For all you folks who are still fishing despite the cooler weather, here’s a look at what’s happening on area lakes and rivers.

Tennessee
Pickwick Lake: Guide Clagett Talley (731-607-5266) says smallmouth fishing has picked up quite a bit. He’s been catching 15 to 20 per day while drifting with live minnows below the dam, and he’s caught quite a few in the 5- to 6-pound range. He’s also catching lots of white bass on white grubs and Bandit Crankbaits. He says you can catch them on almost any river bank right now. Catfish are still fairly easy to catch, using live worms below the dam. The most productive depth seems to be about 15 feet. Sauger fishing isn’t wide open yet, but Clagett’s been catching a few while fishing for other species.

Reelfoot Lake: Guide Jackie Van Cleave (731-538-2547) says things have been kind of a mess on Reelfoot since the heavy rains in late October. He’s still catching a few crappie using jigs and minnows around cover in 8-12 feet. Catfish anglers are also having some success fishing with dead shad around the cypress trees in 3-4 feet of water. You can fish them weightless or with a small split shot.

Kentucky Lake: Guide Steve McCadams says crappie were finicky for most of this week due to the erratic weather, but he’s still been catching a few from the mid-range depths (8-12 feet) on minnow-tipped jigs. Top jig colors have been black/chartreuse, dull brown and black variations. Hair jigs in blue/white, silver and orange/brown have also been working well. Bass fishing was decent before the cold front moved in, but the bite pretty much came to a halt Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mississippi

Arkabutla Lake: Crappie anglers are having some success trolling the main lake with jigs and/or minnows at 5-7 ft deep. Catfishing has also been good on trotlines with cut shad and hot dog pieces.

Sardis: Long’s Sporting Goods and Quick Stop (662-487-2187) says the crappie are still deep. Some anglers are having luck trolling jigs and/or minnows at 10-12 feet deep on the main lake. White bass are hitting small crankbaits, spoons and tail spinners around sandy points on the main lake.

Grenada Lake: Kent Driscoll of Cordova says the crappie fishing has been outstanding. He’s catching big fish using two-hook minnow rigs in 5-9 feet of water. He’s catching lots of crappie in the 1 1/2- 2-pound range.

Arkansas

Little Red River: Lindsey’s Resort (501-302-3139) says the water is clear and at a normal level. Generation has been minimal, and trout fishing has been really excellent on chartreuse Berkley Power Bait, buoyant spoons, and black or olive Marabou jigs.

White River: Gaston’s White River Resort says big trout have been biting Eagle Claw Nitro Worms in pink, orange and white. Some anglers are also having success using live nightcrawlers and redworms.

Horseshoe Lake: Local fisherman Clyde Gregory says the water conditions are normal, and crappie fishing is good around the piers on black/chartreuse jigs. Bass fishing has been good with topwater lures fished over the grassy areas, and catfishing is excellent on small shad and red hot dogs strung from trotlines.

Got to give credit to former University of Memphis women’s basketball coach Joye Lee-McNelis.

Always the promoter, Lee-McNelis, the women’s basketball coach at Southern Miss, sent a letter to selected U of M fans this week informing them that her children, Connor and Whitney, would be wearing their Tiger blue this weekend as the school’s football teams play one another Saturday.

Endearing herself to those on the mailing list with that tidbit, she also reminded those making the trip to see her women’s team open its season Friday night in Hattiesburg against Sam Houston, coached by Brenda Nichols, a former Lady Tiger assistant under Lee-McNelis.

“I wanted to personally invite you to catch the Lady Eagles in action on Friday night November 9th at 6:30 p.m. at Reed Green Coliseum” Lee-McNelis wrote. “We would all like to see you at courtside. Make plans now to catch the action. I miss you all!”

Lee-McNelis has never been one to worry about being politically correct (so what if her children still wear Tiger blue). Several years ago, when Lee-McNelis was at Memphis, she infuriated Southern Miss athletic officials by bringing a larger group of fans to the USM campus to watch the Lady Tigers play than were there to cheer the Golden Eagles.

After a day off, the Tigers returned to work, but they didn’t spend much time on the court. Memphis went through a few light drills and put in some new offensive and defensive looks, but didn’t go into any live action. After that, the players went over to coach John Calipari’s house for what he called some “team building.”

Essentially, Calipari is somewhat concerned about the amount of attention freshman Derrick Rose has received in the past week and the effect it might have on the rest of the team. Rose was named the MVP of the Memphis regional of the 2k College Hoops Classic — rightly so, in my view — and just Thursday was on the cover of ESPN The Magazine. Calipari said he hasn’t seen any warning signs of problems and admitted that it may not be having any impact at all on the other players. But it’s probably better to deal with it on the front end, since I don’t think the attention on Rose is going away. If Rose plays as well in New York as he did in Memphis this week, the national press will be just as gaga over the kid as we were.

“You wouldn’t even know we’ve got some guys here who won 66 games (the last two years),” Calipari said. They’re normal humans, and they’ve got people in their ears. They’ve got a high expectation level, and I just want to…We have no control over how this is playing out. You could easily have given Chris Douglas the MVP, but that’s OK. We didn’t vote. But dealing with all this stuff, we have to, this has to be inside of how we deal with it. And you’ve got some guys that aren’t playing and they’ve got to maybe accept, should I be? In whose place? Who should I be playing in front of? So I just am going to spend some time at the house with them.”

Meanwhile, Calipari hinted at some possible experimenting with lineup changes. In both the UT-Martin and Richmond games, Memphis got off to fast starts but then lost the lead once the second team rotated in. It would not be a bad idea, in my view, to start either Willie Kemp or Doneal Mack, giving Memphis a shooter in the starting lineup and then another shooter that can rotate in. Then, if you’ve got a player like Antonio Anderson or even Joey Dorsey coming off the bench, that would only strengthen the second wave of players.

“If Joey comes off the bench we’ve probably got the best backup center in the country,” Calipari said. “But even if Joey starts we may have the best backup center in the country (in Shawn Taggart), and that’s not bad to have two big guys like that.”

How is it that the Grizzlies could score a 105-98 victory on the road, shooting 37.6 percent, turning the ball over 18 times and with franchise player Pau Gasol playing terribly?

Coaches will quickly point to defense and rebounding, which are what the Griz did particularly well in the second half against Seattle (see: Kevin Durant’s 0-for-8 shooting, and Memphis’ 25-18 rebounding edge). There’s no doubt, too, that breakout games from Rudy Gay and Mike Miller heavily aided the cause.

Mostly rendered ineffective by foul trouble the first two games, Gay came to work with more focus and determination in his third game.

After a slow start, Gay revved up and dominated the action because of his willingness to do more than just score. He got in the passing lanes and created open-court opportunities with steals. He hit the offensive glass hard, turning six offensive boards into put-backs. And none of that took away from Gay dogging Durant on defense.

Gay asserted himself as a clear No. 2 option that could easily be No. 1 on the floor no matter what Gasol is doing.

“I hope this gave Rudy a taste of what he’s capable of doing,” Griz coach Marc Iavaroni said.

Despite his five turnovers, Miller (right) made himself more dangerous because he looked for his shot. In making 6 of his 7 field goals from beyond the three-point arc, Miller grabbed a rebound, pushed a fast break and pulled up for three on one possession when the Griz made their most significant run.

In short, an aggressive Gay (25 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals) and Miller (20 points, 8 rebounds) can make it tough to defend the Griz on the perimeter and difficult to sag the lane and sit on Gasol.
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THE BIG STORY

Senior tailback Thomas Brown appears ready to play for Georgia for the first time in five weeks on Saturday against Auburn.

Brown measured his words carefully this week with the Athens Banner-Herald about whether he would return from a broken collarbone, but spoke more confidently after Wednesday’s practice.

“I wanted to make sure before the week is over and I made a decision that I have contact on it so I know what it feels,” Brown said. “After having contact on it, it feels good and I’m ready to go.”

Brown still didn’t say for certain that he would play. Brown hasn’t played since the first half against Tennessee. He broke the collarbone a week earlier while rushing for 180 yards against Ole Miss.

“It’s kind of day-to-day,” Brown said. “It felt fine. No problems, but we’ll see.”

Georgia coach Mark Richt sounded like he expects Brown to play.

“He’ll be fine,” Richt said. “It’s good to have a veteran leader in there and a guy that’s been in these kind of games for us.”

Richt said he did not know how carries would be distributed between Knowshon Moreno and Brown. Moreno has rushed for 541 yards the past three weeks and has 1,003 yards on the season. Running backs coach Tony Ball indicated Tuesday that Moreno would remain as the starter.

Brown is ready for whatever comes his way.

“I feel like I could take 50 if they give it to me that many times,” Brown said. “As many times as they give it to me, I’ll be happy with it.”

A look at the league: Read the rest of this entry »

…is Gardner-Webb???? Yep, that’s right. Despite the absolute best efforts of The Gazelle Group to ensure a heavyweight Memphis/Oklahoma/UConn/Kentucky semifinals of the Coaches vs. Cancer event, Kentucky somehow lost Wednesday night to Gardner-Webb in Rupp Arena. And it wasn’t just a loss. The Wildcats were beaten soundly, 84-68, and were behind double-digits for practically the entire second half.

Unreal.

Upsets happen all the time in college basketball, but of this magnitude? It happens maybe once a year. Maybe. But every now and then, you just get that perfect storm. With Kentucky, you’ve got a new coach and new system in a program where they’re down on talent and suffering from a few injuries. With just three weeks of real practice, Kentucky probably wasn’t ready to play in games that count, just like Memphis wasn’t, just like UConn wasn’t in a very close win over Morgan State in its opener Wednesday. In other words, don’t read too much into what happens in these early games, good or bad. All of these teams will be way different a month from now.

That doesn’t mean it’s not funny. If you want to see what a fan base in meltdown mode looks like, just go to Catspause.com, click, and enjoy.