drumking, Chickamauga head waters, Striped Bass, 10/30/2015, Dr Phillip Gawthrop

[drumking]

Dr Phil and I made another trip to Watts Bar tailwaters this AM for a short Striper fishing trip before he headed to Wind Rock to 4 wheel all weekend. TVA was running turbines 1-4 and it looked like an angry ocean up at the dam, but there was a small sort of calm spot over the #5 turbine, so we eased into that spot and put down the trolling motor and I engaged "Crazy Ivan" and he performed beautifully today. Crazy Ivan is my spot lock on the Terrova TM that I have.

We caught a few big white bass, 3 of Richard Simms' slimers, and 3 Rockfish. Biggest one was 17 lbs on new digital scales. We also had a couple of smaller keeper fish too. All the fish succumbed to Foley Spoons in the 1.5 inch size. We had fun for a few very short hours and Phil left for Knoxville area to play, and I headed to Harrison to clean fish. 5 bags of Stripers and 1 bag of white bass in the freezer. Yum Yum. emoBigsmile emoGeezer

 

[tennfisher]

Well done! Glad you got to get into them again.

Tennfisher

 

[fishnaddiction]

Way to get on em DK and Doc!!!

 

[SpurHunter]

I think we have created a monster with the Foley spoons and Dr. Phil

 

[BassERT]

emoThumbsup emoGeezer

emoCool

 

[polo-dog]

Another great short trip guys! Pretty fish!

 

[drumking]

SpurHunter - 10/31/2015 1:50 AM

I think we have created a monster with the Foley spoons and Dr. Phil

There is no doubt about that, Spur. He is ruined. It will take an act of congress to get him to crappie fish again. I was like that once, but after you have caught hundreds, even thousands of those Striped Bass, it will wear off and just a few trips per year to re-stock the freezer will suffice. Grin. Back in the day, before the fire at Watts Bar dam, when they had to replace all the turbines, we used to catch many more Stripers than I can catch today. The water flow is different than it was, if you can imagine that. More people fishing for them too, I guess. emoBigsmile emoGeezer

 

[SpurHunter]

Did they stock Chic back then Dickey?

 

[drumking]

SpurHunter - 11/1/2015 10:25 AM

Did they stock Chic back then Dickey?

I called and asked TWRA about that and was told that they haven't stocked Stripers in Chickamauga or Nickajack since the 70's because they allow gill netting on these reservoirs and it seemed to TWRA that that would waste resources. I say "Outlaw Gill Netting". Let them use trotlines and boxes, but ban the gill nets. They kill many more gamefish that people want to admit.

 

[DPowell]

Most of those fish came through the Lock and turbines, not stocked. The catch rate has lessoned over the years due to more people targeting them.