EricM
Well-known member
Ty and I finally got together, taking his boat below Watts bar to catch skipjack and maybe a cat. Beautiful evening, not humid, fairly good temps, few bugs, good current.
First thing, on the trip to meet Ty, I discovered that since the last time I was there, someone has moved the dam just about 15 minutes further north than I remember, making me a bit late. Obviously, not my fault. And not a problem, since for the first hour we did pretty much nothing. As the sun went down and the shadows got longer, the fish started to become active, chasing tiny shad to the surface. Of course, they did their best to stay about 10 yards farther out than we could cast. Both the white bass (stripe, but here we go again.....) and the skipjack were pretty well tucked in a fast-water seam and were willing participants once they moved closer to us. I was content to catch fish on the Foley spoon (a hoot in that fast water), but Ty was determined to get us a nice flathead catfish. He dropped a couple of lines down with live bluegill on them and we waited. And waited. Seems the flatheads are too lazy to get out in the daylight and wait until nearly dark to move about. As twilight fell, the bluegill started getting chewed up. There was one terrific takedown that we think got cut off by running the line across the prop or skeg. Would have loved to see that fish!
As it got darker, we started putting a bunch of really nice-sized skipjack in Ty's boat, missing and losing probably 3/4 of those that hit. The white bass kept getting in the way, and the bluegills on the cat rods kept getting chewed up or stolen and took away a fair amount of skipjack time. Ty and I also, on a number of occasions, would get tangled in the fast water, especially if one had a skipjack on that ran sideways. More time lost, but not fish - a couple of times, after we got untangled, Ty still had his fish on!
Ty got his first experience with Foley spoons and is now a believer. I had caught and missed a bunch before I had pity on him and gave him a set-up. He immediately got into the fish, but his spinning rod was too light to keep the skipjack on in the fast water and lots of them jumped off. As the night got full dark, the skips quit, but again Ty had a good cat take a rod down and this time boated a very nice 26 lb. flathead. Great way to end the evening! All fish were released except the 20 or so big skipjack we kept for catfish bait (and I think Ty makes sandwiches out of them too).
A couple of pics:
First thing, on the trip to meet Ty, I discovered that since the last time I was there, someone has moved the dam just about 15 minutes further north than I remember, making me a bit late. Obviously, not my fault. And not a problem, since for the first hour we did pretty much nothing. As the sun went down and the shadows got longer, the fish started to become active, chasing tiny shad to the surface. Of course, they did their best to stay about 10 yards farther out than we could cast. Both the white bass (stripe, but here we go again.....) and the skipjack were pretty well tucked in a fast-water seam and were willing participants once they moved closer to us. I was content to catch fish on the Foley spoon (a hoot in that fast water), but Ty was determined to get us a nice flathead catfish. He dropped a couple of lines down with live bluegill on them and we waited. And waited. Seems the flatheads are too lazy to get out in the daylight and wait until nearly dark to move about. As twilight fell, the bluegill started getting chewed up. There was one terrific takedown that we think got cut off by running the line across the prop or skeg. Would have loved to see that fish!
As it got darker, we started putting a bunch of really nice-sized skipjack in Ty's boat, missing and losing probably 3/4 of those that hit. The white bass kept getting in the way, and the bluegills on the cat rods kept getting chewed up or stolen and took away a fair amount of skipjack time. Ty and I also, on a number of occasions, would get tangled in the fast water, especially if one had a skipjack on that ran sideways. More time lost, but not fish - a couple of times, after we got untangled, Ty still had his fish on!
Ty got his first experience with Foley spoons and is now a believer. I had caught and missed a bunch before I had pity on him and gave him a set-up. He immediately got into the fish, but his spinning rod was too light to keep the skipjack on in the fast water and lots of them jumped off. As the night got full dark, the skips quit, but again Ty had a good cat take a rod down and this time boated a very nice 26 lb. flathead. Great way to end the evening! All fish were released except the 20 or so big skipjack we kept for catfish bait (and I think Ty makes sandwiches out of them too).
A couple of pics:
