First time poster, but long time lurker. I fish TR once in spring and in fall every year for the past 6 years. I always stay at Gobblers Mountain and fish Schooner Creek to Cow Creek.
10/8-My brother and I got on the lake around 8am on. It was a rough day for us. Calm wind and bright sun. My brother lost a good 3+lb LM at the boat on a secondary point. All of morning bites came on wiggle warts. Caught a few on shakey heads and nutech jigs when the sun came out. Went back out around 4pm and fished until midnight. The moon was spectacular. Caught alot of keeper SM on wiggle warts. Switched to plastics at Dark. Caught a 4lb LM at midnight on a senko.
10/9-Got up a 5am and targeted pts that the moon was hitting. Caught some really nice keeper smallmouth on plastics. Switched to my wiggle wart as it got lighter. Caught alot of SM keepers off mainlake points with wood within 10 feet of the bank. The SM were grouped up in the trees and usually had a few fighting for the wart as I was reeling a fish in. Switched to a Nutech jig PBJ as the sun got up and was able to catch a few SM keepers. Storm rolled in about 4:30. Got back out at 6 and fished Kennel Branch. Saw alot of other fisherman. Followed a few boats throwing spinner baits, and they weren't catching much. We were catching alot of short fish with a few keeper LM and SM mixed in. Nothing bigger than 2lbs though. Started Raining hard aroung 10.30 so we called it a night.
10/10-Rained really hard all night and we ended up sleeping in until 9:30. Got out on the water with overcast skies and misty to drizzle rain the rest of the day. Shakey heads ruled the day. I was throwing a 1/4oz round ball and my brother was using a litttle lighter one. We stayed in the area by our resort and had some good luck throwing on top of stumps in creek channels. My bro lost a really good SM. Probably 3+lbs easy. Caught alot of SMs with some keepers mixed in. Move to little cow creek around 3pm. Wiggle wart and shakey head were working great. I caught a 6.1lb LM at 4:30pm off a marked fish attracter using a shakey head. Only caught 1 other short fish off of the rock pile. Moved out to the bluff and started catching some borderline keeper spots. Went back to Schooner creek right before dark and caught alot of bass on the wiggle wart. I also was using a black widow spinnerbait and got a bunch of fish. Lost a good SM at the boat on my wiggle wart. It was definitely close to 3lbs after seeing it jump a few times. I told my bro that morning I should change my hooks out on the wart cause I caught so many fish on it, well I should have done it. Went back to the resort area for some late night fishing and caught alot of fish on plastics again but nothing over 1.5lbs. Wish we could have had the moon for a second night but it was just too cloudy.
We had a blast. A really great trip. Started out slow on Wednesday, but that storm really helped our bite. A special thanks to Bo at Nutechlures. I am not much of a jig fisherman at TR because I lose so many. Not the case this time. We didn't lose any Nutech jigs. I paint my own wiggle warts and had great success with a PBJ and MIssour craw colors during the morning and night. I switched to a green phantom type color during the day.
I am so jealous of everyone of you guys that get to fish this lake on a regular basis. I will try to post some pics. Can't wait to be back in the spring.
Mark