rsimms, Nickajack/Chickamauga, Smallmouth, Cats & Crappie, 6-22 & 6-23-2013, Assorted Partners

[FishNews]

I'm slow posting. It was a hard weekend guiding/fishing... although I still have a very hard time convincing my wife that it's "work." emoAngel <br /><br />Saturday I visited the tailwaters chasing smallmouth and catfish, in spite of some open flood gates. Ugh! Some folks like extreme high flow, but I'm not one of them. emoBang I was fishing with Michael Goetz and his friend, Klaus from Germany. Klaus heads back to Germany next week after three years in the states. Michael wanted to get him a taste of Tennessee River before he went home. Klaus had NEVER caught fish, or even been fishing... nowhere, no time, nohow... he was a brand new newbie. That was really special.<br /><br />Klaus's very first fight with a fish was a large drum... 12 lbs. to exact. Of course every time Klaus caught a new species it was a new "personal best." That was cool. The smallmouth bite was tough but Klaus managed one decent brownfish. We were drifting shiners of course.<br /><br />The catfish bite wasn't easy either. Fortunately what we lacked in numbers we made up for in size... at least they were big for folks who'd never caught Tennessee River blues. Big fish was Michael's 16 lber... a big battle on spinning tackle.<br /><br />Sunday I went lakeside for a crappie fishing trip. That is VERY unusual for me. I don't like taking clients shooting docks. It's a tough thing for inexperienced folks to learn... especially when you've got four folks in the boat as I did Sunday. Fortunately this summer there are crappie ganged up on "easy-to-fish" docks and many other places. Chickamauga Lake is just lousy with crappie right now. I'm beginning to worry it's getting overpopulated?<br /><br />On Sunday John Hughes along with his son and son-in-law, Jim and Jack, but a hurtin' on them. I estimate we caught a total of 150 crappie give or take. They went home with 47 keepers, plus some keeper spotted bass and a 13-pound flathead. It was great fun watching John battle that fish on ultralight tackle.<br /><br />Lots of fun, lots of fish and happy clients. That means life is good and gettin' better every day!