Proof - I actually caught fish @ Dale Hollow

[bassboogieman]

First fish of the trip on Monday morning - barely a pound but it's a start.

My father-in-law (Earl) breaks the ice, he didn't catch a lot. See the lay down in the back? Yeah, I told him to pitch his worm right along side it.

Better smallmouth Monday morning, this guy had his war paint on.

Tuesday and one finally hits a popper. NO, it was not foul hooked, the front hook was in the mouth but I removed it prior to the picture because I didn't want it in my thumb.

Tuesday also gave up several large mouth, yeah I checked the tongue on them all, Jimmy Houston - eat your heart out.

Wednesday yielded my first over 3 pounds, this one went 3lb-4oz.

My first (known) Kentucky or Spotted bass. Check the spot on the fin, that's how I identified him as a "spot".

Earl caught more than one, just not many more.

My "big" fish of the week came on Thursday morning and it was the ONLY fish of the day, fishing was poor. 3lb-5oz and it was a lot of fun. It buried itself in the top of the tree behind me, had a difficult time getting him out of it, actually had to give it some slack and wait about 15 seconds for it to swim out. Luckily I had it stuck good and the hook didn't come out when I gave it the slack line.

Same fish, 18.5" with compressed tail, fat and was full of fight.

Earl scored the first fish Saturday morning, nice largemouth.

This was what I caught in my favorite spot, Saturday. He stole my favorite LUCKY hat too!


While we didn't catch big numbers or big fish, I still had a good time. I especially enjoyed seeing my old (yeah old, three whole years) friends and enjoyed the trip - LONG DRIVE excluded. Conditions were totally different than last year, water was high and stained (green) not like the clear water of last year. Top water bite was difficult, we did ok with Senko & finesse worm on wood.

Last year I caught only ONE fish on plastic, this year most came on plastics - not what I expected. Most of our fish also came off wood, unlike last year's more open water bite on poppers. The small mouth were not on the rock walls like last year, we found most of our fish in the backs of the creek pockets, not on the main creek channels and I caught nothing when fishing the main lake shore line.