Chickamauga 7/22 evening

[polo-dog]

I called Jmax from work as my family was going to a movie tonight and I was to be home alone and thought we might hook up to fish some. We had the best night that I think I ever have had for good fish. Jmax went out early and he picked me up at about 8:30. We fished shallow grass and some flats near drops with only a few bumps but no hookups. We decided to hit some points near the channel and were glad we did. We figured our 5 biggest would have been a bit over 22lb and were culling 3lbers. We had a really good time. All fish were caught on big black worms and didn't really bump the baits hard, just felt heavy on the line and then would move off. We didn't have the black light on so we missed a few that we waited too long to set the hook on. We fished until about 11:20pm, too bad we weren't in a dogfight, wow what a string. We had 4 fish that would have gone better than 4lbs and one over 5. Like I said, best night I've had. Here's a couple of pics.

 

[DHaun]

Wow! Great Report and congrats on the 22lb night! I have been reading today and noticed that there have been some nice fish caught on the new moon - Seems like the bite might be picking up this weekend!

 

[jon the fisherman]

Nice looking fish guysemoThumbsup

 

[Guest]

PD, sweet bag bud! I am still trying to find a way to get up there and fish with some of you all.

Great report.

 

[Jmax]

Yup, that was a BLAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!emoParty Haven't done that good since prespawn. I could not believe the quality of the fish we were catching. We had more keepers than non-keepers. When was the last time you could say that on the Chick. I also had one break off and another that was a good one come off coming to the boat. Seems I can't do this in a tournament this year to save my life but I am thankful to do it anywhere.emoWorthy Sure was glad polo talked me into going. After my poor preformance on this past Thursday I was not really all that pumped to go. I am ready to hit them again now. Polo, as usual you were a great partner to go with and I really enjoyed your company. Also gang we didn't pull out one map last night, not one!emoPoke Jmax

Polo, I wish now we had taken a pic of that 5+ lber.

 

[rsimms]

Now there's some smiles! With good reason... emoThumbsup

 

[Fat Albert]

PL & Jmax..... you are to be congratulated for a fine evening of catching... good report and pictures.. love the smiles....emoEek emoGeezer

 

[polo-dog]

We were and still are very happy. One of those fish litterally jumped 3 feet out of the water right by the boat. I had never seen a bass jump that high before. These fish were charged up once they got hooked. I looked at the generation schedule and the Chick dam schedule didn't change but the fishing picked up right at about 10pm and that's when the dam at Watts Bar went from 24Kcfs to about 17kcfs. I don't know if that made a difference or not but the difference in what's coming in and what's going out of the lake is really what controls the flow and it did change. It may have only been that we finally found a place where the fish were active or we were just there at the right time.

 

[craazyboutbass]

Dang one of the best bass fishing reports I have seen in a long while! Do you think that storm had an effect? Maybe by temperature cooling off?

 

[polo-dog]

I think what was more important is that the fish were in 10-15 feet and were down where the water was cooler, at about the thermocline. With the surface temp. above 90 the fish just don't have enough dissolved oxygen to be comfortable shallow. The grasses that we fished weren't producing enough oxygen to have fish in it. Different types of grass produce more or less oxygen and the species where we fished weren't the best.

 

[Skeeter]

I will post my report on here too, cause i was at the same place Jmax and Polo was. Didnt have the night that they had but i did get o good keeper about 3lb. on a chatterbait around the Harrision Bay pool area. in about 3 feet of water. I saw Jmax,Polo dog and 2jigs up there. I hope 2jigs faried better than i did

 

[shocker]

Now, thats a "good night John Boy" kind of night, way to go on figuring out what and where they were and how to put them into the boat. Whatever the water flow was it was right, what was the output for the chick dam? If they had stopped earlier the water could have been backing up. and I have done well at times with the water flowing the other way, sounds crazy but it does happen at times. But congrads anyway on the good string and getting to culllll.

"hook sets are free" about the only thing free these days. have a gooden, and don't get depressed if you don't have that good a string the next time u go.

 

[1armbndt]

Thanks for the report and pics.Looks like a great outing.See you some night, that would be the time to catch big fish.</p>

              1armbndt</p>

 

[Jmax]

Skeeter it was nice to see ya on the water. I never saw 2jigs so he either didn't do enough to post or he is keeping it to himself. I like fishing at night especially when you take pictures,emoTongue Don't have to worry about the back drop and giving away any secret locations. That was a strange one becuase we were not doing all that great and than hit the one area where they seemed to be feeding and it must have been a school of big fish working it becuase we only caught I think one under 15 inches at that area. I wished I could get into them at one of these Tx like that. One of these days someone is going to break the 20 lb mark on a CFF.emoCool Jmax