One of my favorite places to fish during my college days was the Tennessee River in Chattanooga. I could be on the water with only a quick 20 minute drive at a moment's notice. One of the more intriguing aspects of this fishery, at least for me, was the great variety in species available to the fisherman. Largemouth and smallmouth bass, white and yellow bass, stripers, drum, catfish, crappie, bluegill and other panfish, and let's not forget the skipjack, all inhabit the river (along with a lot of other species).
In the winter, there would often be some phenomenal shad kills that brought on some good surface eats. In general, you can almost always catch
something on the river. So when I had plans to be in Chattanooga for a couple of days last week, I naturally decided to bring along a fly rod, just in case. Sure enough, some time was free one afternoon, and I quickly jumped at the opportunity.
Arriving at the river, I rigged up quickly with a 7 weight rod and full sinking line. A short leader of 12 pound test fluorocarbon led to a white Stacked Blond. Trailing behind that I had a small weighted marabou streamer that has been very successful for me over the years on warm water rivers. In the past, I would have caught most of my fish on the smaller of the two flies, but for this trip the larger Stacked Blond in white did the trick. I managed a couple of white bass and one small yellow bass.
The local Blue Heron population is alive and well. Watching these birds is always entertaining so I spent some time just enjoying and of course using my camera. Invariably they are much better and more patient fishermen than I am.
I had obligations and couldn't stay long. A quick 45 minutes went by all too quickly but I'm already looking forward to another chance to fish there. Hopefully that will happen sometime in the next couple of months. Before I know it the white bass and skipjack will be running and spring will be here.
