New Personal Best Catfish and Boat Record!!

Wheeler Lake - Browns Ferry

Time: 7:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Air Temperature: 26 - 35 during trip
Water Temperature: 
Lake Level: 551.64

Weather Conditions: Cold, clear. Winds North 12 MPH.

I love cold weather fishing and after an unseasonably warm couple of weeks, we had a cold snap.  I bought a couple dozen jumbo shiners and decided to head to the nuclear plant to see what I could catch.  I never got into the stripers this winter, so I was hoping for them or large cats on live bait.

I didn't get into the stripers, but I found the big cats!! My first fish hit hard and I immediately realized I had a whopper when it began spooling drag as fast as it could.  Current was pulling strong and between the size of the fish and the current, it was quite a battle.  As soon as it breached, I realized it was HUGE.

I grabbed my new Trophy Haul net and went to the back of the boat and went in for the scoop.  I broke my new Trophy Haul net... but I managed to land this fish!

This fish by far dwarfs my prior personal best.  My previous PB was a 62 lb flathead I caught when I was a kid that measured 48" long.  This fish measured 53-1/2" long.  My scale was not cooperating, but according to the length/weight charts, this fish likely weighed about 72 lbs.  I can attest that seems spot on.  

My day did not end there... the next fish was probably in the 30 lbs range and the next fish after that was a flathead weight near 15 lbs. 

I think I only ended up with 4 fish total, but it was an amazing day full of big cats.  I'll never forget this one.

Sometimes they don't cooperate...

Wheeler Lake - Browns Ferry

Time: 7:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Air Temperature: 52 - 59 during trip
Water Temperature: 
Lake Level: 551.74

Weather Conditions: Overcast, cool. Winds SSW 3-8 MPH.

Nick Bates and I set out today to see if we could catch some stripped bass or catfish on live bait.  We put in at Cowford and set out for the Nuclear Plant.  We set up with spotlock and targeted some fish with large shiners suspended off the bottom.  Little to no luck.  Fish had lockjaw.  Managed a couple drum and this decent flathead.

We headed down toward the bluffs across from the Elk River mouth to try to mix it up.  Nothing.  Moved to a creek mouth and found some suspended structure and switched over to crappie.  A couple bites, but no fish in the boat.  

Sometimes they don't cooperate.  

Highlight of the day was coming across a wrecked boat.  They had a bad day...

Catching Up

Wheeler Lake - Browns Ferry and Indian Creek

Time: 8:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Air Temperature: 32 - 60 degrees during trip
Water Temperature:
Lake Level: 552.36 

Weather Conditions: Partly Cloudy. Winds East South East- 12 MPH.

I was thinking about my friend Cameron a few weeks back and gave him a shout to see if he wanted to fish.  It's probably been 2-3 years since we've had a chance to get together.  He was all in and drove down from TN to fish.

We started the day trying to catch stripped bass at the nuclear plant, but temperatures were warming quick and strong current + strong winds in the same direction made in impossible to stay in position.  We gave it all we could up until lunch, but had to give in due to the tough wind and water.  We caught one bass and a couple cats.  I did manage to catch one nice flathead.  

After lunch, we decided to completely change it up and try out some new water.  We trailered to boat to Triana and launched at Indian Creek.  I had never been there before, but had heard it might be a good spot for crappie.

Crappie fishing was slow with mixed luck between minnows and jigs.  We caught 4 keepers but had a great time doing it and it was excellent to catch up.  We will definitely need to do it again sooner next time.  

Strippers - Round 2

Wheeler Lake - Browns Ferry

Time: 8:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Air Temperature: 20 - 29 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: Cold, barely above freezing
Lake Level: 552.72 

Weather Conditions: Mostly Sunny. Winds North- 5-13 MPH.

After having such a great time last weekend, Kevin and I headed back out for a repeat of our last trip.

Overall, today was almost a carbon copy of last weekend.  Today, the current was a bit tougher, and the wind kicked up at times making it very difficult to stay in position.

We caught a few bass and a couple cats, but it was definitely slower than last weekend.  The highlight of the trip by far was Kevin's flathead catfish.  It weighed 41 lbs and was tagged in the dorsal fin!  First time in my life seeing a tagged fish in the wild.  Very cool.  

We had a blast and definitely will get out again soon.

"We're gonna need a bigger boat"

Wheeler Lake - Tennessee River @ Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant

Time: 7 AM - 10:00 AMAir Temperature: 53 - 70 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 73 degrees in the discharge water
Lake Level: 554.86' - 38,436 cfps - Perfect conditions
Weather Conditions: Light winds, variable 3-6 mph


Decided to wet a line for catfish this morning. I pulled out 3 big frozen shad from the freezer to use for cut bait on rod and reel. I went over to my favorite spot at the Nuclear Plant to fish the drop off between the pipeline and the discharge boils. I was set up with a single pole with two hooks and bouncing bottom.


It was a beautiful, perfect morning with no current or wind to fight. This is good for this area of the lake. I got off to a good start and caught 2 channels, 2 blues in the 8# range, one little flathead, and the big one below!


