Chickamauga Giant 1-19-19
 

Put in at Dayton last Saturday in a monsoon, caught a few fish but found out this guy caught this 14.2 out of Dayton also same day, Chick is producing outstanding numbers of big bass, heard that was at least the 8th 10+ within the past year

Why not me? lol


https://i.imgur.com/YzrthlD.jpg

What a tank! That's a fish of a million casts...keep at it. Lots of time on the water and tons of luck required to catch ONE of that caliber.....in a lifetime.
Congrats to him!

Goodness what a bass. I can't even imagine! Did the guy say what he caught it on? I'd bet a giod amount that it was on 1 of 3 lures. Alabama rig, jig, or a swimbait. And Alabama rig is the best guess I'd say.

I wish they would put that Florida strain bass in at least one lake here in middle Tn.

Rattle-L-Trap

https://newschannel9.com/sports/outd...-14-pound-bass

Blue Cat, Shell Cracker, and Goldeneye all 3 have them at The Williamsport Lakes outside of Columbia. My late friend caught 6 of these back in 2015.....one a day for 6 days. I think the smallest was 9 pounds. This one was caught using 2# test SOS line and he caught all of them off the bank. They have shocked them up there as big as 14 pounds...I think maybe even more. If I’m not mistaken The Williamsport Lakes were the first lakes in TN to get Florida strain.

Regards

They put some in Nickajack this year if that's closer , heard it took 15 years before they started seeing the DNA in Chick so it could be a while


We went back today and I didn't get a bite, first time I got skunked at Chickamauga :(

And someone caught a 12 pounder today, didn't say what he caught it on , not sure how accurate but he claims there have been 10 double digit bass caught since Jan 1st

https://i.imgur.com/LVOyeoi.jpg

Nickajack was first stocked with them in 2015.

Regards

Thank you sir! I need to make my way there. I've heard you talk about those lakes before. It just seems to fade away in my mind.

Oh ok, saw where TWRA was stocking them last season , I thought it was a new program , not sure why but some people are against stocking that strain, a TWRA officer that lives by me said it was unfortunate that they were stocking them in Watts Bar but didn't go into detail

Those fish are monsters. From what I hear they won’t stock priest or old hickory with Florida strain in they won’t survive our cold water. I call bs. If that’s case why are these 12 and 14 lb fish not belly up instead of hitting someone’s lure. I know that water is cold down there with these temperatures and high water flow. That’s my case and I’m sticking to it.

220,000 were stocked a few years back in Ky lake and more to come.

I don't know the complete history of FL strain in Chickamauga but do have some intel.

As the largemouth fishery on Chick was crashing in the mid '80's, due to increases in flow (although many mistakenly blame TVA spraying milfoil). A study by a PhD theorized that FL strain would survive (not necessary thrive) below a diagonal line from just north of Birmingham and Chattanooga but well south of Knoxville.

From my understand, Anders Myhr (RIP, then Region III chief), presented the idea to a local bass club to sponsor stocking of the FL strain to boost the population. Genetics were not a concern back then. I believe it was 300-500 fingerlings shipped from FL per year for the first several years.

Later on TN was able to overwinter FL brood fish and the stocking rates increased, however managers were not seeing any results. So around 2000 Kevin Hoffman performed some work and published his findings in 2002. Yes the FL stocking genes were moving into the general populations, but were still mostly confined to the original stocking embayments. Since then, with continual stocking and natural wandering, the genes have spread and you see some F1 hybrids being caught.

Now here comes the rub…..
F1 hybrids will eventually spawn with other F1, and you start to loose the hybrid vigor the F1 shows. FL strain have a less tolerant range of spawning temperatures than native and are less fecund (i.e. produce fewer eggs) than native. This can lead to missing years of spawning. Also F2 will not have the same growth rates as the pure and F1. Over time the population average size will decrease. Even if the entire lake was all F1 (with no native), the population numbers would be lessen, as pure FL and F1 hybrids don't support as dense populations as native. The further away you go from natural habitat of the FL strain the more pronounced negatives become.

Thanks for the information.

I stand corrected.