Jessica Showing How It's Done

Location: Browns Ferry - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Air Temperature: 90 Degrees
Water Temperature: 86 Degrees

Lake Level: 555.76' Strong current. 

Weather Conditions: Moderate winds from the south. About 11 mph

I took Jessica out this afternoon after work. I didn’t fish, but instead worked the trolling motor to try to keep us stable. Winds were very strong and the current was pulling hard, since we really struggled to keep the boat in position. Nevertheless, Jess fished with cut shad bouncing bottom with the new inline float rig I’ve been working with. We fished alongside the boils and submerged pipeline by the nuclear plant. 

She immediately caught a nice 6 lbs class blue literally on the first drop in the water. She quickly followed it up with a couple more on the next couple drops. She even pulled a double with cats in both hooks! She was slaying them and managed to land 7 in roughly an hour or less. It was a blast trolling while she was hammering the cats!

Location: Browns Ferry - Wheeler Lake - Alabama

Time: 6:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Air Temperature: 94 Degrees Hot!!
Water Temperature: 83-85 Degrees
Lake Level: 555.99'.
Weather Conditions: Calm.  Winds less than 6 mph SSE

I had spend the previous week re-tying all my catfish jugs and added 8 more to the fleet, so I was anxious to get some jugs out.  I launched at the house and started off by dropping 20 jugs on the flat just west of Mallard Creek in about 14 feet of water.  I had cut bait on every hook.  I then headed to the nuclear plant to fish my normal spot along the pipeline.  

I was bouncing bottom with shrimp as bait.  Fishing was a bit slow.  I fished about 1.5 hours and pick up 3 catfish.  One was a very nice female blue cat full of eggs.  I'd say she weighted 10-12 lbs.  

I then headed over to run the jugs, but had absolutely ZERO fish or lost bait.  It begin to cross my mind that jug conditions may not be right.  We were on the tail end of a mayfly hatch and some of the catfish were releasing eggs.  They may not be on the flats like normal.  I pulled all the jugs and took them to the north side of the river and launched them in deeper water about 20 ft deep just as an experiment.  I figured the catfish may be moving shallow, but wanted to rule out deep water first.

I returned to rod and reel fishing over by the nuclear plant intake gates and pylons.  I picked up three more nice cats there with one big blue in the boat that probably weighed 10-12 lbs.  I released both of the large fish of the day.

Jessica joined me and we ran the jugs again.  ZERO luck again.  Headed back to the house having caught 6 cats total and kept the 4 that were of a good size to eat.