My FOM at Kerr.

[just1more]

Jim Sutton and I went down to Kerr late Thursday afternoon. We had a chance to get out and fish some in Rudds Creek for about an hour and a half before the sun went down. With only a short time to fish we covered water pretty quick power fishing chatter baits, spinner baits, and square bills. Main creek water temps averaged 57 to 59. It was stained but fish able. We caught a few solid males right away working the back of small cuts and pockets. We also found water temps in the back of a few pockets hitting 61 to 63 degrees.
Armed with this knowledge, we decided to forgo running to nut bush, and stay with the pre-spawn pattern in dirtier water.
We spent the entire day on Friday running pockets, and cuts in the back of Butcher Creek, Rudds Creek, and Eastland Creek. We also worked the deeper break lines and points nearest the cuts where we caught the males. That's a lot of water and it took all day to cover it. We never found the females. What we did find was a two large pockets with fish in the 2-1/2 to 3 pound range. One in Butchers, and the other in the back of Eastland. These pockets were not only spawning pockets but feeding areas too. They were 4 to 5 acres in size, each had loons working them, blue herring were present, and we even caught a few small Striper in them too. Friday was a sunny day and we found the fish tight to shallow cover (bushes) or holding on the break line, but they were very aggressive when they bit. We also discovered Friday afternoon that the upper portion of the lake in the Clarksville area had cleared up pretty good. Still stained but fish-able. The main lake was still very muddy in the mid to lower portions of the lake. So our Tx plan was to work our two pockets for the first 6 hours then head up and work the bridges the last two hours in hopes of a larger fish or two. We estimated that we were on a potential 13 to 15 pound limit between the two areas.

Sat started out with overcast skies, and an occasional drizzle now and then. Our first stop was in the back of Eastland. Long story short, both pockets had schooling fish in them and they were aggressively feeding. We had a limit by 0745 that morning. The only problem was, they were 2 pound fish instead of the larger ones we caught on Friday.
Sticking with the plan, we ran up to the bridges in hopes of finding larger fish. What we found was large drum. Fun to catch but they don't count lol. So we started running main lake pockets again up in that area and caught fish every where we hit, just no size.
We weighed in a ten pound limit; disappointing to say the least, but we have no regrets. I learned a lot this trip.

Lessons learned: the biggie for me was finding cruising, schooling, and aggressively feeding fish in heavily stained water conditions, with water temps as low as 55 degrees. Experiencing this first hand completely destroyed a couple of opinions I had towards fishing cold dirty water. Bass can see a lot better in dirty water than what we think; and they can be very active as well.
In retrospect, clean water would still be my first choice in late winter and early spring when water temps are still 61 / 63 and below. I believe that if water temps had been in the 65 to 67 degree range we would have had spawning females in the pockets we found, and it would have been game on from there.
Other things I learned on this trip; Swim jigs work just as good as chatter baits, swim baits, and spinner baits do. It's no longer a bait I'd use just around grass.
Finally; I hit Anna this past Sunday, the day after my Kerr event. I wanted to test out what I learned on Kerr at Anna. Guess what? Lake Anna ain't normal, and definitely not Kerr lol.

[Big E]

Lake Anna SUX dude! LOL Great report Jim! Just shows you can go to other lakes and catch fish in a variety of conditions. I can't say that about Anna. Totally different rules for that place and I live too far away to worry about it!

[just1more]

What was so cool to watch was a small armada of loons pushing bait into the cove. In front of them you could see all the swirls of schooling bass and Striper. It was fun and exciting to watch.

[BigD]

Thanks for the report Jim. Good to see you at Buggs!