Lake Chatuge Fishing Report – September 2007

Chatuge: Level: 9.3 feet below full pool. Temp: Upper 80s. Clarity: Clear.

Bass: John Hembree said he has been doing pretty well for numbers of spotted bass at Chatuge, but there’s not been much size to the fish. At a recent tournament, he and his brother weighed in four fish that weighed just under 8 pounds. “We caught about 15 keepers,” he said. “There just wasn’t any size to them.” According to John, the smaller spots seem to be in brushpiles in the 15- to 20-foot range, and they will hit a Texas-rigged watermelon-seed worm or a worm on a lead-head jig. There have also been some largemouths showing up at recent Saturday-night pot tournament weigh-ins that have come off shallow cover — big rocks and blowdowns. If you are fishing for largemouths, a spinnerbait around cover is a good choice, he said. “A friend of mine caught a good largemouth on a jig ’n pig fished in brush,” said John. Generally, John has been depending on worms in brush, but he has a Flex-it spoon ready. “The other night we caught four or five fish on a Flex-it,” he said. “If you bring in a spot, and there are several other fish following it in, you can sometimes drop that spoon on suspended fish and catch them.”