Mid Tenn Classic - 2003

Got to Star Point after worrying that Cordell Hull Memorial Highway was the same as Star Point Road, and walked down to the water. I was surprised it was green and not as clear as expected, and just a little high. I marked a place to watch to see if it rose or dropped during our stay, and went to the office to check in. After drooling over the mounts of smallmouth all over the place, and shaking my head at the huge muskie there, I went to the cabin Fritz had reserved for us. My first thought was that if Vern had that cabin he would be in town looking for new digs!

I was on the pay phone calling Fritz to let him know I had arrived when he drove up. We got moved into the cabin and walked around a little. We walked down to the Huber Hotel on wheels and discussed life a little. Noticed game and fish folks putting in shock boats and went over to talk to them. They told me it was much easier to shock up bass after dark, they would get 3 to 4 times as many after dark as during light since they were up shallow feeding and also the boat did not scare them as much. They were not much help, just told me there were some big smallmouth out there if I could find them and we should be fishing at night!

We ate at the marina restaurant - not great, but what do you expect for an $8 dinner? Moe, Warren, Joe, and maybe some others joined us. Sorry I can’t remember everybody there. After talking to others there Fritz headed for bed after his long drive and I was not far behind.

Fritz and I got a late start Wednesday morning. Woke up freezing - decided I was no longer in the south! I think temps were in the upper 30s. We go the boat in the lake and headed to some places I had marked on a map to check. Water was 63 to 65 degrees, about what I expected. There were a lot of little bass in the cuts in steep banks we were checking out, and we found one on the bed, but we could not find any active fish.

In one creek we fished just before going in, Fritz hooked and lost the only decent fish we were to see in two days. It hit his Senko at the mouth of a cut and came up and threw it. It looked to be a 15 or 16 inch largemouth or spotted bass, a keeper there! That fish was to turn out to be a key. After about six hours of little bass, all under 10 inches long, we headed in.

At the ramp we saw Shawn and Charles and said we would meet them and others in the restaurant at 6:30. When they closed at 8:30 we decided they weren’t coming and we walked up to the lodge. Found out others had decided to go to town to eat. Got to bed early again, resting up for those expected big smallmouth.

Thursday morning Fritz suggested some places, so we headed to them. At one point I was bringing in a spinnerbait and Fritz had cast over me. He reeled in his plug and stopped, and I was looking down at the plug as my spinnerbait came by. A three foot plus brown shadow was following the spinnerbait - either a new world record smallmouth or a muskie. It did not hit.

We spent the rest of the day trying different things in different places with no keepers. I told Fritz about a Top Six years ago where I had to let the Trick worm sink to the bottom and sit still before catching a fish. Did not slow down enough to try it though. Was really frustrated after two days of nothing.

After cleaning up we walked up to the lodge. Moe came in to get his gator ready, and must have taken pity on my disgusted look. He told me the bass were hitting white Senkos and Flukes, but you had to really fish them slowly. He told me to slow down as much as I could stand, then slow down some more. While eating Moe’s great gator Warren told me basically the same thing, and told me to key on anything different on the bank.

Everyone ate all the gator fast and the venison burgers Steve brought disappeared fast. At the meeting everyone seemed to be in a good mood and Fritz and I were allowed to fish together the first day. We headed out to get some sleep and discussed our plan. We both agreed to go where Fritz lost the one decent fish and slow down, wear out those places and see what happened. I had little hope of catching decent fish, but when Dave went over the rules it was pointed out there was no lower limit on spots and you could keep one smallmouth under 16 inches. I told Randy I would keep anything I caught, no matter how small, although some folks seemed to think that would be embarrassing! I would rather weigh in little fish, if the rules allow, than no fish! Follow the rules but use whatever they allow!