Smoky Mountain Bream

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Originally Posted by fishinRod

Hey fishhead,

are you camping up there at chatuge? Public boat ramp? I live in gastonia and would like to get away on a little trip like that with the wife. I noticed on the NC/SC boards you've had some success on wylie with the shellies.
Maybe we'll cross paths one day, I usually put in at southpoint.

fishinRod

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If you plan on going to Chatuge, plan on burning a lot of gas. the last hill between Franklin and Hayesville is a mean one. We camp at the Forest Service Campground called Jackrabbitt, and there's also a boat landing. I usually put in at Southpoint when I fish Wylie. Blue Cherokee and green 17 foot Duracraft boat.
Greg

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Originally Posted by CatchumDeep

I've bream fished all my life and never caught a bluegill that large either. Shellcrackers go that big and larger around the northern Mississippi area and in Arkansas. I do most of my bream fishing at Pickwick Lake and we catch lots of 9" and 10" bream. How much does a 13" gill weigh?

We also do a lot of catch and release...just keep the ones that are large enough to filet and limit the number to how many we want to clean. My wife has a "keeper size criteria" and it gets larger every year...drives my brother-in-law crazy when he fishes with us cause he wants to keep most of them and gets the evil eye from her everytime he puts a baby in the livewell. :D

Dan

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Dan,
not sure how much a 13" 'gill weighs. If I had to guess, I'd say probably 1.5 pounds. Heck of a fight on a flyrod! My wife and I are the same as you guys. We don't usually keep them unless they're big enough to fillet. We had a fish fry this past weekend for my stepdad's b-day, I discovered I had accumulated about 30 pounds of bream fillets in the freezer since May of this year. ALL were caught around the new and full moon cycles. I'm sure I could have doubled that number, but that's more than enough to last the two of us til next April when they start bedding again. Besides, I get tired of cleaning fish after 30 or 40 of them, lol.