2022 12 10 Nickajack TN River

[coldfront]

took the opportunity to get out on the lake (TN river) today.  looking at forecast for next few weeks looks a bit like winter's coming at us and intends to stick around.  forecast highs next weekend won't get up to 40's.  as I've gotten older, and lost more of my baby fat, i do get colder quicker, and I don't always want to bother with all the 'helpful' layers.

It's been a week of good rain here in southern TN...  creeks, streams, rivers are running.  Not the heavy rains that lead to flash flooding, heavy flooding, but even slow, steady rains run off this red clay soil.

here's the weekly total precip map for reference.  looks like somewhere in the neighborhood of 2" fell Tues-Friday this week at my location.

today was to be clearing partly cloudy and with a high of 62°F, just a touch cooler than past few days of 70s...  wind was nominal and with week of rains, TVA was spilling (actually putting water through/over the gates... not just the turbines) and pushing about 65,000 cfs downstream from the Chickamauga dam.  Day started out with morning temps in the low 50's so a longsleeved mock-t under a good flannel shirt sure was the right choice.  I'd put on the shell when running to cut the wind.

water clarity was/is 'stained'.  a bit brown due to run off and visibility at about 1 - 1.5 feet.  with moderate to heavy current, there was a good 'foam line' seam set up and the river was running about 3 feet high.  Made it a little tougher to find the fish as the usual current breaks were now 3 feet deeper and with heavier current, had to go up on leadhead weight to get the bait down and in the feeding windows.  Normally, I'll toss a 1/16 oz  jig head with a keitech 3.5" easy shiner.  with water clarity today, I was using 1/8 ounce and 3/16 ounce 'heads' and moved to the keitech fat swing impact to push more water and for the wider 'tail wag'.

didn't get many.  but the ones I did find today were better than average.  no monsters.  just great solid river fish.

solid smallmouth of about 15 - 16 inches.  and yes, that line IS Trilene clear-blue flourescent monofilament.  not flouro, not braid.  12# test.


this was the first fish of the day.  spots down on the river for me don't tend to run that large.  this one had a bit of length to her, but was definitely built like a linebacker.  not a typical river spot.  Love it when they're built like this... I say this all the time:  if I could get a day, any day, catching 10-20 of these dudes, that's what you'd find me doin'.

[Donald Garner]

CF, tks for sharing the trip report and those pictures with us.  Congrats on a successful outing.

[coldfront]

CF, tks for sharing the trip report and those pictures with us.  Congrats on a successful outing.

a day on the water.  peaceful.  quiet.  drifting along with my thoughts and focus on what the bait it doing... cast placement... outside in God's original cathedral?
you bet it was successful!


thanks Don!