Troutgirl

Watauga will be about 4-5 feet below it's summer elevation of 1959 feet, above sea level by the time you get there. They've been generating hard and sluicing for weeks. I think TVA will soon slow down the water to help with the Mississippi River flooding that's building up.....??? You must have been there when the lake's elevation was 1962-3. It's getting back to normal, it seems. What does a monkey do with a football.....? Rip it in half to see what toy surprise is inside....?

The doctor appointment went well. He said I had a sinus infection. He gave me some pills that dried up my sinuses. I feel somewhat better already. I'll probably make the derby. Would Derby be a better name for these events? Southeastern Trout Trollers Derby....??? I'm with you on that article. If my downrigger was broken, I could do quite well with Dipsy Divers and Lead Core outfits. I've never had smoked Laker.....just fried and baked.

Now that I can get my boat out, I've run into a new problem. I got bronchitis over the weekend. I'm going to the doctor in a short while. I hope that some antibiotics might get me well enough to fish by the weekend. My brother is really psyched to come. He's a former athlete and just craves competition. I'd like to meet the folks I talk to on the fishing forums as much as doing the actual fishing. I hope to make a quick recovery. I've spent the past week polishing and tweaking my equipment. I really wanna attend!

I'm envious of ya'all !!! A nasty cold has struck me over the weekend. I'm gonna see the doctor tomorrow. I hope some antibiotics will patch me up enough to fish this coming Saturday.

I wanna see a Panther. I saw one with a pair of kittens about 100 yards away from the Calderwood Powerhouse back in the 70's. We went to Chihowee to fish and got there very early. We decided to go up to the powerhouse to see how hard it was generating. It was still very dark when up from the water came the mother cat, with a long tail, followed by two young ones. Right through the illumination of our headlights ran the 3 of 'em headed back into the woods. There were a few back then, now....??? There's been a couple of 'em hit by cars over in North Carolina in recent years. I'm rooting on Panthers and Yetis to show up for portraits.....

The sunrise will be at 7:28 a.m. It ought to be just light enough to shove off by a few minutes after 7 a.m.

I still have no idea if I can come. My boat is still stuck in that swamp that my sister calls a yard. My trailer was submerged for 24 hours when Fort Loudoun Lake was at it's high point. Now I need to check the grease in my wheel bearings before I roll, when I can roll. Funny thing about the tournament time, the solunar table says 4-6 p.m. is the best time to fish. The moon will be at 91% the night before. The best fishing is likely to be after weigh-in, whenever it is, 2 or 3 p.m.

It's about 100 yards. The boat is stuck for now. There's all sorts of attempts to remove non-native fish going on across the west. It's illegal to turn loose any Lake Trout that you catch in Yellowstone Lake because they eat the native Cutthroats. You can keep a huge number of Brook Trout in Colorado's White River system because they're a threat to native Cutthroats. There's lakes in Alaska where you can keep all the Northern Pike you can catch because it was a mistake to introduce them there. They eat way too many Salmon and Trout. Walleye were introduced to the the Columbia River system and they're doing well and getting huge but at the expense of Salmon and Trout.

I can't get my boat out till it's dry enough to get my boat out without damaging my sister's yard. That's uncertain given the off-the-chart soil moisture and frequent heavy rain events. This rainy pattern has been persistent for 9 months. It's getting old!

I can't possibly declare until close to the date. My trailer, but not my boat, was under water Sunday. I don't know when it's gonna be dry enough to get my boat out..

That sounds like you need a new water impeller. You change then in most outboards every two years.

I've seen some models where you can have an optional electric motor for when you get too tired to paddle.

I used to do a wider variety of fishing. As I've gotten older, I've pared down what types of fishing I do to mostly trolling and bait fishing. My shoulder gets sore from constant casting.

I hope I can come but....my boat is winterized and sitting in my sister's backyard. It has to be dry for me to get it out. I have to drive across the grass, no driveway. Since I put the boat there last November, the only time it's been dry enough to get it out was maybe two days last week....??? It's back to a swamp again, presently. As long as this heavy rain persists, I'm grounded. I hope this summer's and fall's rain is lighter than this past year's precipitation. Heavy rain and constant generating worked against me everyplace I fished last fall. On my last trip to Santeetlah, the thermometer said trout should be 70-100 feet deep. Due to the many humps, the deepest I dared to run the downrigger was 50 feet. We caught 3 nice Rainbows but caught more White Bass than anything else. On my last trip to Watauga, all our strikes were between 100-115 feet deep. All the generating and sluicing depleted the very cold, trout water, to well over 100 feet and down. Even Fontana Lake ran out of it's famously cold discharge. Fontana is 480 feet high and a little over 400 feet deep at full pool. The penstock, water in-take, for generating must be at least 200 feet down. Due to constant generating at full-tilt, even mighty Fontana ran out of it's coldest water. It's discharge must have been 60 degrees or more....? On my last trip to Chilhowee, the whole lake was 65 degrees. The water coming out of Calderwood's powerhouse was 65 degrees. This was in November! Historically, the water should of been in the 50-54 degree range. We got zero Trout strikes. We kept occupied catching Yellow Perch and a few Smallmouths. Rainbows get lethargic at 65 degrees and that's about 2 degrees from lethally warm for Lakers. Lethargic Trout don't feed much, it at all. I think that climate change is gonna raise the average, yearly precipitation in our region. Increased generating will drive drive the Trout deeper in most of our Trout lakes, especially when so much of it was in the summer and fall like this past year. I hope this year's average precipitation in the Tennessee Valley is less than 60 inches. According to TVA it was 67 inches for 2018. Lower will mean better and shallower Trout fishing. Average precipitation for Knoxville is about 49 inches......

From your description Mr. 'Taker, that makes it sound like most of the bait is at 40 feet and up....? That makes sense to me. I'd love to get my boat out and go but I think that it's still maybe a bit too early. I keep it in my sister's backyard and have to drive over the grass to get it. I was over there today and it was maybe dry enough to get it out....for the first time in at least two months. I'm sorry your trailer has been so rude to you! I'm gonna hold back for a few more weeks....unless we get some more weather like the last few days real soon. There's only so much winter I can take! I've got some new Yellow Perch colored plugs to try. There are Yellow Perch in most of the Trout lakes I fish, except Watauga and possibly South Holston.....??? I might try 'em in Watauga anyway. Lakers may have the instinct to hit delicious, petite Perch...??? Chilhowee is overrun with Perch lately. When the big predator fish grow back, they'll take care of the excess. One of us needs to start a new thread for this year. I'm thinking of a new title like: Fishing The Trout Lakes 2019......