I had a great day on the water guiding Michelle and her seven year old son Liam. From the moment I met him he was asking me questions in rapid fire succession. Fortunately, most of them were about fishing, so I did the best I could to tackle them from this obviously intellectually gifted second grader. Michelle said that he started fishing at the age of two and that his grandfather taught him how to fish. Like most young anglers he was used to fishing with spincast reels like the Zebco 202 or 33 where you push the button before you make your cast. I use spinning reels, so a quick lesson was all that was needed before he was making long casts with ease. Normally at this time of year the generators are running 24/7 at Douglas Dam as the TVA lowers the lake during the fall months to reach winter pool in December. However, East Tennessee has been experiencing a drought as of late, and the TVA has been releasing very little water during the morning and early afternoon hours. I find the fishing is more productive when the flow is less than 2500 cfs. Those were the conditions that we had on this gorgeous fall day. The two of them caught a mixed bag of fish that was composed of smallmouth bass, white bass and a couple of species of catfish. We weighed the catfish he caught, and his two heaviest cats came in at scale busting 4 lb. 2 oz. and 4 lb. 9 oz. Liam wanted to count every fish he caught. The picture included in this report shows him proudly displaying his fourth fish of the day. Of course a nice river smallie. By the end of the trip Liam with Michelle’s motherly assistance at times had successfully landed ten fish. He said that was the most fish he had caught in one day of fishing. It was a wonderful day on the water, and Liam’s enthusiasm was infectious and reminded of the real reason why I started this fishing guide business in the first place.
River Smallie Adventures Fishing Report October 10, 2019
