Only being allowed to use four photos in this forum
REALLY cramps my style... especially on reports like these. I've called Chattanooga home and fished the Tennessee River for five decades... and yet I am still flabbergasted and amazed at the quality of our fishery. This weekend it wasn't a matter IF you were going to catch anything... it was just a matter of deciding WHAT you wanted to catch.
Erich and Sarah Ritzhaupt came down from Nashville to fish with me Saturday. We made a full day of it. I believe we caught eight species and they went home with a cooler full of fish for the dinner table. They each caught "personal bests" of several species. Sarah had a behemoth largemouth clear water 3 feet, right in her face. That was seconds before he headed back to the bottom and snapped her line. Sarah's biggest cat was a solid 25-pounder. Erich had one on that I believe was much bigger... but they parted ways before we ever got to see it. Barring the hour or so that I made the mistake of "leaving fish to find fish," it was pretty much non-stop action Sarah and Erich are neat folks and experienced fisherpersons. But I think they were fairly impressed with the Scenic City fishing.
Sunday morning Kate Allen and her father, Rodney Binette, braved the rain. They weren't really geared up for it but they fought through the deluge like troopers, and it paid off. Both of them scored trophy smallmouth. Of course that was after we battled a few nice cats and a boat load of bull bluegill.
The smallmouth were released, but they headed home to clean fish while I hung around to try and rid myself of a six leftover shiners. Six shiners on six casts yielded two great largemouth, a bragging-sized smallmouth and three big white bass. I texted my friend Erik Almy a picture of the smallmouth and said, "Bring me some more shiners." He was at the ramp almost before I could get my trolling motor up. (Actually I did have time to catch a 30 lb. cat while I was waiting on him, really).
We caught more bull bluegill, stripe, spotted bass, a few quality smallmouth and I jumped another big largemouth off. FYI, all our cats came on chicken breast, the bluegill on a 32nd oz. jighead tipped with a wax worm, and the bass all on live shiners.
I wish I knew exactly how many fish came over the gunnel of the G3 this weekend. It would boggle my brain... and that means life is good and gettin' better every day!
It Was an 'OMG!' Scenic City Weekend
