Spent the last 22 days at Dale Hollow
I tell you WHAT.....that was a blast.
The Work Part:
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I work from home, so I was able to setup a "work area" in the cabin and get an 8 hour shift in AND fish 4-5 hours every day. Basically, on the days I fished and worked, I was up by 4:00am, and on the water by no later than 6:00am, and usually I was on the water at 5:00am or so. I fished until 9:00am on those days, and then headed back to the cabin to be AT WORK and functional by 9:30am CST. I worked my regular shift from 9:30 - 5:30 or so.
A few days, when weather was setting up perfectly, I left work at 3:30 or so, fished for a few hours, and then made up the hours that evening. There was PLENTY of work to keep me busy, and I made sure I had organized my schedule effectively enough to allow me to do that, and to also be successful and effective while working.......
The work part worked out better than I could have ever imagined.......
The fishing Part:
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* Out of 22 days, I fished at least 3 hours each day except for 2. Over every weekend, I fished Thursday, Friday, Sat and Sunday, except for last weekend, I fished Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun. I did that because Embrey was down, and I wanted to fish with him.
* Over the 20 days, I averaged 8 fish a day, with 22, 15, 18, 12, 12, 11 as my "big" days. Some days I caught 1 or 2, others I didn't catch a fish....but hey that is fishing.
* Only 1 over was caught during that time, but we had 4-5 that were extremely close.....meaning within 1/4 inch or so of being an over.
* Lots of Jig fish, lots of Float and Fly Fish, and lots of Tail spinner fish......Most came off a Jig, with the second most on the Fly. All the bigger fish were on the Jig or the Fly.
* I caught most of my Spots and Largemouth on the Tail Spinner.
* I fished all over the lake, and I mean ALL over........ Mostly mid lake areas, but I also fished down the Obey and Down Ilwill creek, all the way to Wisdom Dock, and even past Wisdom in the river.
* Water temps are abnormally high, and every morning about 20 minutes before first light, I guarantee you could pound some serious largemouth in the backs of creeks and over very shallow grass . The largemouth were blasting the shad for about 30-40 minutes, then they were done. I talked to a guy who was buzz baiting last week and caught 15-20 a day for the entire week doing that.
* Creeks are definitely beginning to turn, and some may already be done......Turnover didn't really bother me too much.
* The Warm weather has sucked. I think the bait is confused :) :) . NO fish on the fly were really caught on bluffs, or on those traditional December spots. I did catch a lot on the fly, but most every one were caught on points and lead ins to areas they were "headed" for normal winter spots......
There are a MILLION pictures on my facebook page............Here is the album: [url]https://www.facebook.com/GeoFisher/media_set?set=a.10201359955396391.1073741863.1698902443&type=3[/url]
I "might" do this every year if I can swing it. It was GREAT.
