Trout anglers again are lining the banks of Lake Junior three days a week.
The small but deep lake is located near Chickamauga Dam and the intersection of Highway 153 and Amnicola Highway.
Anglers started lining the banks on Jan. 4 after the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency stocked the lake Jan. 2. The lake will be restocked next Wednesday.
Unlike times past, TWRA supplied this year’s stocking with trout from the state’s fish hatchery near Tellico Plains. In previous years the agency brought in fish from the Dale Hollow National Fish Hatchery near Celina, Tennessee.
“We were anticipating a (federal) government shutdown there, so we came up with a backup plan and we ended up stocking those fish out of the Tellico fish hatchery,” said Travis Scott, TWRA’s Region III river and streams coordinator.
As to how many trout were stocked, Scott said, “Several thousand.”
When asked for a more defined amount his reply was, “I don’t know if I want to discuss numbers. We are trying to get away from saying we stocked this many fish.”
Scott added that the catch rate is not affected directly by the amount stocked.
“We are trying to tweak our stocking rates so that we are putting an appropriate amount of fish but not overstocking,” he said. “What we have seen is that it doesn’t matter how many you stock, people are still going to catch the same amount in a given amount of time.
“We have been looking at the number of trout caught per hour, and it doesn’t matter whether we stock 2,000 fish per acre or a thousand fish per acre. That number stays the same. So does it make sense for us to stock 2,000 fish in a pond that’s not going to impact the catch rate? You can stock more fish, but it is not going to increase the number of fish people catch.
“The people who know what they are doing are doing very well.”
Anglers at Lake Junior need not fear.
“We are still stocking an exorbitant number of trout in that small of an area,” Scott said. “What we’ve seen this year is our catch rates are better this year than last year.”
He said that last winter the lake was frozen for several weeks and anglers were hampered. Water levels have been the challenge this year.
“The water is quite a bit higher than it was last year or historically it’s been. It’s been very high,” Scott noted. “People, when they cast out, were where they were standing last year.”
A picnic table where normally some anglers sit while fishing was under water Sunday.
“Nothing at all,” Blake Dutton of Cleveland said about his success that day. “They were just not hitting. The water was just too high.”
Wade Ervin and his wife, Dina, had a similar experience.
“I caught one; she caught one. That’s all we did. It’s really slow this year. It’s unusual,” Ervin said about their Lake Junior outing Sunday afternoon.
He said that last year he and his son caught 25 fish one day as they practiced catch-and-release.
“That’s usually the way it is,” Ervin said. “The only reason I go over there is to catch another one of those 3-pounders.”
TWRA has put some 3-to-5-pound fish in Lake Junior this year.
With plans to go back this year, Ervin said, “We love to go over there.”
Dutton agreed. He has had better luck in the past.
“It’s a real good fishing spot,” he said.
For his brother, Sunday was a better day.
“I caught a few. I caught two trout,” John Dutton said. “They were not nothing real big to brag about, but I caught 3-pound crappie and a 10-pound largemouth (bass).”
Sunday was not the best day of fishing, either, for Jason McKinney and his three sons.
McKinney, a city of Chattanooga deputy administrator with the Youth and Family Development department, waded in the mud-soaked banks with Jackson, 10; Grant, 7; and Carter, 5. All three go to Normal Park Elementary.
“We didn’t catch anything. We spend more time reeling and casting and throwing stuff in the water. We just go for the fun of it,” McKinney said.
But they, too, have had better fishing success there.
“We caught several last year. I think we hit the time right and had enough to take home and have a good eating,” he said, emphasizing that the fun is not all about catching “the big one.”
“I’m just glad they enjoy going out there and doing that stuff,” he said of his boys. “If they’re out playing in a mud puddle and we’re not catching anything, I still consider that a success.”
Trout fishing at Lake Junior continues Fridays through Sundays until April 28.
Contact Gary Petty at sports@timesfreepress.com.