Markybob Catfishing

06/10/2026

Tons of charter trips coming up. Very much looking forward to them as we appear to be nearing the end of the catfish spawn. YEA! Had to go get bait yesterday, and although the target was white bass, actually caught our first 2026 skipjack in the Tennessee River now that the flow has returned a bit (10K CFS). They are definitely not there in numbers. Skipjack Annie also had a fight on her hands in the current that required us to go chase it down.

06/05/2026

https://fishingbooker.com/reviews/view/1257564/preview

Check out this review of Markybob Catfishing from Jun 4th in Kingston, United States!

06/05/2026

Fishing Report from Thursday, June 4th: Catfish still solidly in spawn, big ones not yet available, but a long awaited current did allow us to catch quantity. A total of 13-14 "no spawn" catfish were landed (5 hour trip). We did manage to catch 2 post spawn females, although they were not very big (12-14 lbs.). It will most likely be mid to late June before the majority of post spawn females will be ready to play, with males a few weeks later.

Upper Watts Bar; current is finally available although not a lot and not until around 8am as Fort Loudon starting releasing at 7am. Melton Hill is only releasing a little during peak energy demand (4-8pm). Watts Bar is releasing 24/7 but not a lot (10K CFS). Believe it or not, we actually need more rain. Ground was so dry, recent rains absorbed more than it ran off. To get proper current, you will have to target narrow sections. Water Temp started out 76F, ended at 79F, water is stained. Shad were in 15 foot of water, but started to drop and scatter as the water temps started rising. My guess is that
> Bass are around 15 ft on step ledges, maybe shallower very early.
> Crappie are deeper and starting their night feeding pattern. It is time to get out the lights and fish at night.

Gar are starting to breach at sunrise and scare the crap out of you.

05/30/2026

Fishing Report/Results from this morning's fishing charter: Fished 7am to Noon, Hard rain until 9:30am but had clients that drove here from Dyersburg (5 hr away), they hung in there and had a good time. Felt sorry for the High School bass fishing competitors, saw several of them hunkered down as they flew past us. Catch results as expected during catfish spawn: 5 smaller non-spawning female catfish and 1 rare non-spawning 12 lb. male, with a few that got off the hook before landing (too small for the hook). It is looking more and more like mid June before we see post-spawn females. I did enjoy seeing Watts Bar at full pool. For the first time since early March, TVA will be releasing more than 1 turbine starting tomorrow (from 5K cfs - cubic ft pr sec to over 14k), which will finally after over 2 months put current in Watts Bar Lake. Will definitely help the post spawn crappie bite. Give that a few days and maybe, just maybe, stripers and skipjack might come up to the dam as well. Surface water temp near Thief Neck, 77F to start, 79F at noon, shad were medium depth due to the rain.

05/29/2026

Go Gracie (Great Niece), Sawyer, and Dale (Nephew)!

05/28/2026

We have FINALLY hit the low limit of summer pool on Watts Bar. We are still 8 inches below the average summer pool level and still flowing very little water through Melton Hill - Fort Loudon - Watts Bar Dams, so there is little to no current flow, but water levels are now much more supportive to spawning and post spawning fish, all species. We are still at least 2 weeks away from the mid point of catfish post spawn, but at least in these conditions, some catfish can be caught. I am concerned with the crappie spawn this year (usually ends mid May). They need both a stable water level and flow but no flow for 2 months most likely had a impact.

05/18/2026

Fished hard this morning, catfish spawn is in full force, made for a tough day, but did manage to put 7 in the boat, all small females, 1 was a post spawn female (12 lb). Still had a good time on a beautiful east Tennessee morning. This is a typical catch during spawn when all males and most all bigger females just cannot be caught. Males spawn for about 5 weeks including nest guarding, females about 2 1/2 weeks, but not at the same time, and they do NOT eat during active spawn. (Don't let anyone tell you different!) That is why all of the big catfish YouTubers have headed north to make their videos, fishing the Ohio and Missouri River (their pre-spawn period). It is also why "pre-spawn bulk up" is a great time to be catfishing, see posted pictures from last month. Fortunately, the spawn started early this year, so I am expecting post spawn bite to start mid June versus Early July. Post Spawn is THE BEST time to catch BIG uns in numbers. This is also the time of year where folks start complaining about the number of dead catfish floating down the river. These are normal and are smaller males that got too close to a bigger male guarded nest, a.k.a. spawn losers. Now we just need RAIN! so we can get some current flowing again and finally fill Watts Bar.

05/11/2026

I have plenty of fresh and frozen Skipjack.

05/03/2026

Took my clients to a shallow flat prior to the current turning on to do some slow dragging (good technique for pre-spawn catfish). Been dragging as my go to method for catfishing for almost 5 years now. This has NEVER happened. A 5+ lb. bucket mouth wanted a piece of dragging skipjack chunk, caught by this young man. We ended up catching 11 catfish, but this one will be remembered. Last spring, a client caught a 16 1/2" crappie doing the same thing.