Chickamauga 9/12 and 9/13

[JerDog]

Went fishing with DHaun on Monday and Tuesday with mixed results. Water temp. was 83F. Fished above the dam and worked some drop offs jigging spoons. Hooked only a couple of little fish (little hybrids). Big fish of the night came right as we were ready to leave, a 8.5lb channel cat (see pic). The fish hit the spoon on a downfall while jigging. There was no mistake that the fish meant business! Marked a lot of fish and another boat in the area was reeling fish on virtually every cast. Looked like they were using spoons but either we did not have the right size or the wrong lure.

Fished Tuesday below the dam. Water was generating and the typical island that is normally there was under water. I seem to never have success when the island is under water. We were able to score some threadfins along the wing wall and did not catch anything with them...Tried downstream for some smallmouth and did not hook up with anything.....Can't wait for the cool fall weather to get here and bring the water temps. down into the 70's.

emoBang

 

[polo-dog]

JerDog, What drops did you fish? It sounds like the flow was really raging below the dam. When it's like that I never see much happening either. Above the dam was there much flow? How deep were the drops on top and what was the depth of the channel? Was there a flat next to the drop or was it next to the hump?

 

[slo-ride]

good looking kitty-fish, Jer-Dog.
the salt bite is on here in North Alabama..82 water temp...we worked 'em out tuesday afternoon below Wilson Dam...they were tearing up a five inch pearl sassy shad body on 1 1/2 oz. jighead (swimming it in the tailrace)

 

[JerDog]

We were fishing in about 20 feet of water. The area we were fishing was a flat after a significant drop-off. The water went from about 50ft. to 20ft. Fish were stacked up on the drop-off. The place we fished was on the other side of the lake from the ramp on Chickamauga Lake. What are some good spoons that anyone has used to catch fish vertically (brand name, size/weight, and color? I had a buddy tell me that a hopkins spoon works real well.

Slo-ride....what do you mean by salt bite? where you wearing out stripers or catfish???

 

[slo-ride]

i like ACME kastmasters (undressed). you can jig 'em or rip 'em....if you're bumping bottom at 20 ft, i'd use a fairly heavy one...an ounce or better depending on current.

by salts, i mean saltwater stripers..we fished about 3 hours and caught 50+ averaging 6-8 lbs. (no bigguns)

http://www.teamsouthbound.com/pictureprocessor/images/zdave.jpg

 

[polo-dog]

Those 6-8lbers sound like fun to me!!!!!!!! Are they just packed in there?

 

[slo-ride]

they were...it was like being on a bream bed!
i went yesterday and TVA didn't have the big wheels turning. the water was low and ROCKY!
we loaded the boat up and headed to wheeler dam and caught a couple dozen small whites and one dang salt emoBang

 

[polo-dog]

It seems that with the stripers/salts it's either feast or famine. I have never been there when there is really a feast going on but I have heard from a buddy or two that were there right at the right time below Nickajack that they will break your rods and bend your hooks out.