Went to Pickwick last Thursday

[MikeA57]

Played hookey last Thursday and went with my good buddy Lynn to Pickwick. We put in at Yellow Creek and fished out to the TN river and southward from there. We caught about a dozen from 2 to 4 lbs in the morning but once the sun got up good and the heat started to rise they just quit.

We could see swarms of shad swimming through the water yet nothing was attacking them. Anywhere we went we would see those black clouds swimming through the water and no fish were feeding on them. We could see the bass on the FF but they just weren't biting. It was crazy. We spent all day traveling from spot to spot and got no bites.

Finally, as the heat began subsiding we started getting some strikes and catching more fish. 2 - 3 lbs and as the afternoon wore on we caught about 16 more. We finally went back to one of the spots my buddy knew held fish. We'd fished it earlier but when we came back to it this time, the water was just rolling with activity. Although the fish hadn't been feeding all day, they sure were now! There were patches of bass in about a football field sized area just going crazy on the shad that were there. They'd roll the water then disappear and reappear a few yards away. We stayed there at least an hour until it got dark and they never did stop. We cast up in the middle of them and for the most part they just ignored whatever we threw. Carolina rigs, Pop-R's, shaky heads, Zara Spooks, Bandits, etc. We caught several more on the Pop-Rs and the Shaky Heads but compared to the number that were jumping on the shad it wasn't that many. They were singularly focused on the shad.

By the end of the day we ended up with about 36 caught. That's a lot more than I usually catch but for Lynn it was a slow day. (He's one of these guys that if he's not at the firehouse, he's on the lake. You can count on it. And he catches fish! Lots of them.)

I took a little video on my phone, sorry it's so shaky. I was trying to focus on one area where they were hitting the top while keeping my eyes peeled for other close areas I could film. Keep in mind the activity you see surrrounded us and it lasted for over an hour!

I'm not complaining, that's just the way fishing is, but I sure wish we could have caught more fish!!

Here's a link: http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...CKWICK%20TRIP/