If you like the outdoors it is time to get out and enjoy. The fishing has improved since the waters have resided from our early spring floods. The Tennessee River is still a little stained but getting better every day. The water temperature is getting in the upper 50’s and the crappies are starting to move into the shallow waters. As usual Chickamauga, Hiawassee, and Ft Loudon have been producing some nice stringers of crappie for some time. Watts Barr is coming around and should be at its peak in a week or two. Bass fishermen are having equal luck, with more than 20 lbs being required to win tournaments. Striper fishermen are having a little more trouble patterning the fish. Several fish have been caught below Watts Barr dam, Melton Hill dam, and the Tennessee River. On several occasions while crossing the bridge towards Kingston I saw several strippers feeding on the surface at the confluence of the Tennessee River and Clinch River.
Turkey season is under way. Open day was met with great weather and several birds where harvested. The state had a youth hunt a week earlier than regular season. Two local youths harvested their first birds during this early season. Mason Woody guided by Rusty Patterson and Gage Paterson guided by his father Gab Patterson. Both returned to the woods during regular season to bag additional birds.
For me Turkey season started out as usual. I heard six birds at day light all on the other side of the river. After two hours of walking the hill sides of Jackson County without any signs or sound of turkey except for the occasional shot on the other side from the hunters that must have did a little more scouting than I, I came across a nice patch of grey Morel Mushroom. After gathering more than a hundred of the larger ones, I called it a day. The next day I met a friend at the grocery store. Knowing that he was an avid turkey hunter I asked him why he was not hunting, he told me he got one early that morning. I told him of my hunt and he replied with the usual comment of someone that had gotten a turkey. “There are a lot of people that would prefer a bunch of morels over a turkey”. I just happen not to be one of those people.
Take someone outdoors, Greg