Jason McGee and Todd Roberts came over from Shelbyville, Tenn. for a day in the tailwaters Saturday. Jason had a REALLY bad itch to catch some big smallmouth, so that's where we concentrated our efforts for starters. We began drifting turbines with shiners at daylight. We caught several white bass and some solid "eater cats" that won a free ride back to Shelbyville. Once the sun topped over the dam, it got real slow but Todd finally tagged one good-sized smallmouth.
We bailed and headed downriver to some other smallmouth locations. We got a couple of smallies on one of my favorite banks then headed for an area almost in downtown Chattanooga. It was slow at first, except for a couple of good spotted bass.
Then we went out and drifted over the mid-channel hump. Bingo! It was hot! For a while, every drift yielded a smallmouth or a cat, or sometimes both. The biggest smallie (boated by Jason) was 20.5 inches, 4.7 lbs. We finished off our five dozen shiners pretty fast.
We broke out the catfishing gear and hit a couple of spots going back upriver... a cat or two, but not much. Earlier I told Jason and Todd the catfish bite at the Dam might pick up when it got warmer. We got back up there about 1 pm and it was "Game on!"
We stuck, missed or broke off a big fish on almost every drift.... it was crazy. Most fish were 10-15 lb. class. One 23 lber., and one I guess was 40 or 45 pounds. However I screwed up. Todd volunteered to land the beast while I shot video. But I did a VERY bad job giving instructions on how to properly grab and land a monster cat (with no net):-(
Todd got the grabbers on the fish, but with a massive alligator roll, the beast twisted out, broke the line, and was gone!
Jason wasn't TOO mad at me ... and it made for great video: youtu.be/QSbrvU5MwqY?hd=1
We bailed and headed downriver to some other smallmouth locations. We got a couple of smallies on one of my favorite banks then headed for an area almost in downtown Chattanooga. It was slow at first, except for a couple of good spotted bass.
Then we went out and drifted over the mid-channel hump. Bingo! It was hot! For a while, every drift yielded a smallmouth or a cat, or sometimes both. The biggest smallie (boated by Jason) was 20.5 inches, 4.7 lbs. We finished off our five dozen shiners pretty fast.
We broke out the catfishing gear and hit a couple of spots going back upriver... a cat or two, but not much. Earlier I told Jason and Todd the catfish bite at the Dam might pick up when it got warmer. We got back up there about 1 pm and it was "Game on!"
We stuck, missed or broke off a big fish on almost every drift.... it was crazy. Most fish were 10-15 lb. class. One 23 lber., and one I guess was 40 or 45 pounds. However I screwed up. Todd volunteered to land the beast while I shot video. But I did a VERY bad job giving instructions on how to properly grab and land a monster cat (with no net):-(
Todd got the grabbers on the fish, but with a massive alligator roll, the beast twisted out, broke the line, and was gone!
Jason wasn't TOO mad at me ... and it made for great video: youtu.be/QSbrvU5MwqY?hd=1
Bad guide, bad! 
