastic water change? Jason Campbell is living proof that you can with the beautiful Smallmouth that he is holding. Billy and Jason spent just three hours in this cold water muddy conditions and still managed to catch 3 nice fish and missed 3 more. As with most lakes when the water is rising the fish will follow the water up. So you have to slow down and work your baits in and around everything stationary that you can. Good luck and MOST OF ALL be safe!   Rick McFerrin Tennessee Bass Guides

[MotherNature]

Center  Hill 12-03-04

I fished Center Hill Friday with Mr. Rick Dalton and Mr. Ron Patterson. I met Ron and Rick at the Hurricane Bridge ramp and found that the water had risen over 10 feet since the rain which left us at about 3 feet shy of the summer pool level. Water temps just about everywhere we looked was in the 61 to 63 degree range. With the in the condition it is in I decide to look for minnows and try to spoon some up. Finding the minnows turned out to be an adventure in itself but we finally found some good pods in 45 feet to 65 feet of water in the mouth of a couple creeks.  We caught some fish as deep as 50 feet and all were caught on a 1/2 ounce Sidewinder Spoon. We ended the day with 20 good solid Spots and lost several more. No big big fish like John's 8lber he caught on Old Hickory...but a lot of fun with 2 great guy's....Billy Campbell Tennessee Bass Guides

[MotherNature]

Center Hill 1-6-05

Who said that there was only one way to catch Smallmouth on Center Hill in the winter? Folks if there was ever a lake and a winter weather wise that lends itself to a wide variety of baits it has to the Hill this year. With rain moving in and out and the water color clearing up we managed to catch and release 4 keeper Smallmouth (lost another one) 2 big Spots (largest about 3lbs) 1 big crappie on Tubes-Crankbaits and a Float N Fly...With the mild winter we have had and looks like will be with us for a while....Why not get out from behind the TV and give Center Hill a try.......Billy Campbell Tennessee Bass Guides.Com

[MotherNature]

Center Hill 5-9-05

Rick Jr's long time best friend Terry Sibery from Union City Indiana fished Center Hill today. Water temperature was in the low 70's when we put the boat in at Hurricane Bridge and the color was very good. We started out in the backs of the creeks fishing as much of the lay down timber that we could find.......which turned out to be a good move...we began picking up Kentucky's on the same 4 inch Zoom Dead Ringer June Bug worm soaked in J.J.'s Magic see  www.jjsmagic.com ......as I have said many many times, I'm not sure that JJ's Magic helps you get more hits....but I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the bass will hold on to the worm and just about won't let go. That's the edge that many times makes a world of difference. These fish were in the thickest parts of the cover and you had to flip the little worm right in the middle and hold on. Terry is holding the largest Kentucky that we caught today and Rick Jr. is holding 3 more that were about average for the fish that we caught .......No top water-crankbait-spinnerbait or jerkbait bite today....it was the worm and worm only.....Hope this helps....Rick McFerrin Tennessee Bass Guides.com

[MotherNature]

6/4/05


Saturday Night Becca and I fished Center Hill for a few hours before having to meet up with her son. The Lake was full of big debris above Sligo. This being the first time on the lake in a long time we had to run careful for the Debris. We did more riding than fishing, playing with the New/used boat. Spending the Night at Sligo Cabins and waiting to see if I could put us on a few Kentucky's and Walleye Sunday Morning before the crowds got there.
We started about 7 Sunday morning on the Kentucky's. We concentrated on Steep Drops with Night Crawlers. The bite was so light we missed a bunch of fish catching some good Bluegill and Kentucky's that were super fat. Around 9 we ran down to the Hurricane Creek area and I started tying the Walleye Worm Harnesses up. We went to some banks I have not trolled for 5 plus years and found Walleye hanging in 15 to 20 feet around small humps. On our first pass on a main lake point Austin thought he was hung and Becca took the rod to find it pulled back and she fought in a solid 20 plus inch Walleye at 10:56. We made a few more passes picking up some 14 inchers and we decided to run 5 miles to some other areas. Wanting to get away from the crowds we found the lower end to be jammed with boats so we moved back to the less crowded areas to make a few more runs and swim a little. We came off the lake at 1:40. To sum it up the Kentucky's are hitting well on the steep drops in 8 to 10 ft of water. I am really excited about the Walleye activity and plan on getting back up to the lower end of the lake to my favorite walleye banks soon.Now that we are back in a boat do not think I will be leaving the streams. The small Middle TN flows are my passion and I will continue to be on those water weekly all summer. I would suggest if you are going to Center Hill to concentrate on the mouths of  major creeks where you find transition areas of Rock to Gravel or gravel to Mud. Any areas where the bank changes like that will be good areas to catch some decent walleye. Troll the worm rig bouncing the bottom and concentrate on small humps in 15 to 20 feet of water. When you get to hot just jump in the lake cool off and start trolling again. Once you catch one work that spot over and over and you should find more fish. This pattern will work all summer and into October.
Mike