Scenic City Cat Report 6-2 and 6-3-2007

June 2, 2007
Headed below Chickamauga Dam for the first time in a couple of weeks today. Actually my clients decided for me. Randy Johnson and his Dad, Reed, both tagged big fish down there last year (45# & 33#) so they understandably really wanted to pay that spot a return visit. I warned 'em and as I feared, the really big cats eluded us. But we hung with 'em and the "smaller" fish are finally waking up a little bit. We managed to put quite a few fish in the boat. The Reeds like to take some home for a fish fry. They headed back for Sweetwater with at least 100 lbs. of fish, maybe more and not counting the biggest fish of the day they released. That was an 18 lb. blue Reed tagged on a light spinning rod with 8 lb. test line... in the current. Actually Reed had the hot hand today on our better fish... he tagged a real big channel cat to go with a couple of bragging-sized blues. No real trophy cats today, but a good day in the tailwaters. Caught fish on threadfin, skipjack and chicken breast. I still believe they'll eat whatever you feed 'em... you just got to feed 'em the right place, the right way.

Reed nailed this big blue on spinning tackle with 8 lb. test. It took "some minutes" to bring him to the boat. Reed was just as proud as he looks. He turned this one loose to "grow up."
http://www.chattanooga.net/outdoors/...nson_Reed1.jpg

This is one of the bigger channel cats to grace the bottom of my boat this year. He was 13 pounds worth.
http://www.chattanooga.net/outdoors/...nson_Reed3.jpg

Just to prove he can, this is the "armful" of catfish Randy nailed last year on almost the same date.
http://www.sceniccityfishing.com/gal...nson_Randy.jpg

But one more parting shot of Reed. FYI, we just about filled up two of the big blue tubs they brought to haul fish home in.
http://www.chattanooga.net/outdoors/...nson_Reed2.jpg

June 3, 2007
Headed out Sunday with Zack Werle and his father-in-law, Dave Dohner from Nashville. Zach bought a trip donated to Chattanooga Ducks Unlimited. He had good incentive... Dave works for Ducks Unlimited as the Director of Fundraising for the Southern Region. Like me, he's a former game warden. Zack is a resident at Erlanger Hospital and works 60-to-80 hours a week. But he marked today "OFF" on the calendar long ago. Between ducks, work and catfish, we had plenty to talk about. I had a great day. Hopefully they did as well. We started out up on Chickamauga Lake. Zach managed to stick one nice fish as the sun rose, but beyond that, it was dead with a capitol "D." We loaded up the boat and headed below the dam. Thank goodness those fish were hot today. We had an equal share of channels and blues... I don't know how many except to say "a bunch." But proper presentation is the key.. if you don't drift a bait by 'em just right you're liable to go home empty-handed. Dave held big fish honors today... in fact he had triple big fish honors using that light spinning tackle to wrestle in a 10#, a 12# and a 17# on three successive drifts.

http://www.chattanooga.net/outdoors/...ics/werle1.jpg

http://www.chattanooga.net/outdoors/...ics/werle2.jpg

http://www.chattanooga.net/outdoors/...ics/werle3.jpg

http://www.chattanooga.net/outdoors/...ics/werle5.jpg