Thump of July on Athens

Put the tube on Athens today. It was cloudy and a lot cooler and they are calling for rain this afternoon. It was a lot better fishing today than the last time I was on the lake. Started out fishing under the FM2945 bridge on a hunch. Lots of sunfish were packed under it and I was taking fish on just about every cast but they didn't have much for size. 5 and 6 inchers but they were full of fight with good colors.


I left the bridge and went in front of it in deeper water and the size of the fish improved. Still not huge gills but they averaged in the 7-8 inch range.

Playing another hunch I went over to a brush pile that is good for crappie in the spring. It has never been too good for slabs but the lake is lower than normal and the temps are higher. This hunch paid off in spades. I sat right there in one spot and pulled slab after slab off the brush pile. Got a good mix of gills, shellcrackers and redbreast and they were a solid 9-10 inch average. Didn't get any real monsters but constant action on 9 and 10 inch sunfish works for me.




Just about the time I was out of bait and getting ready to call it a day this bewhiskered gentleman showed up to say hello.


All fish were caught on pieces of crawler on either a 1/64th oz jighead or a #6 VMC Spinshot (Vogey is to blame for this) and all fish were released to fighr another day. I did have about a 4 lb largemouth try to take a 5 inch gill out of my hand which was a first for me. I didn't keep count but am pretty sure I was close to triple digits on numbers.

Cheers Y'All.
Life is good.

Solid post and some solid Sunnies. Good job Flags!

Nice slabs!

Great catch Flags...Your knowledge of the lake really paid off this day...

Great post Flags and lots of nice gillz you caught

That looks like a great day indeed!

I have been wanting a 10 inch gill and cant seem to break 9.5. Looks like you know the spots my friend!

Keep up the great work.

Try Lake Athens. My best gill out of there is 12.5 inches. Pretty sure I have broke the lake record at least 3 times

Love those Athens post. Nice fish.