July 13-14 Fishing report

[Mark]

We've been waiting all summer for the river level to fall in the 800-900 cfs range. Me and a buddy put in at Whitten on Wed late afternoon and fished the stretch from Tumbling Shoals back to Whitten. Bites were slow and fish were peckish - had to be ready to pull the trigger as we were only going to get one shot at the nibblers. Buddy landed a 16" after about an hour. Action picked up after about 6:30. Ended up with 2 nice fish a piece in 14-16 range.

We did the Turner to Tumbling Shoals stretch the next day. It rained hard in the dawn hours and delayed our start. Forecast wasn't great but looked like we had a couple hours break from rain in the afternoon. We put in about 1:00 and pretty much the same story - bites few and far between, and fish were just tapping at the hook. We fished hard until 5:00 - granted not ideal time in the heat of the day - and again landed 2 nice fish a piece in the 14-16" range with a few small ones scattered throughout the day.

Both agreed that we are spoiled from previous years when 20 + fish days were not uncommon. Others we talked to were having the same luck - although we saw very few people fishing or floating either day. .  We talked to a couple guys at Turner who just finished fishing the Greer stretch and landed a couple 17" fish. They came across the conservation people doing electro shock in the trophy area. I would be interested in seeing the results. I had heard rumors of stocking being down because of worries of disease in Montauk hatchery and flooding at Bennett Springs hatchery. Certainly makes sense to me as my last 3-4 trips in the past year have not been the most successful trips.

Still a beautiful river, cold water felt great on a 95 degree day. Always interesting to see the changes in the river after spring floods.

[Ham]

Those numbers certainly seem low. That stinks because we had a really good trip last fall and I was hoping to hit that section again later this year. Our numbers were not White River numbers, but the fish were all nice and healthy and we caught somewhere in that 20 fish a day range .

[steve l]

Mark, what were you guys throwing at them?

[Mark]

powereggs

[Brian Sloss]

The stocking schedule is back on track, they have been here every other week since the hatchery issues were resolved, stocking the white ribbon area.  They are probably still a little behind, but will probably stock later in the year than normal.  Our biggest issue down in the white ribbon area is everyone keeps a limit of fish and more people have boats than they used to.  20 years ago most people couldn't get off work at 5 and motor up or down river and limit out in an hour, but now more people can and do.  They need to up the numbers they stock down there or more anglers need to limit what they keep.  Not scientific, just an opinion.  They were out stocking this week.  I am sure the electro shock results were fine, it has been fishing pretty good on the upper part and frankly I have had good and not so good reports on the white ribbon area depending on who was fishing and when in relation to the stocking truck they fished.

 

[Mark]

Oh yeah, you can just about judge the fishing by the number of boat trailers at Whitten. If you pull in and see several trailers, you can bet there was a recent stocking and a free meal for the locals.

[Ham]

I'll wait and go in October or November when everyone is busy hunting and cant be bothered with the fishing.

[Lvn2Fish]

I was there the 17th and had a really good day from Greer to Turners. Also had a guy we fished around all day, and he was doing well.