Scenic City Fishing Charters has been hard at it for the last several weeks. It took a while, but our catfish finally settled into a somewhat consistent summer pattern. We've been catching solid numbers of fish in the 5 - 20 lb. class, with an occasional trophy thrown in there for good measure.
We've actually been fishing Chickamauga Lake and the tailwaters, with reasonably good results on both. The well-known Sequoyah Nuclear Plant outflow area has produced consistently, although sometimes the bite is short-lived, and at odd times of the day. I took one group and from daylight until 10 am we only caught five catfish. Then somebody flipped a switch at 10 am and we caught 15 quality cats in the next hour or so.
I've also been catching a decent number of cats immediately above the Dam. However last few trips we've done have been in the tailwaters. The cats are scattered up and down the river, no longer concentrated near the Dam (except for little channel cats). Our old tried & true chicken breast has been the go-to bait, although I'll slip up and fish cut bait occasionally. They both work equally well. We prefer drifting, but on days with a stiff southwest wind, and relatively low flow, we can't do it and have to resort to vertical or anchor fishing. That usually producers fewer numbers, but sometimes better size.
The white bass bite has been good recently and if folks are willing to work at it, we've come up with a handful of quality smallmouth on live shiners.
Here's a few select photos, but for the Full Monty, go here: https://www.sceniccityfishing.com/photos.html
We've actually been fishing Chickamauga Lake and the tailwaters, with reasonably good results on both. The well-known Sequoyah Nuclear Plant outflow area has produced consistently, although sometimes the bite is short-lived, and at odd times of the day. I took one group and from daylight until 10 am we only caught five catfish. Then somebody flipped a switch at 10 am and we caught 15 quality cats in the next hour or so.
I've also been catching a decent number of cats immediately above the Dam. However last few trips we've done have been in the tailwaters. The cats are scattered up and down the river, no longer concentrated near the Dam (except for little channel cats). Our old tried & true chicken breast has been the go-to bait, although I'll slip up and fish cut bait occasionally. They both work equally well. We prefer drifting, but on days with a stiff southwest wind, and relatively low flow, we can't do it and have to resort to vertical or anchor fishing. That usually producers fewer numbers, but sometimes better size.
The white bass bite has been good recently and if folks are willing to work at it, we've come up with a handful of quality smallmouth on live shiners.
Here's a few select photos, but for the Full Monty, go here: https://www.sceniccityfishing.com/photos.html
