A little bummed out

[CrowT]

I live at the north end of Chickamauga lake. But believe it or not, I rarely fish it. I mean, maybe once a year. It just has way too much traffic on it; even through the week, the boat ramps on it will look like a weekend anywhere else. It is heavily fished and pressured BUT it does have big bass in it. I've found it has a better crappie population than bass, and gets far less pressure but that's a different story.

So mid October is my fall vacation. My wife and I usually go to the beach but this year we stayed at home and decided to get us a guided bass trip on the Chick. Yep. Let's go with somebody that knows those green fish and where to go, and swing at a big double digit fish. A couple months ago I booked with a well known and respected guide on the lake, and ever since then, I had been drooling over his clients catching good numbers of fish and some big ones thrown in. About 2 weeks ago this ramped into the frog bite...and some near double digit fish were coming on nearly every trip he was taking people out. Anticipation was getting huge!

Finally the day came yesterday. We met him at Chester Frost ramp at 7, and after a brief delay from fog, we headed off into the unexplored regions of Chickamauga lake. 8 hours and a thousand casts of a frog later, we still hadn't put a bass in the boat. I have no idea how far we ran that boat but he had to have burnt a full tank of gas on us. A big cold front came through over the weekend which is what you usually want for a frog bite. BUT...TVA dropped the water nearly 2 feet over night and drastically changed everything. He ran that boat from Harrison Bay all the way northwards to the Hwy 60 bridge and a ton of places in between. It sure wasn't from lack of effort. I think we had a total of 6 blow ups on the frog but they were all misses; almost like they just half swiped at it and had no interest in eating. None ever came back for another blow up. He didn't charge us for the trip, and wouldn't let me pay for his gas either. I told him it was just fishing but he said "I let you guys down and didn't do my job". I admit I was a little bummed out; that's the longest I have fished and not caught anything in my life. But...any one of those 6 blow ups could have made the difference of a busted trip or the biggest bass you've ever caught.

Chickamauga remains a mystery for me for bass. I don't think I will be heading back out on it any time soon chasing those green fish.

[Dr. Dickel]

Helluva guide right there for doing what he did because of the lack-luster day.

I dislike fall fishing more than any other season. Fish are too transitional anyway at that time but falling water moves them every day and tough to pattern. Don't worry, December will be here soon and that is when I start getting more serious about the bass anyway.

[WG Taxidermist]

I agree with Dr. Dickel. For him not to charge you a dime it meant he cared about his clients and knew it was a bum trip.

[CrowT]

Oh I agree with that. That’s why I still wanted to pay for his gas because I knew he had to have drove out AT LEAST a half a tank with all the running he did.

It’s still a bummer to have looked forward to it for so long and then goose egg. On the flip side, I went back to Watts Bar today and caught 10 or so each in about 2 hrs.

[FLTENNHUNTER1]

I know the feeling. I fished 3 different days during the week last week and caught 4 bass. The largest was 2.5 pounds. I stayed mostly on the Hiwassee leg of the lake. Fog delays each of the 3 days. The lake is way over pressured. I haven’t tried frog fishing much at all, but watched 4 different boats hit the same patch of grass in about a 40 minute span. Once the fog burned off it was absolutely beautiful weather.

Too many tournaments if you ask me and guys running around with 20k of fish finding equipment. Turn your electronics off and let’s see how good you are.