Tillery Lake Fishing - 52 Pound Blue Catfishing

[CMJ]

Fished Tillery this morning. Caught 5 blues and 1 channel. The channel was about 5 lbs. The blues were from 5 to 52 lbs. Yeah, thats not a miss print, I caught my first blue over 50 lbs this morning. He hit at about 9:20 a.m. He was a lot of fun. I finally got him in the net the 3rd time I got him up. It was nice until about 10:30 then the wind got up. The water temp was 46. Caught the fish in 37 ft of water.

[JDWILLIS39]

CMJ

Nice mornings fishing. Hope to do that well some day.

[bufryda1]

CMJ, what time do you normally start fishing in the mornings?

[CMJ]

I usually get to the lake 45 minutes to an hour before daylight to catch bait.Then, as soon as I have enough bait I head out to the spot that I like to fish. Yesterday I started at about 7:30. I have caught good fish from daybreak up until 12 noon. Sometimes I will stay at the same spot all morning. I might go an hour without a good bite and then 3 rods go down within minutes all with nice fish.

[Bream baiter]

Hey CMJ, were you up the lake from the 24/27 bridge? I went last Saturday afternoon. Found big fish up the lake 24 to 38 feet deep but didn't get any bites because of a rigging experiment that didn't work. I plan to be at Tillery again early Monday morning. No rigging experiment this time.

[CMJ]

I was probably about 1 mile up the lake from the bridge. I usually fish the area between the bridge and mountain creek. I have done the best in 30 to 37 ft. I have also caught fish around the old bridge under water before you get to the 24/27 bridge. Let me know how you do.

[Tomahawk]

Hey guys I went to Badin this morning and only caught some channels. Mostly fishing up river above the RxR bridge. I get two blues a 5 and 20lber drifting the shad shcools later in the day. My friend was at Tillery Sat and did pretty good he got about 12 blues. The biuggest was 32lbs. Fishing between 24/27 bridge and MT Creek. I'll probley head back up to the lake mid week. It's still going to be in the 60's.

[C_wernett]

Anyone mind if I tag along!!! You guys are kicking the snot out of them from my point of view...lol I haven't hung a cat in two weeks, I'm getting an itch. If it weren't a 4 hour drive for me to get up that way, and the lack of a boat right now, I'd be up there on any given weekend. I can't wait untill the boat is done being worked on so my buddy and I can start hitting better water. Yesterday we were fishing, couldn't get any cats to hit, but ended up catching more than 20 largemouth bass after getting bored. Three of them were over 10lbs, the biggest about 12. But no cats...what a bummer... :sad:

[JDWILLIS39]

OK Guys you got my heart racing. I am going give it a try in morning. I have never fished Tillery but once before. Just getting back into fishing after few years off. I will post report when get back tomorrow. Thanks for the reports and fishing information.

[Bream baiter]

I fished Tillery this morning. It took over 30 minutes to find some blues but once I got lines out the bites came quick. I caught one @ 24 lbs., two @ 18 lbs., two @ 12 lbs., one @ 9 lbs., three @ 8 lbs., one @ 6.5 lbs., one small channel, and one white perch that was almost 2 lbs. It took 2 hours before I got 5 lines in the water. Most fish were caught between 7:30 and 9:30.

[JDWILLIS39]

I also fished Tillery this morning but my story is not same. I never found fish at all. Never even got bite. Guess I need lessons. I fished from about 8:30 to 1:30 up and down from the 24/27 bridge.

Glad you had such good luck Bream Baiter.

[roundhill]

jd sometime people have fantasies

[catfishrus]

hello fisherman im new to the board. ive had good luck at tillery for the last couple of weeks. caught a 32, 26, and two 23 last weekend with a total catch of 26 blues for two days fishing. i fish out of a black/ silver lund. hope to see you at the lake.

[JDWILLIS39]

If you don't mind would you share some details of the trip.
Type bait. Did you anchor or drift. It's 90 mile drive for me so can't come often but I have Lowe 16' gray/blue faded.
Thanks

[catfishrus]

jdwillis39 i was using shad for bait but i did have trouble finding it for some reason sunday. it seem to be in 15-20ft water too far down for the cast net for me anyways. i rode around looking for fish on my graph and then would anchor on them. ive been starting at 5.00 in the morning and fishing until 12 or 1. sunday i fished ahole for the first three hours and caught5 blues. so i moved at 10.30 and had agood bite for about a hour(caught 9 blues including the two 23lbers). the fish just moved. for some reason im not catching much for the first hour of light.try staying in the main channel remember they are like highways down there.

[JDWILLIS39]

Thanks catfishrus
I am learning to use the depth finder/ graphs but you can teach old dog new tricks just takes longer. I had some frozen shad and dip bait the other day but never did any good. I found few fish but never got them to bite.
Good luck be looking for you on water.

