Scenic City Fishing - Weekend of the Blues
Capt. Richard Simms
August 17, 2008
Chattanooga - Freshwater Fishing Report
SATURDAY
Louis Stern from Orlando, Fla. has relatives in Chattanooga. He fished with me on New Years Day this year and busted a couple of trophy smallmouth. He called and wanted to try the smallmouth again. But I talked him into catfishing... I assured him we could expect more action for he and his relatives, Debbie & Gary. He said "OK," a little reluctantly. He's not reluctant anymore.
They were generating more water thru Chickamauga Dam than I normally like, but it didn't hurt us. We had a wonderful morning... very good numbers and a few real quality blues and channels, topped by Gary's 27-pounder. He's done some pretty serious fishing but said, "That's the biggest fish I've ever SEEN! When Louis said we were going catfishing, I had no idea!"
Add three more folks to the "Catfish Convert" list.
All fish on light tackle drifting chicken breast in 8-to-15 feet of water.
SUNDAY
A grand day on the river today with John Bills from Memphis and his friend Terry Gregory from Lynchburg. They are old high school buddies who continue to run together... and fish together. That's cool!
A change in the weather brought a change in the fishing. Yesterday under cloudy skies we got quantity with a smidgen of quality. Today the "quantity" bite only lasted the first hour or two of daylight .... but we kept pounding away and by golly we made up for it in quality. It seems almost everything John and Bill caught today was a beast that fought like a demon. On the light tackle in pretty shallow water (8-15 ft.) ... and fishing 8# test, I keep a pretty light drag. We flat heard some screamin' drags today!
Everything I took a picture of today was blue, but they caught several real nice channels in the 5-to-8 lb. range as well. Our biggest blue was 20#... but we had several fish in the 15# class as well. And yes, all caught on chicken breast.
Quality fish means quality pictures. Hence lots to scroll through ... which of course means, life is good and gettin' better every day!
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