I ramped in Vets day from Kendall Rec Ramp and spent the day on the lower end and up in Indian. Lots of little shad way up close to 76 falls, in the bay to the left facing the falls, and in the bay before you get into the Falls area. Saw very, very sporadic one fish or 2 fish pops at the surface from about 730-1030 am.
Left there and concentrated on main lake trolling lures. High winds made that lots of fun. Redfins looked like WWII subs trying to surface and crash dive. Gulls were swirling and busting the surface, but could not pick out any jumps thru about 530pm. May have been the whitecaps were hiding them. Went back up to 76 Falls area to close out the trip. In the bay before the last turn to the falls, again lots of shad up. Lots of surface feeding going on near the rock and clay banks in the area. Started throwing a chrome spook, and on the second cast hooked up. Turned out to be a 2 pound KY bass. Fished there for only about 40 minutes till the sunset, and caught 9 more all running 1-3 pounds, but not a Striper to be found.
Think the high winds and first day of Northeast winds had an impact. Guess I could have live baited but just had more fun running and gunning.
I would keep an eye on these areas, as the amount of shad up in there means sooner or latter the schools gonna find its way back in there and in those confirned areas ........well Bernie bar the door!
Side bar strange things on this trip.
a. Tried to tilt the motor before ramping in to get my trailering pin out of the motor mount and the battery was near dead. When I got on the ramp, had to fire the main with jumpers from the trolling motor battery. Once fired up, I saw why the battery had died. Last trip I was out was in Mid October, and since then sitting in the driveway the fish finder was on and running the whole time.
b. Fish finder didn't want to turn on and was warm......imagine that......duh. So, I dismounted the fishfinder screen, gave it a soaking in cold lake water, wiped it off, and mounted it back up, and now it worked just fine. Lake Cumberland water cures all.
c. Ran across the lake to get to Indian Creek busting white caps as I went, and decided to trim the motor down to make the ride smoother. But the engine would not trim down passed level. Cut the throttle back 1/2, and walked to the stern with the helm unattended, to see what was up. Yep, since the battery was dead and would not raise the motor before ramping in, it never dawned on me to take the pin out once the motor was running. So layed flat on top of the transom, and reached down while the motor was running to grab the pin. Pulled the pin, but darn near fell overboard doing it. Regained my balance and footing and stood up just in time to see the boat, still at half speed, was now about 50 foot from a head on with the bank. Ran to the helm and steered clear. Count that as the 2nd, third, and 4th "duhs" for the day.
d. Injury to insult: Coming home on the Etown bypass, I was running behind a pick up truck carrying house hold goods and artificial plants. The bypass road surface is uneven, and the guys pickup at 60 mph was bouncing around. That along with 25 mph gusting winds had the stuff in his open pickup bed bouncing around. I backed off, but was really still closer than I should have been following. The truck hit a rise and depression in the road, and a 5 food fake Christmas tree with its plastic mounting pot attached to it "jumped up", then got caught in the trucks 60 mph speed, and the 25 mph head winds. I could see the flying Christmas tree taking a bead on my van all in slow motion, and watched it land about 4 feet in front of my rig. No time to react, I ran over it, with a thud, and a bunch of tinkle, tinkle, tinkle.
I don't really feel bad about eh day, the bass hitting top water made the trip!
Kendall Ramp had a free ramp fee for Vets day. Thanks to the Corps for that.
Only thing I just can't live with.............I KILLED A CHRISTMAS TREE!


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