Bump, and family brag. Full article is linked at the bottom, but because it is subscriber only, I'll excerpt. Article is from '13, but I promise, he hasn't slowed down. Harold is a relative of mine; you guys are amateurs: If Harold “Dude” Maddux is in East Tennessee it’s probably to see his grandkids, son Mike and daughter-n-law Robin. The next time he makes the trip crappie fishermen should call ahead for an appointment. He could be the most prolific crappie catcher in the state. The 71-year-old Maddux, who lives in Mount Juliet, will wrap up his “fishing year” sometime this week. Unless he hits a dry spell Maddux will have put over 7,500 keeper crappie in his boat in 12 months. As of Friday he had caught 7,470 – for the math challenged that’s 249 daily limits of 30 fish. “This is the most he has ever caught,” said his son Mike, who lives in Powell. “Before this year the most he had caught was about 5,500.” If you laid 7,470 10-inch crappie end-to-end they would run the length of more than two football fields. It’s likely that quite a few of the fish Maddux caught were better than the 10-inch minimum, so you can likely go ahead and throw in the end zones as well... "...When Crappie USA visits Percy Priest and Old Hickory for tournaments Maddux fishes the amateur side. In the last four tournaments he’s fished he has three first place finishes and a second. The second place finish was a single ounce behind the winner." http://www.knoxnews.com/news/bob-hodge-7740-reasons-to-laud-fishing-dude
Don't know if any of you guys have fished in Tellico Plains before, but that's a good area for catching rainbow trout. My dad lives up there on the Skyway, so I get to take advantage of it quite a bit.
Starting to get some light hatches, but still fishing terrestrials for trout here. Should be getting busy shortly
Yeah. That picture was taken at a park in Church Hill. I live a mile or so (as the crow flies) from that park. My farm is on the river, not to mention the fact our drinking water is taken about 2 miles (as the river runs) downstream of this. Combine that with TWRA restocking river otter populations, and the fishing has suffered. There's some great smallie fishing in this area, but red-eye and blue gill have taken a huge hit. When I was in high school (25+years ago) it was an average day to catch over 100 red-eye/blue gill during a 3 hour float from the Church Hill VFW ramp (right where the picture was taken) to a boat ramp in Christian's Bend 1/2 mile from my house. I haven't caught a red-eye in over 12 years..... But it's time for the walleye on Norris, Cherokee & especially South Holston lakes to start getting afraid. Very. Afraid.
Holston Defense shouldn't affect the North Fork. The confluence of the North & South Forks is about a 1/2 to 1 mile upsrream of Holston Defense property and a good 2-3 miles upstream from any discharges. However, there's the mercury contamination from a factory in Saltville, Va from 40+ years ago that prevents you from eating fish taken from the North Fork.... There's warnings posted in the upper part of Cherokee Lake that advises not to eat fish taken from there more than twice/week due to the mercury levels. Thanks greedy corporate masters......
Gonna be in Knoxville this week, only time I can be home all summer. Dad, lil bro and I are going to hammer the rainbows on the holston and the smallies on the French broad.
He has fished Kentucky extensively, and he bass fished every lake in the south in his younger days. Now, his typical day is leave before daylight and fish Priest or OH until everybody in the boat has limited. Sometimes that's 30 minutes, and sometimes it's much, much longer, but he'll stay on the lake until he does it.
Dad and I hit the Clinch yesterday morning and got shut out. Not content to end the day on a sour note we came back to town got lunch and hit the Holston. We fished the stretch below the I-40 bridge that goes over the Holston just north of Knoxville. We caught about 40 smallmouth and stripers between us.
