Date:7/19/2010
Jason Hawkins's Journal
coffee county lake
Well not having a boat back from the shop yet I decied to give a friend a call on Saturday and see if he might want to go catch some Smallies up at Coffee County. As luck would have it he was looking to get away from the house for a day so off we went.
We arrived at about 6am did the check-in and had to wait about 30 minutes to be able to access the lake. Wind was steady at about 12 MPH which on that lake creates about two footers. We took off and checked the temps at the outflow first. 116 degrees! That might be the hottest I have ever seen it. So we headed down to the intake and started at the bouy line. Only 83 there.
We were using tubes to start and the action just took off. We caught smallies all the way up from the intake line. They would just hammer that tube and take off. Most of the fish were between 12 and 14 inches but they thought they were monsters. Once we reached the point we decided to just go on around and keep fishing the riprap down the outside on the main lake. The action never stop with us even catching a few 16 inchers. At one point Gene asked for the net and I though we had the big fish of the day. Well it was but it was about a five pound drum. On 8lb test it gave him a great fight.
With the day getting on towards 10am we went to a shallow area to ply our luck. I manaded to catch a nice three pounder on that spot and a few small 10 to 14 inch fish. At 11am we figured to call it a day with the heat coming on and left for home. All told we caught around 50 smallies in just under four hours. Only the one great fish but what a day. My hands are still recovering from it. If you get a chance head out there and give it a shot. For numbers it is a great lake. Enjoy the water but most of all be safe.
