01-02-2010, 10:00 AM
My son and I made a day of it fishing out of Riverpark starting out below the lock. Dragfish came up there a little while later, although we didn&#39;t know who he was until I read his post. DF, you did a lot better than we did up there, we didn&#39;t catch a one there. Now we know your boat and you know ours, so we can say hello next time.<br /><br />Our luck changed for the better as we worked our way downstream as far as the country club. We fished current breaks along natural rock and rip-rap banks. We didn&#39;t catch many fish, but had some decent quality. We ended up with 5 smallies including a TARP 20.5 incher (4 lbs. even) and smallies measuring 18.5, 18.25, 16 and 13 in. We also caught a 3 lb. 11 oz. largemouth, a small spot and several drum. The biggest smallie hit a spinner bait and the rest were caught on the jig/pig. All fish were released.<br /><br />The flow was 93-94K cfs, the water temp around 45 and the clarity good. The Tennessee River at Chickamauga Dam is a free flowing river now as the gates are raised all the way up and the water is flowing freely over the dam (note the photo). We got to Riverpark about 8:30 am and the park service had the ramp parking lot closed off with yellow tape. We went to the ranger station and asked them to let us launch and they were kind enough to do so.