05-17-2010, 09:00 AM
Starting with Saturday - Charlie Lowery, from Athens, bought a trip I&#39;d donated to Ducks Unlimited and brought Carly, his 7-year-old daughter along. <br /><br />Carly has caught some fish, but never any catfish... until now. To say Carly whipped her old man is a bit of an understatement. Her biggest catfish of the day included a 19-pounder and a 24-pounder... both large enough to qualify for the Tennessee Angler Recognition Program. But after battling one of the big blues, Carly told her Dad, I&#39;m ready to catch some bluegill. She needed a break.<br /><br />Carly and Charlie left the river with a large ice chest packed full of catfish and bull bluegill.<br /><br />On Sunday Chad Perry from Crossville came down while his Dad, Bill, came up from Atlanta. Saturday evening Bill and Chad had fished with Sam Simons and boated a good mix of smallmouth, cats and a few other misc. species. <br /><br />My previous trip with Chad and Bill got rained out after about two hours, and I was worried today. But we got enough fishing in before the first storm to land an absolutely beast. Bill went toe-to-toe in a heavyweight battle that lasted an hour, give or take.<br /><br />Bill&#39;s monster blue pulled the scales to 52.2 lbs ... landed on spinning tackle with 10 lb. test line. It was an amazing fight with a fish that just wouldn&#39;t say &quot;Uncle.&quot;<br /><br />I believe we had two other very large blues on the line that managed to break off. Of course that doesn&#39;t count a fair number of &quot;little&quot; cats, several of which won a free ride back to Atlanta with Bill.<br /><br />By the way, these days I&#39;m drift fishing with nothing but chicken breast.<br /><br />(Pics start with Perry&#39;s on Sunday, the the Lowery&#39;s)<br /><br />