We left Good Friday for Tn, and just returned today. We mainly fished Norris, up into the Clinch River. Fish were on the move for the spawn, and hard to keep up with day to day. However, by mid week, I had figured them out, and was able catch decent fish in good numbers. We had the "kids" down over Easter weekend, and the goal was to get every one of them a fish caught by the end of the day Sunday. It worked out, and all 5 kids got to catch at least one striper. Come Monday, it was just my buddy Jeff, and our wives. We'd fish early in the morning, and drive an hour to Cherokee, launch the boat, and get the next morning's bait. We'd fish there of an evening, or go sight seeing around the area. I think we messed up big time, as the girls both caught their first ever striped bass. They are ruined!!!! I guess we are going to have to resort to fibbing to get out to fish without them now!
I never kept close count, but we caught in the neighborhood of 20 to 30 fish a day. About 1/2 that number was small mouth up to 20"!!! Its funny to think that 3 to 4lb small mouth as "pests"!

My Bride and her Cherokee Striper


Jeff's wife who actually got up at 3:30 am to make two of the morning trips.


My buddy Jeff


One of the very few I got to catch last week.

Welcome home! Looks like you got your fix Those are some Dandys!

Nice!

Awesome fish. Looking to try to make the "river trip" later this spring/summer. Did you see any fish breaking the water?

Nice catches......is your fish dripping water or is it trying to fertilize your boat? h.h.

Funny you mention that……the women had NO idea what that was! Most of what we caught were males. The big sows had not come in yet. Notice how far my wife was holding her fish after I told her. They made me keep washing the floor of my boat!!! :rolleyes:

Dave, the water was really low for this time of year. It was also crystal clear, and we could see 15' down in a lot of areas. Because of that, I had to drop down to 12lb fluorocarbon leaders to get bit. We kept our baits right on top, and seen 90% of the fish we caught before they hit. It was really exciting to see 4 or or more big stripers chasing our baits around on top, blowing up on them. It would have been easy to catch some on top water right at daylight. But with 4 people in my boat, casting was not an option. We seen a few individual breaks, but not the schools of fish on top like in the winter months. Most of the breaks were on our baits, or planer boards. The fish were very aggressive, and would often come up and chew on the boards, pulling them down before figuring out they didn't like them!!!!

White bass are real bad about sperm and do-do droppings. Ive washed my boat many times to get the do-do off the carpet. Doesnt take long to learn to handle them with their nozzles pointed away from you..... h.h.

AWESOME!!!

Nice fish Yaz

Jealous.... I gotta do that sometime.

Wow looks like fun. Thanks for sharing the pics!

Looks fun and I need to try it some time we see guys going when we go turkey hunting down there it looks fun. And Congrats to the ladies