[Tomahawk]

I do have to say this to Roundhill. Alot of people in the past have said the same thing until they see all the pictures of big cats. Let me get your email address and I send you all the pictures you want to see. Myself along with Rookie, Catfishrus and afew others on this board don't need to BS about fishing. If you people know of how many flatheads me and Catfishrus got this past fall you guys would be stunned. You would flat call us liers. It's all about being in the right palce at the right time and experience. You wait till Feb rolls in, thats when the real big cats start hitting. Trophy time.

[CMJ]

Tomahawk is right, its all about being at the right place at the right time and having some experience. You can learn a lot from boards like this but nothing is better than getting out there and learning. It starts with catching bait, that was my biggest problem and still is sometimes. Then you have to pay attention water temp, wind , current, etc. and sometimes you still don't catch fish. Once you learn what to look for you will catch them more times than not.

[CMJ]

Went this morning, got a late start due to the fog. It was as thick as I have ever seen it. Started fishing at 8:45, caught 7 fish, 6 blues and 1 small channel. Four of the blues were in the 8 to 10 pound range, one about 3 pounds, and the last one I caught went 31 pounds. The water temp was in the upper 40's .

[catfishrus]

Congrats On The Catch Rookie12. Makes Me What To Layout Of Work

[JDWILLIS39]

Wife and I fished Tillery today also. Not being familiar with the lake in a DENSE FOG :eek: we could not get to the fishing place a friend told us about until after 11. That is about as foggy as I have ever seen a place and mind you I been to couple fogs before.
We caught one small channel will waiting for fog to lift enough to get out in main channel.
CMJ :) thanks for the bait we fished until after 2 but current started up again and then stopped again. We got some bites but they must been small fish they would never take the bite. Just kind of mess with it.
Nice mess of fish you got. We finally had stop and get back home we are going on cruise next week.

Guys 30 lb flat is my biggest (ever)but I keep on trying and soon I hope get one over 50 or better yet my wife will catch one.
Cafishrus glad you guys found them I am learning.
It was nice day on water.

[catfishrus]

where is the post fellows? did anybody fish today? i know the wind didnt blow them out of the lake yesterday. has anyone tried drifting for blues at tillery lately with drift socks?

[CMJ]

Fished tillery this morning. My brother-in-law was with me. It was slow for a while. We finally got on a few fish at about 10:40. We caught ten fish with the biggest at 35 lbs. Most were in the 5 to 8 lb range. I drift fish a lot in the spring and summer when the water temp is above 50 degrees. I have found that it is better to achor when the water is colder than that. I am planning on going out again at the end of the week. see yall

[mhedrick]

I haven't posted much since the board changed several months ago, but anyway.... I fished Monday morning above the bridges and got into a pretty good bite. We had several blues up to 26#, two nice channels 13# a 10# striper, and too many 2-5# assorted small cats to count. 3 throws of the net and I was fishing. I had my anchor out 45 mins before daylight and it was still dark when we were catching fish. BTW, we only fished 4 hours.

[mhedrick]

I just rode down the creek towards the main lake till I marked them. They were just beyond the Hwy 73 bridge.

[Bream baiter]

You can usually catch plenty of gizzards and maybe some herring between the bridge and where the boat ramp creek meets the main channel. You may have to get them deep if you catch them much after sunrise. I caught some one afternoon a few weeks ago that were near the bottom in 24 feet of water. Everybody was complaining about not being able to catch shad that day. I like to idle around with the big motor then stop and use the trolling motor after I have located a school of shad with the depthfinder. Once I pinpoint a school I move the boat a little so I can throw the net in the spot where the transducer was when I saw the shad.

[CMJ]

Found the bait around the little bridge and about one hundred yards beyond it. Got all the rods out at about 7:30. It didn't take long before one rod went down. It was a 30 pound blue. The rest of the day was slow. I caught just 2 more blues and 1 channel. I did lose a couple of decent fish. I was fishing in 32 t0 37 ft of water.The water temp was in the mid to upper 40's by the time I left.

[Ace]

I would like to say hello to every one. I am new on this site.
My name is Ace I have read many of your articles about Lake Tillery.
Sounds like you're having lots of fun catching those big blues.
I have never caught one of the big blues.
I have never fished Lake Tillery.:p

[catfishrus]

hey ace i havent fished wylie in years. i dont think the lake has a good population of blues in it. your best chances for catching blues would be mountain island,norman, badin, tillery or maybe even lake wateree sc. i fished tillery today without any luck. i didnt get in the water until 8.00 and seems the bite this week as been right at first light in the mornings. those blues are alot of fun to catch when you get into them.some will tap the bait and just hold on and others will put the hammer down and take the slack out of your line so fast you dont even see it. just hear the rod cracking wecome a board im new too

[weasel]

Wow, I was a member of the old board and just got in this site today. Ya'll have tore my nerves up. I have some questions for you tillery fishermen if you don't mind.

