Scenic City Cats
Capt. Richard Simms
August 5, 2008
Chattanooga - Freshwater Fishing Report
Catfish action is strong on the Tennessee River right now.
Wayne Rich, a wildlife officer from Jefferson County, Tenn. came down and fished with me Saturday. He and his three sons, Hunter, Chase and Wesley. Hunter caught a 25-pound blue for the big fish of the day. Everybody got in on some good action however.
On Sunday the moon and the stars lined up just right ... plus I fished a different pattern. Bryan Lowe from Soddy Daisy said he read about me in Tennessee Sportman Magazine and decided to give me a try. I'm glad he did... I think he is too. We killed 'em.
Brian has fished with guides on Ft. Loudon and caught some monster cats (67 lb. PB). But said today he just wanted "to catch a bunch of fish." He and his Dad, Phillip, planned to stock the freezer and brought a 50-quart cooler. I was worried. But I'll be darned if we didn't manage to fill 'er up to the top.
We tried a big fish/big tackle pattern for about an hour and managed one decent fish. Then we switched over to light tackle and started hop-scotching, looking for the Mother Lode.
We found it. Light tackle and a finesse presentation of chicken breast, on just the right current flow was the ticket. In the right spot, of course. We had to hit 3 or 4 sections of river before we found 'em. No monsters today but we had four fish in the 10-15 lb. class. Those, of course, will flat work you over on light spinning tackle. Plus lots of fish from sandwich-size up to 10 lbs. It was a blast. Brian and his Dad lay stone for a living, which means Brian has got biceps the size of my beer gut. We put a few fish on a stringer for a picture... and I enjoyed watching him struggle when I said, "get 'em a little higher please." Which means life is good and gettin' better every day!
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