Have to be two of the funnest guys I have taken out this year.

The fishing was terrible. Middle of a cold front, water temps dropping, bluebird skies, no breeze, not a ripple on the water, couldn’t FIND a concentration of fish, and bait freakin everywhere.

A guide’s worst nightmare!

BUT, when he has clients that are old time fishermen, understand the situation, and can still make a great day of it, these are clients that a guide will go waaaay out of their way to please.

We wound up finding a good group of fish about 11:00 AM but couldn’t entice a bite with anything. Not live threadfins, not plastic grubs w/jigs, nothing.

Decided to break for lunch at Shipwreck Cove restaurant at Elm Hill marina. (If you haven’t had lunch there, you owe yourself a treat. Go and have lunch on their waterfront deck. Great food, great waitstaff).

Rode a few miles after lunch and searched for bait for 90 minutes and caught 1, ONE, threadfin shad!

Rode back a few miles to the fish and started pulling live bait. FINALLY! Had a fat seven lb hybrid start peeling line. John was the closest to the rod so he had the honors. Got it in after a bunch of line peeling runs. Photo’d it and he decided it was going to be dinner that night.Next up, it was Steve’s turn. And he had the fight of the day! This frisky five lb’er decided it wanted plastic on a medium weight spinning rod with 10 lb test line! No horsing this bad boy in, he had to finesse it for about five minutes and did a masterful job of doing so. I don’t know, do you think he looks disappointed in the photo? Seems to hide his disappointment pretty well, doncha think?Overall, a bad day of fishing still turned out to be one of the best days I’ve had on the water this year.

We are already making plans to go and catch some icy water rockfish this winter. Gonna get into the big girls on the Cumberland River.

See you two on the river!