Pictured are some nice stripers caught by HuiDong Wang - these were caught during this past winter i think.  Either way they are nice ones.

 

great job - maybe you can tackle some largemouth or smallmouth bass next.



 

        

Hi,
Recently I came to a situation where I could not get the football jigs in the colors I wanted.  I had only a few days until my Old Hickory tournament. So I decided to get some skirts and hand tie some jigs for myself.  I am pretty happy how they turned out.  I used Green pumkin candy, watermelons and purples.  I won the tournament with these jigs.  I hand tied them with some thread after I came up with the pattern I wanted.  I have been using them for 2 weeks now and have not had a single skirt come apart or off the shank of the jig.

What do you think?




shoot me an email with your thoughts. billy@billyharrisfishing.com

 

        

Harris takes 1st in the Old Hickory F-3 tournament<< MORE >>

6/13/09 Lake Chickamauga Bassmaster ABA weekend series

Check out the video of my weigh-in at -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6aXudcu0Kk

Well my TN East div. tournament number 4 came and went. Overall I think it went fairly well. A top 10 out of 61 anglers. I was able to have about 3 days of practices, had scheduled 4-5 but due to mechanical issues I lost a day total of fishing. I will explain later.  I was betting it would be a ledge bite due to the time of year. So I concentrated my efforts on ledges and humps with jigs, cranks and big worms.

Practice Day 1 - I had gotten me a good map and did some map study the night before Grace and I left for Dayton, TN. We finally got on the water about 7 a.m., about 1 hr after daylight.  I 1st went up the Hiawassee river to fish the big bridge area. I love fishing deep bridge pilings this time of year. Usually they are great current breaks and structure that doesn't get washed away.  I went top water early but no love, a few blow ups was about it. I came back down fishing a few river ledges but nothing. I stopped around a the Hiawassee island to fish some humps and ledges. I would just go from ledge to ledge that I had marked on my map. I pulled up to one ledge went over it with the sonar and found boat loads of giant stumps and big brush piles.  I stopped and pulled out my jig. On my 1st cast I loaded up with a solid 3lb bass. Grace was using a shaky head with a green pumpkin zoom finesse worm and also caught a few from the ledge. Ding put a way point for that one and this one ledge played a major roll in my 10th place finish.

Practice Day 2 - I went out by myself as Grace and her daughter Sammy slept in. I made it a point to concentrate shallow for a few hours. I threw jigs, spooks, sammy's, swim baits, frogs and not really anything to account for.  I just didn't feel any love from the shallow stuff. So about 10 a.m. I went back to camp for breakfast and to pick up Grace. We got back out about noon and by this time they had turned on the current and the bite turned on as well. We ledge hopped for an hour and finally found a ledge that was producing a lot of 13-14 inch fish with a few keepers. Then my Motor Guide Prop fell off. GRRRRRRR! So we pulled out and ran to Wal-Mart.  They only carry Minn-Kota stuff.  I bet I sat in the parking lot for over an hour calling every marina in town and no one carried Motor Guide Props. Finally I got a number from one of them and in Spring City I was able to find a prop.  We drove 30 minutes to by a $48 prop - a Machete - 3 grass cutter. We got back out on the water about 4 and again ledge hopped. We finally ended up around Redneck Island and commenced to whacking some bass. I was using a MVP football jig from Secret Lures in candy craw and Grace used a shaky head with a green pumpkin worm. I bet we caught 40 bass  off  that one ledge but very few keepers.  I knew it was probably a community hole and holding dinks so we just stayed there whacking some bass.


In summary for those two days I needed a shaky head in green pumpkin and more jigs in green pumpkin with some blue's and purples mixed into the skirt color. I had broke off all my MVP jigs from Secret Lures so I called them and ordered six. They were not sure if they could get them to me in time so I got on the horn and called a buddy of mine that tie's his own jigs. He had some skirt colors that I needed. So I got the stuff and made 8 football jigs in the color patterns I needed. Green Pumpkin with some purple blue strands, 3/8 oz and 1/2 oz sizes.

Practice day 3 - Grace and I headed back down on Thursday before the tournament to pre-fish some more. I plan was to quickly stop at my previous spots I had caught fish, catch one and then leave. I went to my top three spots and nothing!  I thought for a second what was different, what had happen. The only difference was no current.  So we left those areas looking for new stuff. about 10 a.m. I noticed the current moving so I went back to my 1st three ledges and made 3 casts on each and had a keeper fish. I knew no wind and current was the key and MVP Secret Lures football jigs, my home made jigs and shaky heads were important.

Practice day 4 - Grace and the kids stayed in bed while I went out early. I ran way down river past the TN river bridge looking for new ledges. About 3 hours into my practice my trolling motor cord broke.  GRRRR! I spent the next 2 hours fashioning a new cord. I tried several times making a rope from braided line and other stuff. Finally I used the string tie from my hoody and was back in business. So from the prop and my rope breaking I lost 8 hrs of practice time.  Anyhow I went back to the hotel and got Grace and the kids and headed back out. 11 a.m. the current turned out and so did the fish. We found two ledges holding solid 3lb fish. I even caught a 4 and 6 from these ledges. We used the same baits as the previous days to catch the fish.