1. When anchored, are you using a float on your leader to keep the bait off the bottom?
2. Catching more fish (blues) when they are generating alot of water or just minimum like they do weekends in the summer sometimes?
3. How can you tell what blues are on you depth finder? Are they schooling this time of the year or what? Dumb question I guess but I just don't know.
4. Anyone catching any on bream in tillery?
Thanks ahead for any replies some may offer.

[CMJ]

I use the corks on my leader when I am achored. It works good as long as the water is moving. I catch more blues when there is a good current. At Tillery it seems like its on and off sometimes. When I achor down and can see the current moving around the boat I am confident that I am going to catch some fish. As far as marking fish, I think that comes with experience. Sometimes I mark fish that I think are cats and don't do to good. Other times I just fish spots that have produced before without marking much and catch some good fish.

[weasel]

Thanks for the reply CMJ. I have fished up above 24/27 a few times but with minimal success. I need to start fishing there more. When I get to go i usually fish above the 109 bridge in the river. It's hard to fish there when they're moving much water, there's to much current to keep any bait down. Biggest blue down there so far was only 27 lbs but have caught a lot of flatheads biggest one being 48.

[catfishrus]

weasel i havent been using any corks on mine but i dont see where it would hurt.i havent used any bream because of the throw net regs. i think as long as there is some water running in the area that you are fishing in your o.k. as far as the marking the blues on the depth finder i dont know. ive seen the fish schooling above the 73 bridge on the depth finder a couple weeks ago only reason i know that is i saw alot of line on the depth finder and the main reason they where biting. we caught i think 9 blues in a hour and they where gone. on the water i think they pull alittle more this time of year on the weekend from the rains and snow coming from up north. i just look around the boat for the current going around. i can say this also if you dont mark any fish that still dont mean there arent fish there chasing bait in the area. its like cmj said you make sit there a couple hour and all of a sudden your catching fish.

[weasel]

Thanks for the info Michael. Me and a couple of buddies are heading up there Thursday. Will let you know what happened.

[weasel]

Got in the water about 8 this morning. Only caught 2 fish, one 6lb, one 8. Caught the 8 on a bopper stopper, go figure. It was COLD today.

[dwreel]

When you say "cold", do you mean like in the mid 40*s, or worse. BURRRR.

[catfishrus]

weasel if you dont mind me asking what area of the lake was you fishing in? i see tomahawk was fishing up river but i dont think he marked many fish today. also was you able to mark any fish? i fished badin yesterday without much luck. 1 blue 5-6lbs i didnt mark many fish yesterday. just tring to figure out whats going on.

[weasel]

catfishrus, we fished from below the 24/27 bridge a half mile to way above mountain creek. We tried all morning anchoring with no luck. Finally caught those two drifting. We only marked a few fish.

[CMJ]

Went this morning , didn't do much. Caught two blues and one white. Both of the blues were right at 15 pounds. Not many bites at all. Fished in 35 to 37 ft., the water temp was in the upper 40's. The water was close to being muddy.

[Timber_katz]

Have to ask....edited.

[CMJ]

Me and kcforejc fished tillery yesterday morning. The only thing easy was getting bait. We caught 1 small white cat and that was it. Marked a lot of fish at several places .

[CMJ]

Fished this morning until about noon. Caught 2 channels and 1 white, no blues!! I marked a lot of fish but not much action. The lake was full and muddy. The water temp was in the mid 40's. Bait was easy to get around the little bridge.

[teaysvalleyguy]

Congrats on the new PB on a Blue. Sounds like a good day of fishing.

[CMJ]

Thanks, Hows the fishing up your way?

[Bream baiter]

Hey Tomahawk, haven't seen you post lately. Been working a lot or is the fishing bad?

[CMJ]

Fished this morning until about noon. Caught 3 blues, 3 channels, and 4 whites. The biggest blue was 29 pounds. The bait was easy to get at the little bridge near the swift island boat ramp.The water temp was in the upper 40's.

[JDWILLIS39]

My son and some friends were up. No cats but did will on crappie. My son said he hooked one big something that just swirled at back of boat and left.:rolleyes: He thought it might be a big blue.:confused: I rested up from traveling so now we should have bad weather for while. Looks like you had nice morning CMJ.
I hope get back up that way soon.

[JDWILLIS39]

We put in about 8:30 AM at 24/27 on Friday 2/24. Water was very dingy and bait at little bridge scattered some but we caught a few. Current started up right after we got there and was pretty brisk. Didn't get a catfish bite and only caught one white perch and I think the only bite we had. Took out about 2:30 PM. Was fine day on water but no luck fishing.

[catfishrus]

jd willis i fished friday too. the bait was scattered before light also. the fishing is a little off right now compared to jan. the fish are there just cannot get them to hit. they seem to be stacked up in some area. so when they do decide to eat i hope it will be good. sorry i didnt see ya i guess iwas looking too hard for them fish.