My family and I went to Chattanooga for a half-week vacation last week. Last year, my son and I went fishing with Sam Simons (associate of Richard Simms of Scenic City Charters) and had a great time. A year older and wiser, Austin was ready to head out again and catch another big one.
Since Austin is only 6 years old, we have to tailor the game plan to fit his level of interest/patience. As a teacher, Sam understood the situation well and did a great job of accommodating us last year, and Saturday was no exception.
We anchor fished for catfish (no luck there), then set up in the slack water near the dam for a bit and fished some shiners (3 nice largemouth, including one that topped 4 lbs), then drifted shiners (a 10-lb-class striper, couple lost fish, and a blue cat), then drifted chicken breast (about 8 blue & channel catfish, including one blue that measured 37 inches and qualifies as a TARP fish), then went bluegill fishing for about an hour (caught ~ 40, put 14 in the cooler), then drifted chicken again and ended with a small blue cat.
Another cool feature of the trip was that the big catfish had been tagged 3 years earlier by Richard Simms, so we called him up and gave him the number off of it. By the way, Richard - when you tagged fish #72, did you write down his length/weight at the time? I thought Austin would think it was cool to find out
Combined with a bit of first-time boat driving, we had an adventure fit for any 6-year-old (or a person suffering from ADHD).
Attached are a few highlight pictures from the trip.
Fun Trip in Scenic City!
