2021 08 14 Chickamauga TN river

[coldfront]

out on river today at sunrise (630 AM) and worked until 4PM.  Key observations
day was clear to partly cloudy later in day.  afternoon pop up showers started to fire about 5PM or so.  wind was light and variable.  water most of the day was slick calm with patches that were slightly ruffled.

water temps are down a few degrees from last week.  saw basically 81°F today.  looks like sun angle 'fade' has started.
milfoil beds mid-lake and up are topped out in many places and the 'cheese' is forming.  some really good beds out there too of American Pondweed.
water clarity today was lightly stained to stained depending upon where you were and how much wake action was 'there'.
Chickamauga dam was pulling current at 30K cfs most of day.  Watts Bar started spilling at 37K cfs about 1PM.

put in at Soddy Creek and worked upriver today.  Looking for quiet pockets away from the 'madding crowd'.  found a few short fish, mainly on mainlake structure.  seeing more schooling activity starting up, but a lot of it is skipjacks working over the growing schools of YOY shad (they look to be in the 2 - 2.5 inch size now).  not what I was looking for, but highly entertaining to watch these 'freshwater tarpon' chasing shad. 

managed a few LMB around those events.  they seemed to be hanging out under the skippies.  a small, shiny crankbait got bit.  could not get any interest in a topwater.
nothing huge today.  did get a 'bonus' short smallie toward end of day.

[Donald Garner]

CF, tks for sharing the trip with us.  Congrats on the catching also.

[Mike Cork]

Thanks for the report CF... The fall is just around the corner, keep track of those schools as they will become prey for the bigg'uns soon...

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