Was open for business today. Took the tube out for a couple hours this morning. More one the tube later. After i had been on the water for an hr or so a kayak came along. It was Brad R. It was a real pleasure meeting him. Really nice guy. He was showing another guy some places for an upcoming bass tourney and he pulled alongside me for about 15 mins. I showed him the rig I use and I took a couple of fish while he was there. All in all it was a good day.

Normally I fish for fun but today I was fishing for the freezer. I teach HS and school starts back up on the 28th so my Friday fishing sessions are coming to an end. Like a dummy I forgot to take my phone out today so I couldn't get photos as they came out of the water. That had to wait until I got home. Not sure how many sunfish I caught today but it was a lot and some of them were really good fish. I turned all the bigger ones loose and kept an even 20 between 6 and 7 inches long. Perfect eating size.

On my last cast with my last piece of crawler I got a good channel cat of about 5 lbs. The last 2 times I've been on Athens I have taken cats on a jighead tipped with a piece of crawler. I'm thinking I need to spend a day on the lake just targeting cats. A 5 lb cat on my ultra light rod and 4 lb line was a pretty decent tussle.



However on a sad note I lost the float tube today. A float tube is basically an outer shell with air bladders inside. When I was pulling mine out I noticed a tear about 18 inches long in the outer shell. probably dry rot over the years. The tube is no longer safe to use. I hate to lose that one because it was my late father's. He used it for 8 or 9 years back home in CO and I got it in 2013 when lung cancer took him. Float tubes normally don't last more than 9 or 10 years so this really doesn't surprise me but I still hate to see it happen. I've got my old donut style tube in storage so I'll have to break it out to see if it is still seaworthy. If it is, I'll be on Athens next week. If it isn't then I'll need to start shopping for a new one.

Peace Y'all.

Great post and some solid fish! You have got those gills dialed in on Athens for sure! Good job Flags.




Side Note: Fish Fry coming soon!

Yep! Flags gets it done. He caught several keepers while I was floating along side and chatting. That is, by the way, a great strategy to keep the panfish that are large enough to eat but not the giant bulls. It likely means some good genetics survive . . . to breed more big ones.

In a message to Flags, I mentioned that my grandfather had a fishing tube. As I recall, it had a canvas wrap with leg holes to drop down into, then some pockets for putting "stuff." I used to take it out to Benbrook and fish with it.

Bluegills slowed down on artificials as the heat has picked up. They are, sadly, still chomping the tails off of some of my expensive Keitech plastics I use for bass!

For anyone going out to Athens, I'd follow Flag's lead and use a piece of worm. They ALWAYS bite a worm.

That'd be a fun float just to go out and target cats. Athens is not well regarded as catfish go, but we have them. I was feeding bluegills off my boathouse, one surfaced and seemed to not care about our presence, munched on the fish food. It was dark, almost black, and had a blond or white place on the top of its head. Maybe it had an injury or something.

*** I'll post a note under a separate post about my experience with a G-Rod today.

Brad

Great post and a super haul. Good job.

Totally agree.

Great post ! Glad you guys had a fun day on the water.

That pic looks like a Pot of Gold to me !!