Dale Hollow this week....

[elnutsmalljaws]

The first thing I can say is that I have been spoiled by all my HUGE fish that I have caught at Dale Hollow since Dec. 2004 and this week HUMBLED me to no end. Absolute perfect weather Mon thru Fri in that the sun NEVER shined, rained most of the day Monday, ALL day on Tuesday, Some on Wednesday, and very little on Thursday but rained again this morning. Put in Monday morning before daylight and 63 degrees per the TV but it had dropped to 37 by noon. Massive Cold front came thru as you can tell by the temp drop and pretty much shut down the bite for us for 3 days.

Mon - Cliff spanked me 3-0, yes 3-0. I got no bites all day long, Cliff got 3 and that was it for the day. Wet a line from Lillydale to South of Mitchell creek, you name it Deep grass, black shale points, black shale banks, limestone points, islands, bluffs, pretty much every structure on the lake. Second day EVER since 2005 that I was SKUNKED on Dale Hollow in the winter time. All fish were caught on the fly. All 3 fish came early and then when the bottom dropped out of the thermometer nothing.

Tue - We tied 3-3 for the day. Again no pattern, fished all different structures caught one here and one there. Hens lands one on a jig and the other 5 all came on the fly. Rained ALL day long and high 30's for the temps which as anyone that fishes the winter at Dale makes it a LONG COLD day on the water.

Wed - Monster day today. I finally get on the board and SPANK Hens a whopping 2-1. The second of my fish came within eyesight of Wolf River Marina and we had made cast from there to First Island and everywhere in between. Again, no pattern, one bite here one bite there and the last bite in the Wolf.

Thur - We never saw or heard any wildlife at all the previous 3 days and thur was totally different. Birds, squirrels and other wildlife stirring in the woods and it was the first and only stable weather day of the week plus stable water. We caught a few early on this one particular spot which was the first time we had multiple bites in the same area all week. Cliff caught 3, I caught 1, plus Cliff broke off one, I broke off one at my leader then retied and very next cast broke one off above my bobber on my fireline. This was the first time I have EVER broke one off at the fireline. The first breakoff for me was a good 3 1/2 Smallie for I saw her clearly as she jumped. Guess just a kink in my lines both times. He continues to spank me around and has me doubled up at 6-3 for the day as we run this pattern of black shale chunk rock banks with about 60 degree slope or so. Then IT happens. We move to another bank on the same pattern and Cliff gets hung up and he tells me to move to the front and run the trolling motor. Not much on standing up on a pro pole, at least in the past, but after losing all this weight it was much easier than I thought it would be physically on me. As he is putting on a new leader and I am in the front, WHAM, I land a 2 1/2 lb spot, then WHAM a 2lb Smallie, WHAM another Smallie about the same size and Hens is still trying to get back in the game but he keeps getting interrupted by manning the net. He breaks off and it is 6-3 and before he cast again it is 6-6. He jumps up in the back seat and I tell him to get back up front for it is his boat but he says he wants to see just how many fish we would have caught if I was up front instead of him. He rocks and fires his FIRST cast after tieing and puts too much mustard on the hot dog and gets hung up, not a happy camper so he snaps it off. He is now re-tieing his second in a row and I make a cast and hook and land a 3-11 Spot. Beautiful fish, great pictures. This is my second biggest Spot of my life next to a 4-6 that I caught at Dale in 2005. This the last fish of the day, 13 total with 3 break offs and compared to the others that came down and stayed at Hendricks as well and fished that day we did pretty well. One boat had 3, one boat had 6 and one boat (got his butt kicked by a 6 inch trout, you know who you are Reynolds) and caught only 1, plus another boat that had 1 trout. Our 13 looked pretty good compared to the rest and we were very pleased to say the least. What made the day even better was when 6 of us met at the Mexican restaurant in Celina that night for supper and had a good hour and a half of food, lies and truths.

Fri - I knew it was going to be a dad day today. High pressure coming thru temps going to soar to 60+, wind howling 20-25 out of every direction at any time (that is why they call it the Holler). Fished again with 3sons so there was 3 of us tossing the fly and if 3sons had not caught a suicide 12 incher then we would have blanked. 1 fish all day, boat on the trailer by 1 and homeward bound we came. Rained off and on all morning with wind howling, temps rising and by the time we go Mike's and Cliff's boat on the trailers it was almost high blue skies and suntan lotion weather. My experience with Dale has always been that one day with a High like today after a week of cold below temps will make that day a bad bite day. It was for us. Sort of like a big cold front hitting the spring bite and knocking it off almost instantly. We had a major low pressure come thru Monday morn and major high pressure come thru Fri morning.

Pretty much only one pattern worked and that was thursday. Nothing else worked for more than one fish. We pretty much could have gotten a bite or fish then left before making another cast except for Thursday. Great forecast, great weather mon thru thur except that it took a massive cold front monday a couple of days to get the water and fish stable. If you told me that I would have blanked 2 of the 5 days before going I would have told you that you were nuts with what the forecast looked like. But that is Dale and it can be very finicky at times and I am HUMBLED as one can get. I expect to catch a 5 pounder every time I launch on that lake just because of my track record of what I have caught versus the amount of time spent on the water. No more will I expect that when I launch. Every fish came on the fly, Duck / chart / and any other color with these 2, red, blue, black purple, fish dope the head only and 11 foot leader being the best.

