Bob Smith
bob@bassinbobs.com
hook1.com
"BOBS LOCAL RIVER REPORTS"
TENSAW RIVER
August 25-26, 2001
Water Temperature: 80's
Water Clarity: Clear To Moderate Stain
Well, Tensaw sure put a hurtin' on the 16th MXS Bass Club this weekend. Extremely low wights and very few fish. All things considered I thought it would be a pretty good tournament -
boy was I wrong!
Kevin Friend and I got to the river Friday at safe light to do some prefishing. We launched at Cliff's and headed out exploring. We went without a bite until 9am and then we started getting sporadic fish. The best bait turned out to be a buzzbait - 12 good solid keepers on the topwater throughout the day, and then soft plastics. Around 2:30 pm the bite picked up and we put quite a few fish in the boat. The tide was full high when we launched and falling most of the day. Around 3:30 it was approaching low, and the fishing was the best.
Water temps were mid 80's most of the day, sky was sunny and calm then turning mostly cloudy with a 5-10 wind. Water clarity varied from clear to a moderate stain.
OK, tournament morning rolled around with high expectations. Tony Frye and I headed off up towards Mifflen Lake where I had found some fish. The first area we worked was at the I-65 bridge where we got a few bites and I lost a keeper on the buzzbait when it jumped. Then nothing. We moved further up the lake and I caught a few tiny bass on a spook!
Between 8:30 and 2:30 I went without a bite. Finally a fish hit my
Cutthroat worm and I missed it! Meanwhile, south of Cliff's and north of the RR tracks Tony pulled a pair of decent keepers. Finally the day was over and I posted a massive ZERO!
Day two was not a lot better. We did get some fish to bite though. They were holding extremely tight to cover in the faster water as the tide fell. My Baby Eel landed me a pair of just keepers and Tony got a single keeper on a worm. It seemed most of the fish were holding on wood Sat and then on grass Sunday. There was no pattern that we could put together any
of the three days. Deeper banks seemed best later in the day, especially after the sun was high and the water falling. Strikes were real hard to feel Saturday and a bit more robust Sunday. Given the conditions (falling tide, current, etc..) it should have been pretty good fishing, but its never a sure thing and this time it was quite nearly no-thing!!!
July 28, 2001
Water Temperature: 84
Water Clarity: Heavy Stain
Where should I start... OK, at the beginning: Jared Albright and I left Crestview at 3am and got on the water at Cliff's Landing at 5am (not bad with stopping for gas and stuff, plus driving my old Suburban). The river was at high tide (or just about at high tide) and then falling around noon. Water was heavy stain to light mud, and 84 degrees. Sky was partly cloudy with scattered showers. Wind was calm then around 10 from the south.
Started off checking out some docks south of the railroad trestle.
Didn't get a bump. At 5:45am I stepped on the foot control to move us a bit and head a sickening "Tick"! (which I head a few months ago) and the pedal went loose. I managed to snap the second steering cable this year. I was not very happy at this point. Back at the ramp I took everything apart and appraised the situation. It was bleak. The threaded end which connects to the foot pedal has snapped about 3/4 the way down the threads. After trying to reattach it in a modified position which would have at least let me use the control I gave up in frustration. Instead I pulled the cable from the control and with the assistance of a pair of vice-grips made a hand operated foot control. What a pain to use. Hold the cable and push or pull with the vice grips to turn the motor - I had come to far to turn around and go home with 20 minutes fishing time.
Went upriver to look at a few spots and spent most of the morning in Mifflen Lake (along with a LOT of other people). The bite was slow to nonexistent and we tried everything we could think of . We managed a few short fish, three keepers and a flounder for the day. The only redeeming thing was that no one else we talked to was catching anything either. About 10 the rains came. Which was alright since it was getting a bit warm. We fished under the I-65 bridge as the rain continued for about fifteen minutes, then headed out onto the river to see if there were any fish willing to bite there. The tide was falling pretty good now as we worked the mouths of several creeks. Nothing. Finally I caught a nice keeper on a Baby Eel and then it was time to go. Our fish came from 1 - 6 foot of water and wood was mandatory for us to get bit. Strikes were very light, I actually never felt a fish bite - the line moved a little and the fish was just there. All in all a pretty bad day, I could have saved the 200 plus mile drive (and tank of gas) and done as well on Yellow River. I would have been home by 6:30 with the broken trolling motor.
July 20, 2001
Water Temperature: 88-91
Water Clarity: Clear
John Kauffman and I ventured over to fish Tensaw today. Neither of us had ever been on the river so it was to be a learning experience. After getting a late start we were on the water by about 9:30 am and we fished till 6 pm.
Water temp ranged from 88 to 91 degrees depending on where we were. The tide was high and began falling just before we called it a day. Sky was sunny and wind was mostly calm.
Starting out of Cliff's Landing we went exploring for a little while and began fishing some lily pads on Basin Negro Lake. Several fish came up on my buzzbait and I caught a few short fish and lost a keeper. Wood was key it seemed and where there were logs in the pads the probability of a strike increased tremendously. Further up the Lake we stopped and fished the area around Owl Creek and Smith Bayou. We pulled a few more short fish and a few keepers on plastics (a centipede and a Baby Eel). Color didn't seem to play a major role as we caught fish on black, watermelon, red shad and moccasin shad.
Our explorations next took up back down Basin Negro Lake to the river and we fished the east bank between the railroad trestle and Cliff's. Again, plastics were the dominant bait and we got both keepers and short fish along here. The fish were holding extremely tight to the trees in 1 - 4 foot of water along steeply dropping banks. Often the boat was in more than 20 foot of water. Later we fished some docks and again caught fish. The buzzbait brought a few short and a single keeper off the docks. While there were stretches without bites, for the most part we were getting bit pretty consistently most of the day. With the relentless sun beating down on us we fished through the middle of the day, and still caught some fish. When we called it a day at 6 PM we had managed probably 20 fish in the boat, several missed strikes, on large mudfish and 9 keeper bass.
I estimate my limit would have weighed around 7 pounds or so and John's 4 fish probably between 8 and 9 (he had the biggest fish - a crab crunching largemouth about 4 pounds).
Though we did not venture very far from the launch we found fish almost everywhere we stopped. It would take a long time to explore any significant part of the river so more trips are most assuredly in the future for me. I really like this river.
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