ChooChooSnakeMan
Well-known member
I was inspired by a recent post by Allenb3812 about catching some nice size gills below Chickamauga Dam. One of the unique elements of the CFF is the willingness to share information. Allen couldn't have been more helpful even calling me in response to a PM I had sent him. To make a long story short I put in at Riverpark about 9:00 am Saturday morning confident that the weather forecast would hold. The prediction was high of 54, light winds, cloudy and no rain until after 5:00 pm. I knew they were spilling with about 73K flow predicted but Allen assured me that it wouldn't be a factor for where I was going to fish. It started off slow as I had to get myself familiar with the area and find the fish. They weren't shallow but were in slack, eddy water in about 18'. I caught a dozen or so nice fat gills along with 3 or 4 white bass on pan-fish assassins and BG blue thunder crappie baits. I caught fish on both 1/32 and 1/16 oz. jigs. The presentation had to be real, real slow. I just let the jig sink to the bottom and then brought it back along the bottom watching my line. Most strikes I never felt, just saw the line move funny. The weather guy got the forecast all wrong. It didn't warm up and the rain started just after noon time. It got even colder and once the rain started the bite slowed way down. I had planned on keeping some fish for the frying pan but decided to just let them all swim another day and I headed for the ramp at 2:00. The current was fearsome and I was by myself. A couple of guys were just coming in and one of them yelled at me and asked if I needed any help emoAngel . That was so nice to offer even though by now it was raining harder. I didn't want to keep them out in the rain any longer than they had to be so I managed myself. I found out that the 75 ft/lb trolling motor on my little Lowe 17HP can really move that boat emoLaugh . It was able to not only hold its own against the current but actually move against it. I got it docked and tied off very securely (I thought, if it comes untied I won't find it until around the Bend) emoBang . Got it loaded and was back in my nice warm house by 3:00. I'm glad I went and this was a new area for me to fish. Everything about the boat worked perfectly and it was good to get out. I can see that the area should really hold a lot of fish so I'm planning on going back. Thanks to Allen for all his help, CFF people are the best emoGrouphug . By the way the water temps ranged from 47.5 to 49.0, water color was pretty clear and there wasn't much wind, at least until the rain started.
