Getting closer for me to start getting out there. Anyone hear what it took to get the decent bags in the CRTT last weekend?

The leader after the first day had a little over 16 pounds. I believe it was Kade Kitchens.

It was Kade and fishing by himself. He got 2nd in the EOY TX. I would have never thought several years ago he would turn out such a good fisherman.

Yeah, 1st had like 32#, Kade was like 26# in 2nd, and then it started dropping down from there. Lots of good fishermen had like 9# a day....still fishing pathetic there.

On the other hand, they are freight-training err'thing that moves on Wedowee tho!!!!!!

30.5 won it. 2nd through 6th all had over 27.5.

What was the pattern, if you don't mind me asking?

slightly more detailed version of my story!

A couple of the top finishers were pitching jigs upriver. No idea what the others were throwing.

I saw a few pics from last weekends frog TX and looked like some good fish were caught.

Got a chance to go yesterday afternoon. More to run the boat than anything. Fished for about two hours and NADA! Could not really get a feel on what to throw. Saw one boat fishing outside grass shallow for about 1/4 mile. Is that where everyone is catching fish now? Water temp was 68 deg. Should be making them get shallow. Did not see any chasing shad.

Went yesterday for about three hours. In the mouth of every slough and in the sloughs there were millions of shad schooling up. All were the same size about 2". I fished from 0-10 feet with anything from a spook to a swim jig and did not even get a bump. WTH???????????????????

What was the water clarity and did you have any wind?


In those conditions, I look for the dirtiest water I can find with wind blowing into it. Preferably, there will be some cover like Coosa grass, sea walls, laydowns, etc. Spinnerbait, squarebill, or swimjig would be my baits of choice. Perhaps a buzzbait.

Water was very clear, green Coosa River color. There was wind and I fished several banks where wind was blowing against pushing shad up close. I threw a swim jig, square bill, chatter bait and even flipped a little on blow downs. It was down right discouraging. No current did not help matters either!

I haven't even talked to anybody who's been to Neely recently, but they are absolutely on fire at Logan.

I am going to try and go Sunday afternoon down river. I chit you not, there were MILLIONS of shad in bait balls yesterday.

Now I've fished Neely in the Fall/Winter when there's been shad kills. You can just put the boat back on the trailer and go home.

I've been on Wedowee, Logan, and Lay in the past 10 days.... BAZILLIONS of shad literally everywhere, and schooling fish are blasting them everywhere also. Lay fished a lot differently than Logan though, the fish there were still relating to (if not on) the main river, the further you got from the river, the fewer fish I found. But on Logan they're on the river, mouths of pockets, halfway back in the creeks, all the way back in the creeks, climbing out on the boat ramps, standing on the docks, and basically treating a buzzbait like it cat-called their girlfriend!!! Same at Wedowee.

Neely has been weird all year. I have long said it was my best/favorite lake on the Coosa, but this year has been a complete shux-show there for me and a lot of others.

You are so correct. I believe the spring flooding when APCO had three turbines going for 6 weeks had a lot to do with the spots not acting like they should have on Neely. Even early summer I had issues catching LM with the normal patterns/locations. Makes it very depressing when you go out for three hours and only catch one fish.

Was gonna go yesterday and after all the rain, but it was chocolate milk. Do not know what TX it was, but there were a lot of boats out both days fishing. On the good side though, they were pulling two .

Renew Our Rivers is this week for anyone that has the time to help clean up some.

I fished yesterday (Sunday) Had I bite in 5 hours. The Tournament was an end of year 2 day championship for a Bass Club from Tennessee. Weights were extremely low. The few I talked to said they didnt care if they ever came back . Im just about done with Neely for now. I may start going to Logan Martin if I do any more fishing this Fall.