Fishing the Clinch...

Fishing the Clinch...

I knew it was going to be one of those trips right away. You now one of those trips that seems to take on a life or at least trajectory all its own. You end up being swept along to wherever it leads you. This all became obvious waiting in line in the Pilot somewhere around Jellico. A few places ahead in line was the most beautiful girl anyone in the place had ever seen. If she wasn't the prettiest girl in Rockcastle County or Whitley or wherever she was from she was certainly prettier than any one in Ohio. And she was obviously not happy. Not happy with the tall boy in the Massey Ferguson hat right behind her. He was trying as quietly and apologetically as he could to smooth things over. And she was having none of it. Finally after paying she turned and said loud enough for everyone in the place to hear, "Billy you can just get in that little Ranger of yours and drive it straight to hell." And she walked out. Billy just kind of stood there helpless and turned to the big hairy guy in the bib overalls behind him who he obviously didn't know and said, "I love her". The giant hillbilly who looked a like an extra from Deliverance said, "Son... I don't blame you a bit"

I guess it's from stopping in strange out of the way locales at all times of the day and night on fishing trips like this but I seem to witness random weirdness like this regularly. In a small town in eastern Ohio last winter chasing hybrid stripers I found myself at the deli counter of one those beer, bait, gas and grocery stores. Behind the counter was a pretty girl making me a ham sandwich and another girl only slightly less beautiful than the prettiest girl in Tennessee. The girl looked up from my sandwich and said, "she thinks she's going to be a star". To which the other replied "well I am, Don't you think I could be a star." Dumb struck and unable to think of something witty I resorted to the truth, "I don't see how you couldn't". I got a sandwich and a"DAMMIT, do not encourage her, DO NOT encourage her" I stopped back in a few months later to find a fat lethargic girl behind the deli counter who seemed uninterested in the world at large much less making me a sandwich. I was afraid to ask in case my star was knocked up living in a trailer instead of gone to LA on a greyhound chasing her dreams.

It was supposed to be a trip for striped bass, or rockfish as everyone down there calls them. After a few days of going in baitshops or talking to other fishermen I found myself wanting to call them that as well. Supposed to be a rockfish trip except for one tiny detail, no one told the rockfish. In four days of fishing 15 to 20 hours a day I saw roughly 10 or 12 caught. All by guides in boats off of a concrete wall that I couldn't reach with my longest cast. Dave was better prepared, he came equipped with a long surf rod that almost but not quite got him out there. He ended up catching three in the four days, one of which was a dandy. Rob caught a nice one on a swimbait after about five casts in a spot I'd just got done casting from for hours. It was strange but but both Rob's fish and Dave's three all came at times when I had wandered off to take a leak or was fishing elsewhere. It was like the fishing god's didn't want me to even see a striper. Not that I didn't catch a lot of fish. Everyone caught a lot of fish. Below the dam were huge baitballs of shad. The biggest ones I've ever seen. Swirling and flowing around like tornados along the bank. Huge white bass and small hybrids would herd the minnows against the face of the dam and the surface would erupt in waves of frightened baitfish. The carnage was unbelievable like something you would see on the Nature Channel. Images of arctic skies filled with millions of birds or huge herds of wildebeest crossing a river filled with crocodiles come to mind. It was easily the most baitfish I've ever seen in forty years of river fishing by a factor of like ten. After throwing a big swimbait till your arm was about to fall off or staring at your rod tip waiting for that bite on your skipjack that never comes all you had to do was tie on a grub and jighead and catch all the white bass you ever wanted to catch to lift your spirits again. These didn't even look like our white bass, so gorged and fattened up on shad were they, they had lost their usual flatness and were round like footballs. You couldn't help but hold them out at arm's length and admire them, exclaiming over and over again, "that's the biggest white bass I've ever seen. And then five minutes later do the same thing. Mixed in were the occasional small hybrid and some big freshwater drum. And even though I couldn't catch a rockfish if I was in a bathtub with one the fish gods thought they would make up for it with blue cats. I think I ended up with more blue cats than everyone else combined. All of which I would have gladly traded for one lousy striper. Not that there is anything wrong with catfish but this lack of stripers was and is personal. As MacArthur said I shall return.

All the bait was not unnoticed by the local bird population which lead to another experience that in and of itself was worth the whole trip. Right in front of us an osprey swooped down and snatched a fish off the surface. Not a power dive into the water but just snatching the thing with it's claws in midflight. Like forty feet in front of us. It circled a bit trying to gain altitude when out of nowhere in comes an eagle. The osprey banks and twists and turn to avoid the eagle. And round and round they go in an aerial dogfight right in front of and over us. Again something straight off of the Nature Channel. speaking of wildlife my favorite sitting rock was also home to a beautiful skink. And one evening I drove over to Fort Loudon to catch some skipjacks for bait and there were like fifteen osprey there fishing. These were catching fish in steep power dives, wonderful to watch. What wonderful country east Tennessee is. If I win the powerball tomorrow and could live anywhere there's no doubt that east Tennessee would be the first place I'd buy a house