Chickamauga 11-4

[RangerRob]

Went out from Grasshopper again this AM. Fished from 9 to 1:30 and things weren't much better than yesterday ... though vastly different. Yesterday, most fish came on cranks on main lake chunk-rock. Today, most were caught on buzzbaits and pop-r's in pockets. The downside was that the topwater bite only lasted about 1 hr and then died as the wind picked up. Shad activity was still nill, but more happening than yesterday. Todays biggest, and only keeper, was a 2lb LM that hit my guest's Pop-R just outside a grassline. Water temps were still hovering around the 60 mark.

I'm thinking things will stabilize in another week or two and we can have the kind of fall bite we've all been hoping for.

RR

 

[jason]

When you say pockets, are you referring to coves/bays off the main channel or within secondary creek channels? We're going out tomorrow and the clarification would be greatly appreciatedemoSmile .

 

[RangerRob]

Sorry jason ... this is probably too late to help much. I meant main lake pockets. For what it's worth ... there ain't nothin' happnin' in the creeks now. The hot action that was there a few weeks ago was shot by the TVA's eagerness to control all the rampant flooding we're experiencing right now.

 

[polo-dog]

I went out for blue cats on the main lake for an hour and fifteen minutes 11/4. Caught some threadfins in Wolftever and headed to the big water. I caught 4 blues that were in the 5-10lb range in that short period and had two or three other hits that felt really big that "rocked" me up and I couldn't budge them and had to break off. I thought only grouper did that but I guess cats will do it too. There are two distinct spots on the drop where the fish seem to really stack up. The more I fish this spot the better idea I have what's down there. The fish can be caught on the bottom of the drop in ~40 feet of water. The top of the "feeding shelf" is about 27 feet on the edge right now and sometimes the fish are on the top. It seems as though there is an underwater bluff right on the edge of the river channel. There is no bluff on the surface but the hits all come when you are bumping up and down in the rocks. In the channel it's softer bottom and I don't seem to get any hits while I'm on softer bottom. My electronics seem to show two distinct areas along the drop where the fish stack up. There is a small hump on the feeding shelf that is about 14 feet deep on the top and one of the congregations of fish is consistently off the end of it. These areas are only about 20 or 30 feet in length and I don't mark fish stacked up on any other areas that I've explored along the drop. Sometimes the spotted bass are stacked up there too and I'm just waiting for the stripers and smallies to make a showing there. These "sweet spots" are very consistent and I'm excited about finding more of them on similar spots on Chickamauga.