First off I want to give a big shout out to Barry aka OsbornFishing who was gracious to share info with me about where to get into some gills and how to fish for them on Meredith. Sir your advice was spot on. Thank you Barry

I finally decided to put the tube on Lake Meredith after reading the post OsbornFishing put up. I have been reluctant to try the lake because of the high winds that are so common there. But today the forecast was for calm weather until about 10 so I headed that way. I also have a new set of chest waders I wanted to break in. My old pair was leaking so bad I may as well have not even worn them. Launched the tube at the main ramp at about 0630. Only one boat on the ramp so it was an easy kick off and I made my way to the place OsbornFishing told me about. At the beginning of the fishing I went straight to the bottom with a jighead tipped with a redworm and sort of just bounced it along. My reason for going deep was because I had no idea what the depth was so sending a jig to the bottom answered that question. Only took a few minutes to get the first fish, a little channel cat of about 8 inches long. Problem was that was all she wrote near the bottom

So I decided to follow the advice of OsbornFishing and began to hit the gills immediately. First fish was a fiesty 5 to 6 incher


He/She must have had a lot of friends down there because I caught fish after fish that were all about the same size. I moved around and caught fish every time I put a worm in the water. Lots of the 5 to 6 inch fish but enough bigger fish tossed in to keep things interesting. I didn't get any that approached the size I get on Athens and frankly I wasn't expecting any since Athens is kind of a sunfish jewel but quite a few of the fish went in the 7 to 8 inch range.



One thing that struck me was how fat and solid they were. Even the smaller fish were over an inch thick. Must be a lot of good feed in the lake. I ended up keeping about 10 because I have been craving some fried gills. Not sure how many fish I caught but I'd guess it was about 40. This easily could have been a 100 fish day but the wind came up about 10 and blew me off the lake. When the whitecaps start showing it is time to pull the tube. As I was headed to shore I was trolling along a worm on a jighead like I do on Athens and hung up in a brushpile that you couldn't see from the surface. Out of curiosity I dropped a worm down and sure enough, gills were there too. I think I need to spend more time on the lake and find a few spots. Next time I think I'm going to go to the cove in the opposite direction since it looks like it drops off fast and deep and I'm sure there will be some gills there too plus it is pretty much out of the wind.

No bass today. Osborn Fishing said they got a few but I was having so much fun with the gills I never even tried for them. i did see a couple that swam by to check out the tube. Fish are often curious about it since it is something most of them have never seen. As I was making my way back to the ramp I was going right along the shore line. I scored 3 floats and 2 crankbaits. All in all, a good morning.


Cheers Y'all

Solid post and some solid fish. Always a good thing when you get to fish some new water! Awesome job.



Side Note: One of the best things about the TFF is getting some good information on places to fish from some very knowledgeable anglers.

Flags great post. Time to start up the fryer. Thank you for all the kind comments. I am always hesitant to provide information about a specific fishing condition, since one day can be great and the next day nothing, But in this case, I figured an angler of your caliber would find them.

Great job, and a nice way to beat the heat.

Way to go Flags...Maybe not Athens yet, but you are just getting started...

Plus #1. I may add the Bluegill Sections by far is the best!

Great post Flags. For the first time fishing a water body you did FANTASTIC!