I started out just as the sky was barely getting light. I started marking a few scattered fish around Hales Ford Bridge, more that I've seen lately but still not enough to fish for. I poked around here and there on my way up lake. It was getting light when I started trolling as I was approaching R37. I was marking fish but they looked like small marks. Sure enough, in 5 minutes I got the first fish, an 18" right near R37. Only 5 minutes later I got the second fish, another 18". No big marks were showing up. No surface activity either.
I made one pass around inside Indian Creek and then headed out. Still only marking an occasional small fish. I worked my way up to Grimes, in and out Grimes, and kept going. I got up to Harbor Ridge, looked around and kept going a little farther. I crossed over and started back down lake zig-zagging from points to the channel and back. Nothing. So I pulled up and cruised back to Indian Creek. I trolled the R37 bank and started seeing good marks and good loose groups of fish. I trolled them, jigged on them, and cast to them but couldn't get a bite. Rats

.So I trolled down to R34 and around that bend but saw very little. I cruised down to the R31 area and found nothing. So then I headed back to Hales Ford Bridge and trolled down to Coast Guard point and the adjacent creek. Still nothing. For such a nice day, fishing sucked. Later Joel

I hit the water at dawn and cruised up to Indian Creek. I started marking scattered fish so I set the lines out. Right on the point of Indian CreekI boated a fish. A nice 25" after lines were in for all of 5 minutes! I thought it was going to be a hot day. Wrong!

Inside Indian Creek the fish were popping up one at a time here and there so I started casting the small coves and points. The fish were there but I couldn't get a bite with anything I threw. Very frustrating.

So I decided to head up lake. I checked a couple spots along the way but saw nothing. I started trolling again at Moorman's and saw a few scattered fish but three laps got no results. I cruised farther and went a little past the big trestle and saw even less fish. Maybe I didn't go far enough again.

I took a break and went back to R31 and casted around a while but all I got was practice. I guess I'll try again Monday.

Later
Joel

I started up lake at about 6am looking and poking here and there. There were hardly any scattered fish around R31 like there have been the past 3 weeks. I started trolling outside Indian Creel near R37 and was spotting some scattered fish. As I entered Indian Creek I saw the birds fluttering but some were diving and hitting the water. As I eased around I would see ONE fish bust on top and then go away. 5-10 minutes later another fish would bust up but 300 yards across the bay. Then 5-10 min later another ONE fish some where else. This kept up for over an hour. I stowed the trolling rods and started casting around the points. Nada. I switched out 7-8 different baits but got nothing. I had noticed an old timer casting across the way from the motel and as I passed him we chatted some. He said he got 6-7 fish just sitting there casting a bucktail. I came around and started casting around the area and the little cove there. Still, ONE fish would bust up every 10 min or so. Very frustrating. He got one smallish fish while I was there. Again I was switching out baits trying a bunch of different stuff.

After a few hours of this exercise, I started trolling again. It was windy. Boat control and speed control were tough. I trolled around outside Indian Creek seeing only a few scattered fish. Just past R37 and the boat dock I spotted a "pod" of 6 fish and after turning in their direction I got one to bite. A plump 22". I went around again but the pod was gone. I worked around the R35 bend and kept going to R34. Didn't see anything. I quit.

From all I've been hearing maybe I haven't been going up lake far enough. I do hesitate to run at speed in the dark and low light conditions. I fear hitting debris and damaging my pretty (almost) new boat. But I think I have to try something else. Later Joel

I headed out just before daylight and started hunting. Nothing was showing around the bridge and the creek mouths so I cruised up to R31 and found some scattered fish but much less than last week. So I headed up to my favorite Indian Creek. I started looking outside and was marking some scattered fish all up and down the water column. I made a quick pass inside but saw a lot less fish. A few birds were fluttering but there was no surface activity. So I trolled out of the creek and got the first fish off the "west side" point. An energetic 22". I was still marking scattered fish and a big group was 2 or 3.

So I headed back to around R35 and got the second fish, a little better 24". Still seeing scattered fish so another loop at R35 brought a 17" who thought he was bigger. Still seeing the fish another loop got a heavy hit and I wrestled in a big, fat 31". Zowie! That was it for that area so I kept moving down lake.

I finally got to around R31 when I boated another plump 22". Gees, my arm was getting tired from catching all these fish! I couldn't tempt another one there so I headed for Coast Guard point. On the first second pass I wrangled in a chubby 23". All morning I was finding the fish out over deeper water, 60-90ft. Only the first fish I caught was up shallow (25'). Just to note about side imaging sonar: three of the fish I caught I spotted on the side but not under the boat. Seeing them on the side while trolling I started a turn in that direction and got them. Another note about how far the fish will move to get a bait. Two times Tuesday I marked fish 40-45' while my lures were running 15-20' and got a hook-up. And finally two of the six fish came on the bigger Bomber lure, the others on the small ones. Gee, six fish in six hours, not bad for an old geezer by himself.

Later Joel