Christina and my families converged on Rainbow City for the occasion – of course I scheduled time to take them fishing. I took my dad fishing one week, and my father-in-law fishing the next.
We have had unusual amounts of rainfall over the past month or so, and as a result, the Coosa River – like every body of water in the state – is high and muddy. When I was thinking about where to take my dad, I thought I would go downstream;
because, the water was
a little cleaner after the
rains. The water was still
dirty, but it wasn’t the
“tea with cream” color
that was predominant
upstream.
Instead of doing
what I was planning on,
I was talking to a friend
who does very well
on Neely Henry, who
told me that if he was
taking someone fishing
for fun, he would fish
around the City Ramp
in Gadsden, where all
of the tournaments
release their fish.
DONE! I changed
my mind and took
my dad there, and
we caught one fish;
gratefully, it was dad
who caught it.
The next week, I
followed my gut and
took my father-in-
law downstream
to fish the less
Dennis Gregory with Coosa River Spinnerbait Largemouth - photo by
Dan O’Sullivan
dirty water. We started out with some swim jigs on the deck, a few
Flippin’ rods, a
couple crankbaits
and a pair of 1/2-ounce chartreuse
spinnerbaits with a single size 5 or 6 Colorado blade,
painted florescent chartreuse.
We started out slow rolling the spinnerbaits
around shallow, riprap points with water willow
on them, but it wasn’t until we got distracted that
the pattern began to take shape. My father-in law
made a cast next to a laydown tree, and at that
precise moment, I started saying something. He
was listening to what I was saying, and paused his
retrieve for a moment.
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