Troutgirl

I must of caught nothing but male Saugers when I was a kid. I never caught one that big as best as I can recall. I had to catch two or three to make a meal. Saugers were all over the place between Alcoa Highway Bridge and Little River, the area I fished the most. Then, the silt started building up and they went away. I've never caught but one or two Saugers since. That one doesn't look plump or girth-ful like female Walleyes and Yellow Perch do.

I'm jealous Scott! I'm plotting a trip to the Big W, hopefully next week will be a bit nicer for some comfortable weather...??? I hope!

That's the size range of every Rainbow we've caught this fall at Chilhowee.

Rex and I hit Chilhowee this past Thursday. We got there early and had lines in the water by 7:40 a.m. We trolled around the middle of the lakes for hours and caught nothing but Perch. We saw scattered small bait pods and marked a few scattered fish. About noon the wind came up and we decided to go up Abrams creek. We motored to the back of the creek and trolled out. I put out a downrigger spoon at 3 feet and we hadn't gone more than 40 yards and I caught an 18" Largemouth. About 15 minutes later, Rex caught a nearly 18" Rainbow on a small Rapala rap plug. As it got deeper, I dropped the downrigger spoon to 7 feet. That yielded a nice 16" Rainbow. We trolled back into and out of Abrams creek again and didn't get anymore strikes. We decided to head home. We kept the 4 largest Perch and we had 2 nice Rainbows and the Bass. I've mostly fished Chilhowee in warm months when nearly all the Trout are in the main lake. So, I'm learning something by fishing the lake this late. The fish are scattered. We never saw a large concentration of fish on sonar in the main channel. We saw the most baitfish on sonar between the ramp and Abrams Creek. The main lake went up and down between 57-59 degrees. The back part of Abrams was 55-56 degrees. That surprised me. If I get more trips in this fall, I'll definitely be going into Abrams Creek again. There were a few small bait pods in there and we marked a scattering of fish.

Me neither....I've seen some decent Browns come out of Calderwood over the years. The only problem is that I didn't catch them. I did manage a 5 pounder a few years back. About 6 years ago I lost a sizable Brown in Calderwood that would of been around 10 pounds. I believe that the former Tennessee state record Brown, 23 pounds, was actually caught in Calderwood. Hoss and June Holt said it came from the Little T below Chilhowee Dam, before Tellico Lake. They were running a float business and store on the Little T. I've had at least a half-dozen folks over the years tell me that it came from Calderwood.

They probably will but there's already plenty of baitfish in Chilhowee.

Thanks guys! When he was in the hospital and semi-conscious, the doctor and hospital staff were giving me disability applications and it seemed like they didn't expect him to make a full recovery. If he didn't, it's sure not obvious! He's tough, after all, he's a hockey player. So, maybe I should not have been so surprised. He's got the heart of a bull.

I took my brother Rex fishing for the first time since his illness and recovery yesterday. We went to Chilhowee. We got there about 8 a.m. and had our first lines in the water by 8:15. It took about 3 minutes to catch our first Perch. Whilst I was still feeding out the line, the Perch struck a hoochie. It took the better part of an hour to get a Trout strike. Rex got a 16" Rainbow on a hoochie. Then we lost two Rainbows in a row. I got a plump Rainbow on the downrigger spoon right up to the boat. Rex knocked it off with bad netting form. Then Rex lost a Rainbow that hit a plug. It spit it out in midair. Then we went a long while catching only Perch on hoochies. That while included an extended break upstream of Abrams Creek fixing two rods after getting snagged. On the way back downstream we finally landed a second Trout. I caught a very feisty 17" Rainbow that jumped and took line several times before it ended up in the net. That was about 2 p.m. We fished till 4 p.m. and caught the last couple of the 7 Perch we caught, no more Trout strikes. Both of the Trout were stuffed full of 2" Shad Minnows. All of the Trout strikes were in the channel on the far side of the lake from the ramp. From there up to Abrams Creek is where we saw bait pods in the 12-25 foot range. Every fish was caught in that range.

I have a new sun umbrella. I'll leave it on when I drop it off. It should keep most of the rain, sleet, and snow off you. There's plenty of rod holders so you can have lines out 24-7. The bilge pump works well when it rains hard. This is a sublet. I'll be moving back in come March.

Thanks Jerry! I think I'll wait till the Trout get shallower. I might be waiting till spring. I'm gonna need to winterize my boat sometime relatively soon.

It's only 17" but it's a typical fat Chilhowee Rainbow raised on little Shad. It hit a spoon. Notice the scratch marks. It had an abrasion about the size of a quarter on the other side. I figure that it had survived either a River Otter or Eagle attack....??? I've seen both get fish at Chilhowee. I'll probably go to Chilhowee this week. I have a tempted eye on the Big W but I don't want to go unless the Trout have come up some. I don't wanna have to fish deeper than 80 feet just to get a Laker strike. The shallower the better. I've never been this late in the season.

Obviously, your Sunnyday prayers were answered!

Are the Trout coming up from the depths at Watauga yet? I'm tempted to try the Big W once more this season. I've never fished Watauga in November through February. I hit Chilhowee, Thursday last week. I caught a nice pair of Rainbows and Smallmouths before Brookfield quit generating and the fish stopped biting. This past week, Fontana has been releasing water 24-7. Before the rain came it was about 3,300 CFPS. The last several days it's been 6,600 CFPS. Even Santeetlah has been generating 24-7. Fishing should be picking up at all the lakes downstream from Fontana. Brookfield has been generating 9-10,000 when they generate, so, they slow down or stop for a hour or two from time to time. They seem to be generating about 20 hours a day. If I don't go to Watauga this week, I'll try Chilhowee again.

Rex finally hot out of the hospital yesterday. He lost some weight and looks a bit run-down. His legs are starting to come back but he's still weak. I don't know if he'll get to fish any time soon but maybe when he rocks steady....in a week or two.... I was worried about him! His recovery is doing very well, giver his deep point!