Fishing Forum

I'm tired. I spent 23 hours on the water Saturday and Sunday. It was LOTS better than last weekend...<br /><br />Saturday I launched at Chester Frost just after 7 am with Brian Dickson from Atlanta. . It was 49 degrees with a light NW breeze. Water temp about 58.<br /><br />Trolled 4 to 8 feet deep mostly, 1.2 mph. First hour caught LOTS of fish... a surprising number of shorts, but took just about an hour-15 minutes to put our first limit (15) in the livewell. Nothing huge, 10-11 inches. Slowed down after that... and about 9:30 or 9:45 wind kicked in HARD out of Northwest. Made trolling in CF very hard and frustrating. We finally gave up and headed for a protected slough. I think we had 21 crappie at that point.<br /><br />One long circular pass in that slough going all the way from 16 feet deep back to 3 feet of water and then back out. Most fish were midways in. No numbers but we picked up a few keeper crappie, plus some off-species (cats & drum). After that long circle, at about 10:30 we had 27 keepers (3 shy of our limit) but Brian said that was plenty. He decided he wanted to go try the catfish below the Dam so off we went.<br /><br />It wasn't awesome, but it was good enough... we put a few good eater channel cats in the livewell, plus and 8-pound blue and Brian caught his personal best fish ever, a 15-pound blue. It's the second time Brian has fished with me (he's coming back April 26). He LOVES Tennessee! emoBig <br /><br />That evening I met up with tbinchrist about 5:30 to test out the evening cat bite. It was hot. We whacked 'em! Caught 15-20 with the biggest coming in at 41 pounds and 25 pounds. Couple of others in the 15-pound class, give or take.<br /><br />Sunday I headed back after the catfish with longtime client Randy Johnson and relatives Patrick and Cole. Sort of like last week, the cats kind of got lockjaw Sunday. emoBang We started out doing the EXACT same thing Ty and I were doing 12 hours before and we couldn't hardly buy a bite. emoScratch But Randy & Company are hardcore. We covered a lot of miles and hammered at it all say long. I actually kept count and we put 16 catfish in the boat... the biggest was 14 lbs. (which was a PB fish for Cole). emoThumbsup<br /><br />They stayed until after 3 pm. After the experience the evening before I REALLY wanted to try the evening bite so I stayed on the water, joined by shsimons. The Sunday evening catfish bite was non-exististent! Nothing, nada! emoBang Fish drive me crazy. emoScratch Sam and I did capture a couple of small stripers near dark-thirty as the rain kicked in. Before Sam chimes in... I did manage to knock his off with the net with a truly amateur maneuver. I'm not good with nets... still prefer those grabbers. emoBig<br /><br />It's Monday and I'm back at the "day job" where I can get some rest. Life is good and gettin' better every day.<br />