Fishing on Old Hickory has remained good over the last several weeks with great numbers of both bass and crappie. The majority of the bass are post spawn now which has the smaller fish biting like crazy and made finding the bigger fish a bit tough. This is typical for this time of year when the smaller males hang around guarding the fry and the bigger females scatter out and begin transitioning to their summer haunts. Junk fishing has proven most effective over the last several trips with many different techniques working from ½ oz jigs in 20 ft to square bills in less then a 1 ft.  Water tempature has continued to steadily climb over the last several weeks into the high 70’s to low 80’s with a slight stain in most areas.  

As I mentioned earlier we have been catching bass anywhere from 1ft -20 ft and on a wide array of baits including crankbaits, spinnerbaits, jigs, shakey heads and topwater baits. Our best pattern lately has been fishing the grass in the mornings and cranking the mid depth range(6-9 fow) the rest. Best baits have been frogs, buzzbaits and spinnerbaits in the grass and shallow/mid depth crankbaits  and spinnerbaits in the afternoon. A shakey head around docks and isolated cover has also been productive after the morning bite dies.

The crappie bite is still excellent on Old Hickory with both quality and quantity being caught. We are still focusing in 4-10 fow and casting small 1/8 oz crappie jig with tubes or small swimbaits in white, chart/white, chart, blue/chart, blue/white. The crappie are also headed out toward deeper water so start looking around old creek channels as they begin to pull out and suspend.

Here at OHGS we use brand new high grade fishing equiptment from Denali Rods, Lews reels, Sunline, Santone Jigs, Fish Terror Baits, Bass Kandi soft plastics, and other top of the line equiptment. I am a United States Coast Guard licensed captain and 100% dedicated to making your trip the trip of a lifrtime, I still have dates available in June so lets go fishing!!!
Ian Huey

This report is for 04/19/2014- 04/19/2014.

  Fishing has remained good on Old Hickory over the last week with good quality fish and numbers to go along with the bigguns. The fish has defiantly made their move to the banks and the shallow bite has been on.  The weather overall has remained stable over the last week with highs in the 80s and the lows in the 50s which has allowed the water temperatures to remain consistent allowing the fish to move and stay up. I feel like a lot of the 6+ lb fish are on bed now and the local tournament scales have been down from what they were with 5.5-6 lb fish taking big fish and 16-18 lbs winning most local tournaments.  Crappie fishing has also been excellent this past week as it appears that the crappie have finally really got turned on and are feeding up in a huge way. Sunday, just before the storms began to roll in we had our best day of the year with 52 keeper crappie in around 5 hrs. And these weren’t small crappie averging 12 -13 in crappie for the majority with several over 15 and a few over 16 in!!! We also had several trips this week with 20-30 keeper crappie in 4hrs or less with the same quality as above.

            Last night here in middle Tennessee we received a massive amount of rain and as I was on the water today it became more and more evident as the day went on that the water is going to be changing in a BIG way for the next week or so. We saw several whole giant trees that were washed into the river and that were floating down the channel along with tons of logs and other debris.  As the day went on the water continued to dirty up with a lot of the creeks turning to chocolate milk and debris floating around everywhere. The rain last night also dropped the water temps down into the mid 60s in the creeks and the river into the low 60s.

This week we have been focusing on spawning areas and the banks leading to them throwing shallow running crankbaits, Santone Lures spinnerbaits  and jerkbaits in 1-6 fow. Flipping Bass Kandi Texas Craws and T Craws around cover has been producing fish as well.

The crappie have been stacking up in 6-9 fow and we are catching them throwing 1/8 jig heads tipped with tube baits and curly tail grubs. Top colors have been white, white/chartreuse, chartreuse, and blue/white.

Here at OHGS we use brand new high grade fishing equipment from Denali Rods, Lews reels, Sunline fishing line, Santone Jigs, Fish Terror Baits, Bass Kandi soft plastics and other top of the line equipment. I am a United States Coast Guard licensed captain and 100% dedicated to making your trip the trip of a lifetime. I have dates available May so call today and and get in on some of the best fishing of the year!!!

This report is for 04/08/2014-04/18/2014. Sorry for the delay I have been extremely busy on the water and haven’t had a chance to sit down and write.

                The numbers of boats on the water have steadily increased over the last several weeks with anglers chasing bass and crappie as they make their annual migration to the shallow waters of Old Hickory Lake. The water temps have been on a steady rise and the water temps not fluctuating erratically have no doubt helped the overall bite and the fish have been on a steady push towards their spawning areas.  Bass fishing has remained good over the last several weeks with numbers and quality and the crappie bite has been excellent with 20-30 fish in a 4 hr trip not uncommon.  The crappie bite has only begun and should continue over the next couple months.

                Most of our bass have been caught up shallow around typical spawning areas and on a variety of baits. Flipping has been producing our biggest bites lately with shallow running crankbaits catching plenty of numbers. Our best baits lately have been Bass Kandi Texas Craw and the Bass Kandi Kandi Stick  flipped around shallow cover and  docks. Our best hard baits have been a square bill fished around spawning areas with jerkbaits  still producing good numbers. And of course the A-Rig is still catching fish fished with either 3 or 5 baits.

                The crappie fishing has really picked up over the last week with good numbers and very few short fish.  We are catching fish in anywhere from 4-12 fow and our best baits have been minnows, tubes and small swimbaits fished around typical crappie cover. (I would have had more crappie pics but we have been getting back late and its been too dark. Next report will have good crappie pics.)

                Here at OHGS we use brand new high grade fishing equipment from Denali Rods, Lews reels, Sunline fishing line, Santone Jigs, Fish Terror Baits, Bass Kandi soft plastics and other top of the line equipment. I am a United States Coast Guard licensed captain and 100% dedicated to making your trip the trip of a lifetime. I have dates available for April and May so call today and lets go fishing!!!

This report is for the week of 03/30/2014- 04/07/2014

  We have again had an awesome week here on Old Hickory Lake this week as we ran 4 trips and are still catching big fish! This week alone we have had one over 5lbs, one over 6lbs and one just under 8lbs! Old Hickory is about to really turn on any day now and I believe that it already would have if we didn’t have that awful cold front that pushing in last Friday dropping the water temps by 8 degrees and really killing the bite over the weekend. Prior to this past weekend fishing had been excellent and I expect it to pick back up any time now.  The weather forecast looks good for this upcoming week with stable warm weather and that first wave of spawning fish should be hitting the banks soon. Water temps had been consistent leading up to the front with the creeks hanging in the low to mid 60’s and on Thursday evening the river was at 61.

  Our best baits this week have been the A-Rig, jerkbait, spinnerbait, squarebill, and flipping a tube or creature bait around wood. The smaller buck bass have defiantly pulled up on nearly every bank that you hit but we have been focusing on a little deeper staging areas to find those bigger females that are waiting on the right time to pull up.

  And finally some good news for you crappie fisherman! The crappie fishing is finally picking up with good numbers and good quality fish being caught. Sunday we had a good trip catching over 20 crappie in a little over 3 hrs on 1/8 oz jigs fished in 5-15 fow. The crappie have defiantly began to pull up and much like the bass fishing, the crappie should only continue to improve.

  Here at OHGS we use brand new high grade fishing equipment from Denali Rods, Lews reels, Sunline fishing line, Santone Jigs, Fish Terror Baits and other top of the line equipment. I am a United States Coast Guard licensed captain and 100% dedicated to making your trip the trip of a lifetime. I still have dates available for April so get in on some of the best bass and crappie action of the year!!!

If you follow many of my fishing reports you know that I usually make a weekly report and don’t make a specific report for every time I fish/guide as my page would be full!!! But today I had a really cool trip with some pretty cool dudes that had just dropped their wives off to go shopping and were ready for some fishing!  Dick, Richard and Thomas were in town visiting Greg nand wanted to enjoy a beautiful day on the water and didn’t care what we caught as long as we caught fish. After doing some running around early in the trip we were finally able to pin down some bluegills and stopped fishing and started catching!!! Richard and Thomas turned into fishing catching fools and I had a tough time keeping hook baited because I was busy taking fish off the hooks!!! These guys flat out caught up some bluegills today!!! I have to say that Thomas defiantly caught more fish than anyone with his brother, Richard, coming in a close second.

Sometimes it’s awesome to forget about all the fancy electronics and “hi tech” fishing equipment and just go fishing with people that truly appreciate the pure side of fishing and couldn’t care less about fish size. There is something truly wonderful about watching our young kids enjoy the sport of fishing as much as I do and I feel truly blessed that people allow me the opportunity to introduce and guide them along the way. This was one of those trips that reminds me of why love my job!!! I sure had an awesome time with these guys and look forward to doing some fishing next time they are in town. Good job guys!!!

PS: Sorry again for the pink lifejacket Richard but I must say that you didnt complain about it and instead ROCKED IT!!!

This report is for the week of 03/23/2014- 03/30/2014.

This past week on Old Hickory Lake has been by far the best week of fishing we have seen this year. We have focused our time on the lower end of the lake and in 4 trips this week we were able to put 2 fish in the boat that were over 6lbs with one just shy of 7lbs with numerous 2 and 3 lb fish. Not to mention the 30lb Rock Fish Colt caught on the last cast of the day that he battled for a good 15 minutes on a 6'6 Deanli topwater/jerkbait rod, paired with a 6.4.1 Lews Speed Spool and 10lb Sunline florocarbon line. (Goes to show what the best equiptment available can do!!!) The quality of fish has defiantly gone up and the quantity is still excellent. The fish have continued their move to staging areas and are showing up by the day. Water temps have stayed pretty consistant on the main river at around 49-50 and the creeks have been in the low 50's. Look for those water temps to jump up this week with the forcasted warming. With the beautiful weather forcasted this week the fishing should get really, really good and this is definitely your best opportunity at catching your biggest fish of the year. The Sunday morning tournament out of Flippers Bait and Tackle took over 23lbs to win which shows you what kind of fish are starting to show up.

  Our best baits this week have been Alabama Rig, Jerkbaits and Jigs. We have been focusing on typical staging areas and are catching fish out of 5-15 fow. There are new fish showing up by the day now and should only continue to improve. Check out my write-up, at the bottom of this post, about the new A-Rig we are catching the majority of our fish on. This things RIDICULUS!!!

  Just this week I received an almost completed prototype Alabama Rig from a sponsor of mine, Fish Terror Baits, that is unbelievable and honestly catches more fish then any other A-Rig I have thrown!!!  For starters it has more blades then any other and from top to bottom is put together with premium components. There are no cheap swivels, light wire or weak snaps that are going to break and not only cost you money but possibly that fish to put you in the money. These guys have invested a lot of time money and effort to make, literally, the best A-Rig offered and at a $20.00 the weekend angler is able to fish with top of the line, guide quality equipment.

Here at OHGS we use brand new high grade fishing equipment fron Denali Rods, Lews reels, Sunline fishing line, Santone Jigs, Fish Terror Baits and other top of the line equipment. I am a United States Coast Guard licensed captain and 100% dedicated to making your trip the trip of a lifetime. I still have dates available for April so get in on some of the best action of the year!!!

Fishing this week has been up and down and honestly quite disappointing considering the good fishing we had the previous week. But that’s spring fishing and you quickly learn to roll with the punches. With all the cold rain we got last week the water temp has lost everything it had gained and more along with mudding up the river which makes the worst possible conditions to fish in; cold muddy water. But things are looking up!!! At the beginning of this week the water temps had already began to rebound and I was able to find mid 50s in some creeks with the river around 47-49 degrees.  With air temps forecasted this week to be in the 60s and plenty of sun along with a day of warm rain the water temperatures will continue to climb and the fishing improving.

  As mentioned before the fishing has been hit or miss this week. This week our dominate pattern has been running clean water areas and not really paying attention to the water temperature too much as I believe the clean water was much more important. We are still focusing on deeper banks, small flats close to deep water and channel swing banks. Our best baits are still jerkbaits, shakey heads, squarebills, Santone jigs and all fish were caught on Denali Rods paired with Lews reels.

  The days are getting longer and the weather is absolutely beautiful. My days for March and the rest of spring are filling up so call and book today!!!

  We use brand new high grade fishing equipment from Denali Rods, Lews reels, Sunline fishing line, Santone Jigs and other top of the line equipment. I am a United States Coast Guard licensed Captain, fully insured and dedicated to making your trip the trip of a lifetime!