November 23rd, 25th and 26th reports are going to be combined into 1 report.  I was able to get out 3 days while off for the holiday.  Thursday and Sunday were short 4 hr trips and Saturday I fished a local KY SPOT tournament only.  It is kinda fun and keeps the rust off during the winter.

Thursday I got out about 7:00 a.m.and fished until 11:00 a.m.  It was a bit chilly during the morning but warmed up nicely.  I put in at 4-Corners marina and fished in that general area.  Water temps were 48 degrees in the morning and warmed to about 52 before I left.  I pulled up on one of my favorite points and fished the 9ft break line, thinking the fish would be a bit deep in 48 degree water.  I started out with a Snootie Jig, watermelon pepper, with a few hard bites but whiffed on the hook sets.  I picked up a XPS lipless bait in white and started casting.  I accidentally cast a little farther then I wanted and hit 1ft of water and within 5 turns of the handle the rod felt mushy and heavy. I set the hook and when the fight was over it was a 2.57 KG Largemouth which translates to a 5.6 lb largemouth on the scale.   I did not have a camera with me so I called a friend who I knew was on the lake, Shay Doming of Tennesseebassguides, and he came over and took a few pics.  When he emails them to me I will post them to this report.   While waiting on him to get over to me I made a few more casts shallow and bammm had another hit and this time it was a huge smallie.  I got her to the side of the boat and she was barely hooked, I reached down for the net and off she came.   Nothing I could do but keep on casting.   I caught 5 more fish up shallow and my 2 keepers would have went around 7lbs total.  I was just shocked to catch those fish in 3ft of 48 degree water.


Saturday I fished the KY Spot only tournament with a friend of mine, Rob Kennedy. Your allowed 5 Spots each and 1 kicker LM and 1 Smallie.  We started off hitting a few points to see if we could muster a big fish. Nothing going.  We headed down lake to fish some bluffs that generally hold KY Spots.  I caught 1 nice Spot, 1.09lbs on a Bitsy Bug jig in watermelon.  Then I just could not shake off keeper LM.  I nearly limited on Largemouth.  I had 3 largemouth that were clone 2.5 lb'ers and another one just short of that mark. With the 4 largemouth and 1 spot I would have weighed in around 10 pounds in a normal tournament. Rob had a rough day with only 1 fish.  All my fish were caught on bluffs with either a Bitsy Flip 1/4 oz or Snootie Jig in watermelon seed.  The bite was very soft and spongy.  The hard bites I had I did not hook up on any of them, not sure why.  10 Spots for 11.5 lbs won the tournament.  Those are some nice KY Spots for Percy Priest.

Sunday my wife and I went out from 10 a.m. to about 1 p.m.  My main intent for this trip was to check out the East and West Forks of Stones River on Priest.  Our 1st stop was at a channel bend in the river.  The channel swung up against the bank with huge chunk rock and bluff type bank.  I caught 2 fairly quick but were small LM.  I pitched into a crack with my Snootie Jig and caught a very nice 2lb Spot.  It was one of the biggest KY Spots I have caught out of Priest and definitely from the river.  The further we went up the river the colder the water was and less bites we got.  We came back down river a ways and started getting bit again.  I went to a fairly sharp bluff wall and wanted to practice my drop shot as I am not good at it at all.  I tied on a DS Creature jig made for drop shotting by Reaction Innovations and tipped it with their Flirt worm.  My 3rd cast I caught a small LM.  I wound up catching about 4 bass on the rig and had to stop and head to the house.  I sheared a prop pin in my trolling motor.  Not to worry I already have one on the way from Mid TN Marine. I should probably keep a spare in the boat.  We wound up catching 9 bass in our short trip. 

All in all it was a good holiday.  At least we don't have ice covered lakes like those northern folks and we can get out and fish all year long from a boat and not an ICE House. 

Thanks,
Billy Harris
www.billyharrisbasspro.com

        

 

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