A Record Catfish Smackdown
Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2016 10:42 am
Adam Gossett, Donnie Myatt and their good friend Chris ... all from Lyles, TN ... drove over to fish with me Saturday. This threesome fished with me two years ago and decided it was time for Round Two.
We started out fishing in Nickajack Reservoir, downstream from Chickamauga Dam (in Chattanooga, TN). The day started pretty normal (for this time of year). A fish here and a fish there. As expected, the wind started getting up which makes the downstream drift bite tough, especially with poor current. About 11 am we pulled the boat out with 15 catfish on my counter and headed up to Chickamauga Lake.
Throughout the afternoon the bite just got better, and better, and BETTER. Long about 2:30 it was one double after another, with the occasional triple. The bite got crazy. It got good enough that I decided to "Go Live" on Facebook for a while. You can watch that here: http://bit.ly/2d3MYBW
On the video I think we made our way up to 59 catfish in the boat, but by the time we finally quit for the day, we had put 81 cats in the boat! They weren't big, but our fish easily average 4-5 lbs. apiece, with a few much bigger. It was a minimum of 320 lbs. of fish total... and maybe 400 lbs. All got returned to fight again another day.
My guide partners and I don't always keep count of fish, but of the times we have kept count... yesterday was a record on numbers. It wasn't a record for size or total weight... but it was an amazing action-packed afternoon.
We started out fishing in Nickajack Reservoir, downstream from Chickamauga Dam (in Chattanooga, TN). The day started pretty normal (for this time of year). A fish here and a fish there. As expected, the wind started getting up which makes the downstream drift bite tough, especially with poor current. About 11 am we pulled the boat out with 15 catfish on my counter and headed up to Chickamauga Lake.
Throughout the afternoon the bite just got better, and better, and BETTER. Long about 2:30 it was one double after another, with the occasional triple. The bite got crazy. It got good enough that I decided to "Go Live" on Facebook for a while. You can watch that here: http://bit.ly/2d3MYBW
On the video I think we made our way up to 59 catfish in the boat, but by the time we finally quit for the day, we had put 81 cats in the boat! They weren't big, but our fish easily average 4-5 lbs. apiece, with a few much bigger. It was a minimum of 320 lbs. of fish total... and maybe 400 lbs. All got returned to fight again another day.
My guide partners and I don't always keep count of fish, but of the times we have kept count... yesterday was a record on numbers. It wasn't a record for size or total weight... but it was an amazing action-packed afternoon.