[Opry99er]

Hit the Calfkiller River with my son today. Absolutely beautiful day, but warm and blue skies... Amounted to a rough day fishing...


Hit the upper Calfkiller first. This looked like prime trout waters, but they don't stock it until late November. Tossed some Panther Martins and kastmasters, but no takers.

Even tried weightless nightcrawlers and a jig under a float. Nothing... not a stir.


Moved several miles down river... We spent the majority of the day here trying to get into some warmwater species... My nemesis, the catfish. This water was a really interesting emerald green and just looked surreal... so quiet and peaceful.

We had no luck here... skunked again without even a nibble. We were using livers on two rods, crawlers on one and a cut bluegill from the freezer on the other. Nada. Further on down we went... Now very close to the town of Sparta. Same river conditions, a little different color to the water, but still the same still, quiet waters and no fish.

The fall colors were beautiful and we had a good time... eating Cheetos, making up some plastic jigs, tying rigs for catfish and such. A good time with the boy.

Anyway, we can't WAIT to get a boat. Would get us off the limited-access shoreline of these spots and get into some better waters, tailraces, off-shore structure..... Hopefully sooner rather than later. I'd hate to miss the fall and early winter madness on smallies and such.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Opry99er]

Thanks hobie and PD...

Yea, it's beautiful up here on the plateau.... Just no good fishing other than LMB and panfish. I'm tired of both.

Calfkiller through this stretch looks like PRIME catfish and drum waters, they're just not in there... It's like a high mountain lake with 100% fish kill... The fish SHOULD be there!!!! It's the perfect location... But no matter how many times you cast into that winter-killed lake, you still won't catch a fish.... I'm living in the Twilight Zone out here.

 

[Opry99er]

Thanks Boon. Not so much water up here on the plateau, but an hour east and we are in the heart of the catfishing universe. An hour north and you're in Smallie heaven. 45-50 minutes west north west and you're in Striper country on the Cumberland River.

Around here... Just some panfish lakes and empty rivers. But an hour isn't too bad of a drive... Just more than I can manage more than once every couple weeks.

 

[Opry99er]

Yea. It has been completely ridiculous. These are all new waters to me, but I have seen guys fishing and catching using similar bait and tactics in these areas. A big deal is the boat... Cats out here in these big rivers and reservoirs like off-shore structure... A creek channel meeting the big river channel, a sand bar formed by hundreds of years of upstream silt hitting a rock line on the river bottom, etc. Being able to find, identify, and reach these locations is crucial... Tough to see a big hump 60 yards out from shore and 30 feet underwater while standing on the bank.

I have a little more than half the money saved up for the boat I want... Just need to keep plugging away.

 

[Opry99er]

From boats. A bit further out than I can reach with my rods.

One guy (I posted pix on another thread) uses 12' surf rods at Kingston city park with 100# braid and a 5 oz no-roll sinker from shore and can get out to a sand bar 120-130 yards out. Best I can do with my 8' is about 80-90 yards... Can't get it out there.

He CPRs and I posted a pic or two of some 50+ pound blue cats.

 

[Opry99er]

http://www.coloradofisherman.com/forum/1398650-post19.html