Always great to spend time with my buddy Hens plus with 3sons, Bassman30, Preston, Reynolds and his Brother in Law, plus seeing Gunpilot made it all the better. Had a great time as supper Thur night and looking forward to doing it again.

Looking to get several together to go down around the Marting Luther King holiday weekend for 3-4 days. Anyone interested send me a PM and if we can get enough Hendricks Creek will give us a good rate on all the cottages.

[BanditMan]

Still sounds like a heck of a trip to me. Glad you made it back still feeling O.K.

[redneckshadrap]

Loosen your friggin drag after the hookset..................LOL!@!!!!!!

Glad to see you all have a good one. Cliff seems to have survived. Netboy stats were close. Another skunk...2 in two wks.....

But knowing you it wasn't for the lack of trying...

Billy

BTW,,,the 90 jigheads are under construction.....

Laurel on the 29'th....

[jmike]

Hey Elnut, Reynolds here, you guys shoulda stuck around a little longer friday. Got rid of my stinking skunk from thursday early, with a 16"er. Then when the sun came out, me and TruckerEd found some nice sunny banks to get out of the wind and catch some rays, not fish(need that vitamin D you know). Decided to go back the spot Ed skunked me on the evening before. We had already fished it twice earlier in day when it was nice and windblown, with no luck. Now it was almost slick calm and guess what? In ten minutes we had one apiece and I lost one(it wern't no trout )nether was the dink on thur. by the way.
It was great to see you again and meet Cliff. Hey! you forgot to tell everyone that Hendricks Creek Marina is your new training camp. That 1/3 mile walk to the boat slips from the cabins, plus hill climb on return back. Felt more like a half mile to me.

Try to make each day better than the day before!

[gunpilot]

Glad you caught a few and it was great to see you up and around. I will be down on the MLK weekend.

[phoenix]

Glad to hear you guys caught a few, Dale can be very tuff at times. Sorry I wasn't at the houseboat this past week, you guys that stayed at Hendricks walked right past it everytime you went to your boat. Could have met some of ya. Maybe I'll see ya MLK weekend.

[skunked]

monday we had 11, tuesday 18, wednesday 14, and thursday 13. didnt fish friday due to the wind but had a great week with 75% on the fly and the others on jigs

[elnutsmalljaws]

monday we had 11, tuesday 18, wednesday 14, and thursday 13. didnt fish friday due to the wind but had a great week with 75% on the fly and the others on jigs

Skunked is now the official FNF authority on Dale Hollow Lake. Catching 57 fish in 4 days versus our 25 over the same 4 days and Headrick at the One Stop said NOBODY caught anything over 5 or 6 Mon, Tue or Wed but did hear of one boat catching 14 on Thursday. You crushed everyone on the lake the first 3 days easily. I don't know where you were fishing but we did not see 5 boats on the water any day Mon thru Wed but more came out to play on Thur. Sounds like you had a GREAT week and I would not tell a sole about what you did or where you fished because believe me, I know the lake and we ran every spot that I knew from Wolf River Marina to Horse Creek and then some with all different structure and I do know that I know how to fish the fly. Some catch them some don't. You did and we didn't. Great week.

[Chubminnow]

You might of had one of the most humbling weeks on Dale that you've ever had, but your week on the lake beat my week at work all to heck and back!

Regarding that trout, you made mention of someone catching a trout...did they catch it on the fly or live bait or what? A couple of years ago I saw some guys post a picture of a nice trout they caught out of Dale while fishing for smallmouth. I'm kind of wondering if a Dale trout is just a luck of the draw sort of thing....do people hook into them accidentally or do people actually target trout on Dale?

[gunpilot]

Caught two on the same bank (1 yr apart) on a duck feather fly with a 10 ft leader. I for sure waasnt targeting them but was glad to get the bite.

[rickhise]

Skunked is now the official FNF authority on Dale Hollow Lake. Catching 57 fish in 4 days versus our 25 over the same 4 days and Headrick at the One Stop said NOBODY caught anything over 5 or 6 Mon, Tue or Wed but did hear of one boat catching 14 on Thursday. You crushed everyone on the lake the first 3 days easily. I don't know where you were fishing but we did not see 5 boats on the water any day Mon thru Wed but more came out to play on Thur. Sounds like you had a GREAT week and I would not tell a sole about what you did or where you fished because believe me, I know the lake and we ran every spot that I knew from Wolf River Marina to Horse Creek and then some with all different structure and I do know that I know how to fish the fly. Some catch them some don't. You did and we didn't. Great week.

I was there Monday in that rain for 5-7 hours off twin island and only saw one boat in a distance moving it was a tuff day for this perch jerker, your catch was something to try to imagine..congrats

[skunked]

i think i saw you, were you in a red triton? i know that i saw you monday and thursday if you were.