One word. Wow. It was a perfect day for catfishing. Little wind, perfect temps, and hungry fish. My partner Don, and I launched out of Ditto at dawn and headed upstream to Guntersville Dam to catch skipjack (I forgot about the ones in my garage freezer). We quickly caught a dozen on white jigging spoons and headed back downstream to our first ambush spot. The big girls were there waiting on us as it took less than 10 minutes before I hooked a 28 lb flathead. The boat record for us is 29 lbs.



Not to be outdone, Don quickly landed a 20 lb blue.



Here is our ambush spot. First pic is from the front of the boat. The second one is the view from the back of the boat. We don't always catch big fish, but we always enjoy the scenery of the Tennessee River.





We have learned that once we catch one or two big fish, to move on if we don't catch another one in 30 minutes. So we moved on to several other spots and found nothing that was big enough to take down a baseball sized hunk of skipjack. G Dam was only releasing 12k/sec so the current flow was very weak. We decided to head back up to the dam to a waypoint I have and anchor down. Throw out some rods and have a lunch of brats and chips. Before we could open the cooler, I set a new boat record with this 33 lb blue.



After that one, we didn't get another bite while we enjoyed our lunch break. By then we have entered what Catfish Dave calls the "Hour of Suck", which is noon to 3pm when it seems the catfish take their afternoon siesta. So we ran up to the dam, spotlocked, and then proceeded to fill my 48 qt cooler with skipjack. We now have enough bait to last us for a long time. I will also have to buy The Boss a new Food Saver after this trip.



With a full cooler, we headed back to our morning spot again. Within minutes, Don lost one that broke his 50lb leader. I keep reminding him to change his leader after every big fish. Maybe now he will listen. As we head to the back of the boat to re-rig, Rod #2 goes down. Still his turn to bat, so Don grabs it and lands another 33 lb fish. A nice flathead.


While he is playing with the 33 lb'er, Rod #3 goes down with a dink 12 lb blue (no pic). What a day, but the fun wasn't over yet. With his new leader and a fresh chunk of skipjack, his rod gets another takedown. A new boat record is set when we finally pull his 37 lb flathead into the boat.



We are exhausted and after we CPR this one, the Ulterra batteries start to go low and could no longer hold us in place. After 10 hours of fishing we are ready to call it a day, plus we have to vacuum seal all those skipjack in the cooler. Next weekend with our haul of frozen bait, we will finally head downstream from Ditto and start exploring parts of the Tennessee River we have never fished before. Stay Tuned.

What an Epic day Nut! That will be burned into the brain for eternity!

Holy Cow! I can remember a day like that a year or so ago. You guys will be talking about that for years to come. Congratulations. And I love Guntersville Lake and the Tennessee River. What a beautiful place.

Glad you had an awesome trip.
The Tennessee river is exactly why we moved here from NW Arkansas 3 years ago and we love it down here. I live about 9 miles from the Nuke Plant on Wheeler and fish all those spots you mentioned.
My good friends from Arkansas, especially Big Sam come down for a visit once a year, but they need to up that to several times a year.
Again, glad you had a great trip.
ccat