Troutgirl

Back in the 1960's whilst my family was staying at Fontana Village, that old ramp is where I went fishing. My dad hired one of their guides to take my sister and I Trout fishing. We fished with Wasp Larva. We floated the first half mile down from the powerhouse over and over. We got the most strikes in the first 100 yards or so. I bet I caught 40. We kept a few. Really, it was a little disappointing fishing. The fish were so small. This was long before oxygen injection systems. Trout didn't grow much in most tailwaters. I bet the largest one I caught was 11" and thin. At the time the only other Trout "fishing" my sister and I had done was at a Gatlinburg Trout farm. There the fish were big and robust. That was my measuring stick.

Fontana has been sluicing for the past few days. They're only releasing about 6,000 + CFPS. That makes me suspect that 2 of their 3 generators are down for repairs...??? How that's gonna affect fishing Cheoah I know not. The Trout might become less active because of a higher temp than they're used to, or more active because the water isn't so darn cold.....??? Fontana sluicing used to be a very rare event. It's happened repeatedly the past five years or so. Normally, Fontana wouldn't sluice water unless the needed flow was about 12,000 CFPS or greater.

The numbered points are just to help you from getting lost. I wouldn't read much else into it.

Pontoons...yeah....Shea has been there more times than me I'm sure. I remember it being narrow. I'm sure it's some narrower than Chilhowee. I'd say it's akin to Cheoah Point Ramp on Santeetlah. It's shorter and up against the bank pointed downstream. I hope there's no new sandbars in the upper end between the ramp and the Santeetlah Powerhouse. After the flooding and sluicing back in '84, a whole slew of new sandbars emerged. I don't know if any of Fontana's sluicing in the last year was full-bore muddy like in '84. I never went up and watched it. I think that you'd probably be better off in a smaller boat on this little lake. Shoot, Shea's son is probably gonna win fishing from a kayak anyway. One thing that the Little T "Finger" Lakes have in common is water clarity and the fish being a bit boat shy. That goes in Calderwood and Chilhowee where I fished so much. Cheoah isn't so different, just smaller. I've been on Chilhowee when I could see guys in kayaks catching 'em faster than me. I believe that the fish take those little kayaks as logs, not boats. Trout are not altogether stupid. Have you ever been bitten by a trout, not one on your line, I mean. I used to get bitten at The Sinks swim hole on Little River in the Smoky Park. I've been bitten by Trout about a half-dozen times. It was always when I was crawling out and on the foot or ankle. It seems as if the Trout were trying to run us out of their hunting honey hole. Trust Shea's advice on Cheoah over mine.....

My vote is for Cheoah. We better get there early and fill up the parking lot to keep everybody else out..... Folks, don't bring any float boats. It's a narrow, little ramp but it does have a small dock.

I don't recommend down lake camping at Calderwood. The few nearly suitable spots are also where bears come to drink and check out campers. It's a steep canyon and there's only so many suitable places for bears to get to the water. I don't know if there's anyplace to camp on Cheoah....???? Maybe not....? The last time I was on Fontana, I saw two bears lurking around Hazel Creek. It seemed as if they were stalking the human activity to see what vittles were in which boat. Lots of folks camp and fish Hazel Creek. I don't know what the Smoky Park's rules are.

I don't care where the next tourney is as long as it's not on Memorial Day weekend. We should move over a week. The only place I'm opposed to fishing is Dale Hollow. It's too far out man! It's way too far from Carolina.

It's a good thing you're a math teacher! That's one of the more creative spellings of Santeetlah that I've seen.... I fished there yesterday. Spawning is running late there like so many other places. The fish are very scattered. Nearly all the baitfish are deep juveniles. We saw many, many huge clouds of baitfish at 80-150 feet down. We ended up catching 4 Rainbows and one White Bass. All the fish were caught between 20-40 feet down.

Moose and Goose eggs sounds like the breakfast of champions.

It would be many fewer if it was Goose eggs. My sister had a Goose family build a nest on top of her flat roof boat house. Geese had never nested there before but the areas where the Geese normally nest were flooded or too wet this spring. So, a pair of Geese tried her boat house. She removed the nest and set their 3 eggs on the ground. Having no pockets or hands, the Geese didn't know what to do with their eggs. They hung around trying to think of something to no avail. They were still hanging around when my brother and I arrived. I keep my boat in my sister's backyard. I was over there putting my boat up. At first glance I thought the eggs were big, white mushrooms. My brother was helping me and he yells holy spit, these are eggs. He got the eggs and took 'em to work. I dropped him off and he dropped one of the eggs in the parking lot, splat! He and a coworker scrambled the eggs. They said the yolks looked about like Chicken eggs but bigger. The rest of the eggs were clear-ish where Chicken eggs are white. He said they tasted about the same as chicken eggs but were at least 3X the size of Chicken eggs. This was about a month ago.....

You don't scramble fish eggs. So far as I know, all caviar is raw eggs treated with salt and I don't know what else....??? My brother has eaten raw Salmon eggs.....I have not. I don't appreciate caviar. I'm not inclined to try other fish eggs. I took some Lake Trout eggs to Calderwood Lake two years ago. I was maybe gonna try fishing with them but the Trout were hitting the spoons and plugs so well that day that I finally just threw them in to fatten up the fish for next trip.

I had Rainbow last Saturday night and Perch tonight. I love dead fish! My friend Captain D was out of town that I was gonna give the Perch to, so Rex and I are having them tonight. That big Perch that we were given, it had eggs in it. It should of laid them back in February or early March. Perch should be long spawned out by now. All the flooding and high water has indeed screwed up the spawning season for many kinds of fishes, if this Perch is a good indicator. I think it is. Rex said it had a bunch of eggs about the size of a chicken egg.

Tell all your friends that there's a pot of gold waiting to be had in the depths of Chilhowee Lake! You can find it looking down the throats of the Rainbow....... Trout.

Scott, I think that you should start a new thread for the Chilhowee trout derby, that people other than those reading this thread could click on. Chilhowee has the potential to be the most attended of these events. Ask the mod if he has any ways to help you get the most folks on this site to see it. My brother and I hit Chilhowee this past Tuesday. It was miserably slow. It was a nice day for a boat ride but the blue-bird sky made for hard fishing. We saw only a few small bait pods near the ramp. There was never any surface action other than seeing two trout jump. We marked very few fish. We caught one small 'Bow and a small Perch. I think that all the flooding and high water has delayed spawning for all sorts of fish, including the bait fish. The blue-bird sky meant that Chilhowee was extra illuminated. I don't think that it's a coincidence that the only line that caught a small trout, on a plug, had the lightest line, 6 pound test. The Perch hit a small spoon. I've seldom, or maybe never seen, so little on sonar. The surface water ran 54-59 degrees.

It looks as if he's made that Brown eat a ruler.... I'm sure it's an illusion but.....