Y'all I had an EPIC day with Josh Brown of Backwoods Catfishing! 2 hours in to the trip, fish number 3 turned out to be a new PB. By a lot! 74 Pound Blue Cat! Finished Day 1 with 8 fish totaling 260 pounds. I love fishing the Tennessee River!

Dang!!!

That toad is a monster, Tim!

I can't imagine the fight reeling that in. Your smile says it all.

Well done, my friend.

Nice fish.

When a fish makes you look small, that is a big fish! Glad to see you were able to dodge the weather and squeeze in a trip on Saturday. That area got pounded Friday night. We launched at Ditto in Huntsville Friday around 8:30pm but kept close to the ramp because of the weather. We did enjoy the light show from the boat.

Nice fish! Yeah, I watch some of these guys fishing those river chains on YouTube. Talkin' about surface temps of 79 and 80 degrees, right now. Man, that must be nice.

Tim, did you make your second trip?

Tim,

Congrats! Beautiful battle scarred old monster!

Hope to see you soon my friend.

Ken

Water was upper 80s this past weekend. Carey, Josh said he had 5" Friday night in Gadsden, I was staying in Albertville and only got a sprinkle. We spent all day watching the rain go around us Saturday. We headed in about 3:00pm and it was raining lightly then but never really saw any get closer than 1/2 or 14 mile...

Hope to see you soon my friend.

Ken[/quote]

I'm gonna hold you to that Ken.

Just to put the ribbons on this thread, I have a few more photos to share. What a great trip this was. Saturday was definitely the better of the 2 days as far as fishing but Sunday gave us a chance to play around a bit. I got to do some back bouncing and Josh showed me more different ways to present baits to the fish than I thought was possible.


Watched some barge traffic in the channel while we fished.

If you don't know I completely jacked the design for my boat rigging set up from Josh.

Sunday I took my first official trip on Wheeler. This is the view we had below the dam. They had 4 turbines generating power and 2 flood gates open.

This is what's known as painted bluff. What a gorgeous setting to fish in.

Last shot... This is the float that was on the line that 74 bit. He bit the float as you can see. This convinced me of something that I already know. Bluecats are not hook savy. They attack the bait and eat everything that gets in range of their mouth.

Yeah, and when a fish makes Catfish Tim look small, it's got to be a beast!

The Painted Bluff is one of my favorite places to fish. I haven't seen open gates on G dam in a long time. One or two gates is all it takes to turn the fish on. Did Josh launch you below G Dam? Those are the two worse boat ramps to load and unload a boat.

Between rods 3 and 4 on the shoreline is a huge boulder. The water is 40 deep just out from the bank. That is one of my flathead honey holes. You have to suspend fish it. It is a rock minefield there at the base of that cliff.

Dang, what a dinghy little bluecat, at only 74 pounds I would have thought you could have held it better than just literally all over you lol

Dang all that rain up there and not a bit here in Texas. But honestly looks like a awesome trip man, and a 74 pound bluecat, freakin' monster. The views of area look amazing. There are quite a few really good rivers to fish in this country, really nice rivers, big also, they are all about 800 miles from where I live lol.

Carey, we did put in at the ramp right below G-ville dam. He let me get in and out of the boat while it was on the trailer! I was shocked at how different Wheeler was than Guntersville.

Rowdy, I told everyone that when I got back to my hotel that afternoon the clerk thought I had murdered someone because of all the blood I had on me!