Chick blue cats 3-8-07

[EricM]

Beautiful day today, and even though they slowed the water twice, the blue cats were hungry. I caught 22 total, 13 over 10 lb, the largest were 35+, 33, and 21 lb. Also managed 1 striper - 16 lb. Looks like the larger cats are starting to show up! All were caught on skipjack, live or cut.

 

[CRAZYHORSE]

Thats a busy day!! I dont know at what temperature they really start workin, but i believe we may have turned the corner this week!!

crazyhorse

 

[polo-dog]

Nice sounding day EM. What lake/river were you fishing today? I would expect that it was Chickamauga as the flow was a bit up and down today. Did it seem to change the mood of the fish when the water slowed down? It looks like the flow over the weekend will be very slight so everybody ought to get their fish tomorrow. Only 9000CFS average all day Sat. I will believe it when I see it. That's next to nothing.

 

[Liveliner]

Come on, Spill the beans, what area were you fishing?

 

[EricM]

I was on Chickamauga, near Sequoyah. The decreases in water flow did not have much effect except to stack the blues tightly and make them harder to find. I drifted with the trolling motor until I found them and then repeated the drift until they moved. The skipjack were around, but somehow mostly managed to stay just out of casting range. The next 6 to 8 weeks should produce a lot of big blues all over the river if last year was any indication!

 

[polo-dog]

Do you think that the fish will bite Sat. if the flow is as slow as is predicted? Here are the predicted flows for Sat, and Sun. The last week or so the flow has averaged better than 30,000cfs.

3/10/2007 10,400 676.10 9,000
3/11/2007 10,700 676.30 9,000

It seems like they tend to drop the flow on the weekends, less power gen. needs I would guess.

 

[EricM]

Polo-dog, I would expect that they will still bite OK, but finding them gets tougher when the flow drops. Watch for clouds of shad and work the channel edges from shallow to deep by making short hops with your bait and wait a few seconds between hops. I also find that when the flow gets really low that a number of blues will suspend about 15 feet above the bottom. Hope this helps!

 

[polo-dog]

Great info EM. You never know, maybe I'll get out there for some cats this weekend.