After a great week of weather and fishing on Allatoona, I was able to get a two day break from charters. The timing could not have been better when my son asked me to join him for a few days to fish the Oostanaula River. We loaded the canoes and camping gear and slid off from the hustle and bustle to fish a 15 mile section of seemingly untouched water. The river was on the fall from a recent rain event and was teeming with flipping bait fish and top water action. With Lake Allatoona getting a dose of the “weekend warriors” I was sure we had made a good decision to be on the Oostanaula.
We let the river dictate our speed the first day, taking in the sights and sounds only a river valley can provide. Once sundown approached, we settled on camping along a deep water section of river with an abundance of cover. Tyler and I set up camp and could not sit still until we had a set of limb lines baited for a river monster with whiskers. We had a mess of Blue Gill Bream caught earlier in the day ready to bait up with. Fishing limb lines never gets old because you just never know what might be there on the hook. I guess it brings out the kid in me. The signs of a hooked fish are never predictable. Sometimes a dancing limb will only be a 5-pounder…but a heavy steady pull can be a 50-pounder. We got seven lines out and before we could get back to our starting point we had “Live Action” on a hook! And seconds later we had a 15-pound Blue Cat in the boat. After rebaiting we let the lines soak for the night. By sunrise I was up surveying the river from camp and it looked as if most of our lines were hooked-up. It wasn’t hard to convince Tyler to get on the water and get fishing. Out of our seven lines we landed 5 fish from 12 to 27 pounds only to have a monster catfish wrap up on a sunken tree. That fish got away…this time. It was a fantastic trip and a great memory that I am thankful for.