She. Was. A. Tank. I knew when I set the hook that it was big. I was able to get almost the whole fight on film. It took about 12 minutes to land this fish. It didn't fight violently, but put it's head down and peeled line. I don't fish with a lot of line when I'm bouncing bottom, so I was worried about getting spooled. Somehow, I managed to keep it hooked and not run off all my line. This was a solid fish and one of the biggest I've ever caught on road and reel. The scales showed 33#, but I was convinced it was 40 or more. I guess they always seem bigger than they are, but still very nice.


I took some photos and turned it loose and picked my wife and son up at the dock for a joy ride. Very nice day. Fall bite is on!!

Trotlines and Fun Times

Location: Wheeler Lake - Cowford to Courtland - Alabama

Time: Morning
Air Temperature: 63 - 79 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 74 degrees
Lake Level: 555.85' - 51,566 cfps - Perfect conditions
Weather Conditions: A little choppy & overcast, clearing as day goes.  S-SE winds 4-10 mph.

Doug and Douglas joined me on Friday afternoon to bait and prepare lines.  They had never run full scale lines, so I knew they would have a blast.  These are the lines they helped me hand build over the spring.  

We ran 100 hooks per person, which is allowed by law.  We started by running down towards Courtland and dropping a 100 hook line below the bluffs and across the mouth of a little inlet.  This one was baited 100% chicken gizzards and was in about 24 FOW.  We put the next one N-S between the island and shore in Mallard Creek.  We baited this one with live bait and it was a 50 hook line placed in 9 FOW.  We put the third line (100 hooks) on the flats behind my house and baited it with cut bait and gizzards.  We put the final 50 hook line behind the big island by Cowford landing in 6 FOW and baited it with miscellaneous gizzards, cut bait, and whatever we had left over.  

We were on the water by 7:00 AM on Saturday morning and started with the line at Cowford.  We pick up 5 fish off this line and it was a pretty normal run.  We did pick up one that weighed in at around 20 lbs and took a picture and turned it loose.  

The next line we ran was the one in Mallard Creek.  Our intent was to target flatheads on this line with live bait in shallow water.  We knew we wouldn't catch a lot on this line, but was hoping for something big.  We ended up catching 2-3 channels but nothing giant.  It still was a good run.

The 3rd line we pulled was the one in the flats behind my house.  This one did really well and caught one flathead and mix of channels and blues.  I believe we pulled in around 6-8 fish off this long line.

The final line we pulled was the one towards Courtland below the bluffs.  This one was HOT!.  We caught fish nearly every hook for the first 5-6 hooks and picked up fish throughout the entire length of the line.  Both end of the line were very heavy with fish and kept us hopping for a few minutes.  This line pulled in 20-22 nice fish and was an absolute blast.  It was an awesome way to end the day! 

In total, we ended up with 38 catfish caught.  We had turned the biggest fish loose immediately and then took to deep water for a photo op and to cull what we had kept.  We caught more fish than we needed, so we took photos and turned loose the smallest and largest of what we had.  We kept around 16 fish for the freezer.  Overall, it seemed gizzards did the best, followed by cut bait.  Deep water did the best and fish consistently were on hooks nearest the weights across all lines.  As a learning point, I will probably sink all lines in the middle from now on when running deeper than about 12-14 FOW.

We had an awesome time and I believe Doug and Douglas got a good feel for trotlining.  I think we are all ready to do it again! Our lines were all 100% hand made and I'm proud of everyone that helped us build these this spring as they proved they can produce.  

S L O W

Location: Browns Ferry - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 6:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Air Temperature: 89 Degrees
Water Temperature: 83-85 Degrees
Lake Level: 555.98'.
Weather Conditions: Calm.  Winds less than 6 mph SSE

I launched again from the house today with the intent of running jugs.  Today I launched them right in front of my house on the flat between the stump row and the channel in about 12 feet of water.  I had cut bait on all the hooks.  I only launched 12 today since they didn't do so good yesterday.

I went up to the nuclear plant to rod and reel fish.  Bite was very slow near the boils by the pipeline.  I only picked up two here today by bouncing bottom with shrimp.

I split my time between fishing the boils, the water intake gates, and running the jugs in between changing spots.  The jugs didn't produce a single fish on the first run.  The intake gates didn't produce any fish today at all.  I caught one nice blue about 8 lbs on my second jug run and also caught a small flathead. 

I picked Jessica up and we rotated through the normal spots again with no luck.  We even tried a bobber over the rocks on the bank to try to see if they were spawning on the rocks, but had no luck there either. 

We ran the jugs a final time and and caught one small blue.  Overall, a very slow day with only 5 fish.

Location: Pointe Westmoreland - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: After work
Air Temperature:
Water Temperature:
Lake Level:
Weather Conditions:

Fished off the dock today after work at home. Tightlining with cut bait. Didn't keep good records, but do recall catching one very nice flathead. Love those yellow cats!!