TOPIC: Got me a nice Small Mouth Bass this morning !!!!

Wow what a nice morning to be out, the turkeys were gobbling, other birds singing, wild flowers poping up everywhere in the creek bottoms and the Smallies were biting !

The big one weiged 3 lbs 1 oz, did not weigh the smaller one but it was a nice one too.

I caught about 8 others, one small large mouth bass and 7 or so black pearch but none were really big so I tossed them back to catch another day.

PS - I was wading the creek - about a 2 mile stretch (with my neopreme chest waiders on) as I caught these fish.

I will be cranking up the grill here in a bit - having some small mouth bass filets for lunch !

Now that is SWEET !

TNhunter

TN,
That's a nice Smallie for sure. Bet he fought more than a 5 lb Large Mouth.
Checked out one of my sang beds here in Ohio at lunch today. No sign of any growth yet and I was glad. Way to early here. No sigh of any Morels either yet. I can see your tree budding over top of the big fish's Dorsal fin. Looks like you are at least a couple weeks in front of us. Saw where a mushroom hunter found over 70 black morels yesterday in Fort Campbell Kentucky. I bet they are starting to pop down your way soon if not already in some spots.
Good luck,
Latt
Latt
Latt

Latt,

You got that right about those creek small mouth bass - they hit like a ton of bricks and fight long and hard.

I had a light rod/spinning real combo which made it even more fun.

I caught both of those and most of the other fish on a rapala - jointed shad rap crank bait - working it real slow. Have to go slow this early - the water is still quite cold. I use the shad and crawfish color ones but caught both of those on the shad color bait.

www.basspro.com/Rapala?-Jointed-Shad-Rap?/product/37546/-936079

That tree in the background is one of my peach trees and it is in full bloom now. My plums have already bloomed and leaved out now and you can see little plums starting to form on the spent flower buds.

I have a pair of peach trees and they are 6 year old now and they both usually make around 150 peaches - one gets ripe about two weeks ahead of the other (different varieties) and that works out real nice for fresh eating and my wife makes peach jam too... YUM.

On the shrooms - the other evening I took a stroll down one of my hollows here and then came back up another one and I looked mostly on the north/east hillsides like I would for seng and I did not find any morrells. I did find some of those flat (half saucer looking things) guess they are some kind of shroom ? that grow on dead trees.

There are no may apple up yet here and I heard someone say on a youtube vid the other day that morrells usually show up first about the same time mayapple comes up. Not sure where they were from and I suppose that could be different in different areas.

I was not real sure where to look for morrells, high on the hill, or low, so I just looked in about the same places I would have for seng.

Then I saw where you mentioned that they do grow on south and west facing hillsides too and may show up there first. I will have to do some more looking around here in the next few days and see if I can spot any. I have never hunted or eaten morrell's but I bet they would go good with some small mouth bass filets , some home grown corn on the cob.

TNhunter

Well a couple days ago we ate a good part of that catch.

I grilled those filets up and we had some corn on the cob, dirty rice, rolls and me and my wife and daughter had a good meal on that.

I had one filet (one side) of that big smallie left in the fridge that we did not grill that day and this evening my wife and kids are off shopping so I did supper myself.

I cut that last filet up into 4 nice pieces and deep fried it and had a nice pile of taters to go with it. That was all, but that was plenty !

Got my belly full now and no fresh fish left in the fridge.

I was thinking about going fishing again tomorrow but it cooled off quite a bit today and clouded up, not sure how the fish will take that.

Anyway - here is what Dinner looked like this evening and the last of that big smallie.

TNhunter

Nice Smallies. What part of TN are you in? I am going to be heading down to northern TN to go after some morels the 1st of April.

Hey Shroomy,

I am in Middle TN, south of Nashville.

I am keeping a eye out for morrells here now as I get in the woods.

I have no experience at hunting them but plan to this year. Have looked around some already but no luck spotting any yet.

I did see some may apple sprounts coming up in one of my seng planting sites this morning, and a bunch of little 3 leafer seng plants up too, they are really starting to pop up now.

I heard that morrells should start showing up soon after may apple is up, but not sure how true that is.

Think I will get out and look around a little more tomorrow for morrells - again I am a complete newbie on shroom hunting - so if you have any tips they would sure be appreciated.

Billy told me by email that you were a real expert on the subject and he also said that he has had luck finding them under dead sycamore trees. I see others online saying that under dead elm trees is best and I have seen youtub vids where they were found under dead poplar trees.

Thanks

TNhunter

TNhunter

I've seen about a dozen may apples that came up in my ginseng beds too. Do you think I should pull them out or just leave em alone?

If it were me I would leave them for sure.
Latt

TNhunter, get my email from Billy and give me a shout.

Boyhud,

I agree with Latt on leaving the may apple in the seng beds - unless they just overwhelm the seng (a dense concentration of them) I would just leave them in there.

I would welcome a few other wild woods plants to get in there and grow with my seng. Some folks even plant goldenseal (yellow root) mixed in with their seng for plant diversity.

It will help them blend in some and should also help to reduce disease issue.

Shroomy - I will do that.

Thanks

TNhunter