In the recent weeks my focus has turned from crappie for the freezer to strippers for their fight. A few weeks ago I had made a couple trips to the Tennessee River around Long Island for strippers. Where we used top water lures like Red Fins and Zara Spooks. Most of the time just catching a few, with one evening my partner and I catching 8 fish in the 12lb class. Most of the time, the fish would not start biting until after 8.00pm and be done around 9:00pm.
Recently I was given a report of strippers being caught in the evening below Melton Hill Dam. As usual I was late finding this out and only a few fish were being caught. By the numbers of fishermen waiting to see if the fish were to surface, the fishing must have been as good as I was told. From previous experience I knew to bring the shad for bait from somewhere else and this proved to be true again with no shad to be found there.
While at Melton Hill Dam I was told of strippers being caught below Ft. Loudon Dam, which has always been a favorite area for me to fish. Since I had a group of friends coming in from Ohio to fish the following Friday. I made plans to take them to Ft. Loudon.
Friday afternoon we set out for the river with high expectations. Two of the guys fished in their boat and one in my boat. Shortly after arriving I was able to get enough bait for all and we started fishing. My partner and I focused on the boxes above the discharge. We caught several large drum and catfish with only one stripper. The others had caught two strippers and gotten a few bites. I traded out passengers and returned to the boxes without any luck except for a few more rough fish.
I had watched several of the guides catch some strippers throughout the day, and as their 8 hour day drew to an end. We were left with tail waters to our self. Soon we started catching fish free lining shad without weights and by the end of the evening we had landed several fish and kept our limit of nice fish. Even though I had started out slow, I did manage to catch the big fish of the day, which pushed 40 pounds.
While fishing we watch several huge paddle fish (spoonbill catfish) be landed by individuals targeting them from the bank with long spinning rods, rigged up with treble hooks followed by a weight. These fish are sought because of the value of their roe which is used for some caviar. Some of these fish can be 50 years old and weight as much as 70 pounds.
The bream and red-ear sunfish (shell crackers) are starting to be caught on Chickamauga since the water has cleared from the recent rains. Remember that limits for red-ear sunfish have changed to 20 fish this year.
Take someone fishing,
Greg Jones
