Monday night dog fight 7/25

[ranman]

Didn't go last night,to friggin hot!that and I'm not on any quality fish.
I know I'm a wuss and should have gone anyway but I just wasn't into it last night.
I did go watch the weigh-in though,8# and some change won it,same guys that fish
on the TN and beat us like dogs every week won with 4 fish.
Big fish was 3 something and probably came from the hiwassee island area if I had
to guess because thats where he usually fishes.
there were only a few other fish weighed in so it looked like a tough night for everyone. Glad I didn't go.

 

[jason]

Except for an eventual trip to Roger's Creek, the area around Hiwassee Island is where we have decided to fish the rest of the summer. The backside of the island, as well as the first 200yds of both the Tennessee and Hiwassee eastern banks at the island, have the potential to be a summer goldmine. They all have a mild current flowing over submerged grass and wood located on banks that drop into 20' just a few yards from the shore. The grass bed in the heart of the island is pretty sweet, too.

 

[ranman]

I went out Thurs. afternoon to prefish with my cousin for a tourny Sat.
We started out way up river under the Hwy.75 bridge flipping with little action at all just a few bites only a couple small fish.Then we moved back down to gunstocker creek to flip and pitch jigs and tubes on the new riprap thay are placing for the new bridge.He caught a 22 lb blue cat on a tube in about 2 feet of water! there were tons of baitfish around and alot of surface action so we tied on buzzbaits and started casting to the grass like I normally fish that area.We ended up with a very good 3lb fish and another 15 1/2 inch fish plus alot of small fish and a few misses that might have been keepers before we had to go!The funny thing was the water temp was in the high 80's and average depth was maybe 3 or 4 feet. The bass were not supposed to be back there under those conditions but I guess they go where the food is no matter what the temps are.

 

[DHaun]

Ranman - Great report! What color and size tube were you using when you caught the big blue cat? I have been charting some spots below Chickamaga Dam and think I have spotted a few deep holes to target for cats, but sounds like they might still be in the shallows..

I noticed a good bit of large bait flippin (either gizzard or skipjack) downstream of the dam yesterday and decided to troll through them. I had the kids and we had been skiing and tubing so in between rests I decided to troll a 6ft fantastic minnow, 15ft crankbait, and glowshad around just above idle speed facing downstream....No luck though, but something I saw was chasing bait or they were just small stripers. I finally did catch a huge shellcracker next to some rocks on a tiny yozuri minnow as we drifted around on the tube just floating by so there was the first fish in my new boat! I also confirmed my boat will pull me up on a slalom ski after about 15 years of growing on a beer gut...that was pretty fun!

Maybe Jerdog can give me some trolling pointers???emoScratch

 

[jason]

Ranman, we hit that same riprap on our way back to the ramp yesterday. The wind was blowing right into it and the spots were in a feeding frenzy. Just for the heck of it, I tried the Horny Toad parallel to the rocks and they bit it just as good, if not better, than a spinnerbait. That same type of action was going on earlier in the day at the little gaps between the islands to the right (if your facing it) of the riprap. As soon as the wind calmed, they shut down and we went pitching for largemouth.

BTW; does anyone know anything about the accident Saturday evening on the Hiwassee? Life Force flew right over us around 8:30pm and when we were approaching the 58 ramp they were lifting off from the parking lot. There were emergency vehicles everywhere and with all the rubberneckers (does that term apply to boats?) at the ramp, I figure it must have been something major. We went back out for another hour, and when we returned no one was left to tell us what happened.