I had put together a pattern, main river ledges using green pumpkin jigs and shaky heads. I was guessing the best I could put together was about 14lbs.  I knew it wasn't enough to win so I put a goal in of a 5 fish limit for at least 12lbs and hope for a big bite.
I was betting 20+ lbs to win. 

Race Day - I drew boat 48, 3rd flight and partner Ben Billings who had not been on the water in months, so not really any local help. Just my luck!  We headed out to my 2nd best ledge. I was holding my best spot for the current to turn on.  We pulled up and fish were busting everywhere. We tied on some top water to only catch dinks. We stayed about an hour or two. I wanted to head to my best ledge and camp so no one else could get on it. Lucky me we pulled up to no one on my spot. We fished for abut 30 minutes and my partner sacked a 2 lb'er on a big worm. In the next 20 minutes he caught 2 more keepers and I had yet to get bit.  At 10:00 a.m. I noticed the current really moving now. I pulled out my MVP jig and commenced to catch a limit.  In the next 30 minutes I put 5 keepers in the boat for about 10 lbs. Not big fish but a limit just the same. We stayed there until about 1 trying to milk it. The bite would come in spirts, it would go bang bang bang, then nothing for 30 minutes, then bang bang  bang again then nothing. I wound up culling up with a nice 4lb bass. I now had around 14 lbs. The wind really picked up by this point and I really think that killed my bite. We ran around some from there to more ledges but nothing, dinks at best. Finally I said lets go super shallow in some grass, where can we go. He said he had one spot he fish a year or so ago that had grass but didn't know about it now. So it was a shot, we had 15 minutes to kill.  We pulled in and my 3rd cast with my Secret Lures Chubby frog in BLK clear legs produced a 3lber and another cull. I guessed I had 15lbs now and a great shot at a top 10.  A few casts later and I had a toad blow up and dance a couple times and suddenly my line went limp.  My knot on my braided line had slipped thru the crack on my hook.  I lost a 5 plus pound fish and a top 5 because I forgot to pinch shut my hook eyelet. My fault! By this time we had to jet and got to weigh-in. 
I ended up weighing in 14.94lbs and a 10th place finish.  I was pretty happy about my day.  I made two mistakes, 1. not checking my hook eye and 2, not making a move to shallow grass earlier when the bite died off from my ledges.

That finished moved me to 8th in points for the TN east division. Watts Bar is next, 8/29-30 for divisional.  Any hints?

        

I just read on Bass Fan that Cookville TN Adam Wagnor won the All American on the Mississippi river in Iowa.  Congrats to Adam. I have fished against Adam the last few years and he is nearly alway at the top.  He is a pretty good stick and should do well at the next level.  Here is the Bass Fan write up:
http://www.bassfan.com/docktalk.asp?id=6420#6420

        

I fished the 3rd event in the Tennessee East division this past Saturday, 5/2.  I had a limit of 5 fish/ 1 dead for 7.48lbs after penalty. I finished in 13th. If it had not been for a dead fish I would have finished 10th and .02 oz out of the money. I was able to move from 17th in points to 9th in points for the year. Solidly in the top 40 to go to the regional at Old Hickory.

Practice day 1.  I got to the lake with overcast conditions.  I studied my map and picked some shallow flats ...<< MORE >>

Today I was planning on a crappie trip to Priest. So far this year has not been vary friendly to me for the big slabs. I have only had one slab over 12". I have caught alot but just not the size of last year.   I met Wayne and his grandson for a day of crappie fishing. We met at Fate Sanders about 6:30 a.m.   The plan was for us to hit some deep brush as my shallow bite had dissapeared. 

Our first stop was not far from Fate Sanders.  We were tight-lining some minnows.  Our first stop produced 5 ...<< MORE >>

As most of you know by now I got laid of my job of 9 years about 2 weeks ago. This really puts the rest of my year fishing the Bassmaster Weekend Series operated by the ABA in serious jeopardy.  I was in 17th after Chickamuaga in Chattanooga and doing well.  I had planned to fish Tellico in east TN May 2nd.  I just have to stay in the top 40 to fish regionals on Old Hickory, one of my home lakes.  But unless I get some $$$ sp[sponsors to help me with entry fees the rest of the year ...<< MORE >>

Yesterday a friend of mine, Clay and his dad went out to Priest for some smallmouth action and whatever would bite.
We started out in Hamilton creek on a favorite bank of mine. We started off throwing jigs, shakey heads and swimming grubs.  Clay started whacking them on a green pumpkin grub just by swimming it slowly and just off the bottom.  We fished down the back and he caught a nice largemouth that was around 5lbs.  Thing I noticed was this fished had spawned out already, tail beat up and red, stomach just sucked in and flat as could be. ...<< MORE >>

April 6th I got laid off of work after 9 years of service. Not happy about it but what can you do when the country is in the mode that a dollar made is more valuable then a pesons life.  Unfortunately doing the right thing by a persons life does not measure up to the value of a dollar.  Protect a company or protect a person was a question purposed to me, hmmm and we wonder why the county is  in the shape it is in.  That should never be a question, a person should be more important then a ...<< MORE >>