I've been running below the radar for quite a while... I took the month of October off from guiding for my own personal Road Trip! But returned to the Chickamauga Tailwaters guiding Saturday.
I'd been out of the game so long I was kind of nervous. Thank goodness the fish weren't!
Mitch Gravitte and his stepson from Cleveland wanted some "fishing lessons." They have a boat and have taken to fishing, without much success. Mitch told me he was hoping to learn some stuff no matter what the fish did. That took some pressure off.
As it turned out, we fished for a variety of stuff a variety of different ways and EVERYTHING worked. For a few short hours I was living a "charmed life."
We started out drifting shiners, found just the right seam and the stripers absolutely ate 'em up! On the downside, I was actually expecting smallmouth and spots, so I was using light leaders (6 lb. test). I'm sure that improved our bite ratio, but with stripers, it also improved our "broke off" ratio. It was an absolute blast nonetheless.
Oddly, the first hour or so all we caught were stripers... then they slowed down and we started catching a few smallmouth. Mitch tagged a great fish... 20.5 inches long with a 14 girth... right at the 5 lb. mark. Unfortunately I had dropped my iPhone BEHIND my boat console (irretrievable without a screwdriver) and could take no photos. I expect Mitch to send some from his phone.
We also caught a few small cats on shiners... but later Mitch wanted a taste of how to specifically target some bigger cats. We actually left the shiner bite with 'em still bitin' and I drug out the big cat tackle. We drifted a favorite hole with the primary intention of simply demonstrating the technique for Mitch's future reference. After a few minutes drifting however I started feeling some GREAT structure I'd never felt, glanced at the depth finder lit up with fish and said out loud, "Dang, I'm surprised we're not getting bit!"
About that time my rod bowed to the water. I handed it off to Caleb to do battle and a few seconds later Mitch exclaimed, "I've got one. Good grief!" They weren't absolute monsters... 15 and 20 lbs.... but Mitch and Caleb were in awe. Stripers, smallmouth and big cats... a virtual Trifecta.
Later I pulled out the ultralight tackle and we headed to check one of my favorite wintertime bluegill hangouts. As usual they were there en masse and we went through a couple of boxes of mealworms in a hurry. We could do no wrong.
It's good to be back.
Hopefully Mitch will get me pictures of other fish from his phone, but for now:
I'd been out of the game so long I was kind of nervous. Thank goodness the fish weren't!
Mitch Gravitte and his stepson from Cleveland wanted some "fishing lessons." They have a boat and have taken to fishing, without much success. Mitch told me he was hoping to learn some stuff no matter what the fish did. That took some pressure off.
As it turned out, we fished for a variety of stuff a variety of different ways and EVERYTHING worked. For a few short hours I was living a "charmed life."
We started out drifting shiners, found just the right seam and the stripers absolutely ate 'em up! On the downside, I was actually expecting smallmouth and spots, so I was using light leaders (6 lb. test). I'm sure that improved our bite ratio, but with stripers, it also improved our "broke off" ratio. It was an absolute blast nonetheless.
Oddly, the first hour or so all we caught were stripers... then they slowed down and we started catching a few smallmouth. Mitch tagged a great fish... 20.5 inches long with a 14 girth... right at the 5 lb. mark. Unfortunately I had dropped my iPhone BEHIND my boat console (irretrievable without a screwdriver) and could take no photos. I expect Mitch to send some from his phone.
We also caught a few small cats on shiners... but later Mitch wanted a taste of how to specifically target some bigger cats. We actually left the shiner bite with 'em still bitin' and I drug out the big cat tackle. We drifted a favorite hole with the primary intention of simply demonstrating the technique for Mitch's future reference. After a few minutes drifting however I started feeling some GREAT structure I'd never felt, glanced at the depth finder lit up with fish and said out loud, "Dang, I'm surprised we're not getting bit!"
About that time my rod bowed to the water. I handed it off to Caleb to do battle and a few seconds later Mitch exclaimed, "I've got one. Good grief!" They weren't absolute monsters... 15 and 20 lbs.... but Mitch and Caleb were in awe. Stripers, smallmouth and big cats... a virtual Trifecta.
Later I pulled out the ultralight tackle and we headed to check one of my favorite wintertime bluegill hangouts. As usual they were there en masse and we went through a couple of boxes of mealworms in a hurry. We could do no wrong.
It's good to be back.
Hopefully Mitch will get me pictures of other fish from his phone, but for now:
