NASHVILLE
Cumberland River
As good as catfishing can be on the upper Tennessee River, Knoxville anglers don't own a monopoly on close-to-home catfishing action in Tennessee. The Cumberland River, which runs right through Nashville, is also an outstanding river for catching big cats, and it, too, offers anglers opportunities to catch all three major species of catfish. And yep -- they grow big there, too. In fact, the current state-record blue catfish, a 112-pound monster caught by Robert Lewis in 1998, came from the Cumberland.

The Music City section of the Cumberland, best known simply as "the river" to folks in Nashville, is actually part of Cheatham Reservoir. Upstream and downstream are Old Hickory and Barkley, respectively. The upper third of Barkley, which winds through Clarkesville, is the best-known Cumberland section for big catfish, but all three Nashville-area pools offer good catfishing opportunities.

For dog day cats on the Cumberland, Doug Markham of the TWRA suggested focusing on the tailwaters of Old Hickory and Cheatham dams. Markham, a popular Nashville-area radio host and the public information officer for the TWRA's Region II office, said that he has enjoyed terrific success catching big blue catfish from the waters immediately below the dams this time of the year. Making things even better, these waters are accessible by boat or from the banks.

Channels, flatheads and blues alike find thermal refuge in the moving waters beneath the dams during the middle of the summer. Add a super-abundance of baitfish, a mix of depths, the structure of the dams themselves and plenty of riprap, and the cats have no reason to go anywhere else. Markham has done most of his summer catfish angling in the immediate tailwaters, but he noted that similar opportunities can be found through the first few miles beneath both of the dams.

A three-way rig fished straight beneath the boat and held just off the bottom typically works for tailwater cats, and anglers have the option of holding the boat stationary in eddies that are adjacent to current lines, or drifting along the edges of the flows. For hefty blues, big chunks of cut skipjack or shad work well. Chicken livers work nicely for channel cats, especially in slack-water areas. Flatheads will be near hard structure, like concrete walls, or in eddies along riprap banks, and they prefer live fish. Gizzard shad and bluegills are good choices.

Downstream of the tailwaters, the Cumberland fishes much like the Tennessee River during the summer, with the most dependable areas for finding big cats being along hard bends in the river channel. The combination of the deep holes that get scoured out and the abundance of timber that falls into those holes give the cats everything they need to stay fat and happy.

Channel cats are super abundant in the Cumberland River, and some of the best places to zero in on channels are around timber in the mouths of creeks or toward the upper ends of big pools where the bottom first begins sloping off. Anglers also will catch plenty of channel cats by fishing cut bait on the bottom from the shoreline at one of many access areas that are scattered along the Cumberland River's course. J. Percy Priest Reservoir

"As good as the river can be for big catfish, Nashville-area anglers should not forget about Percy Priest," Markham said. "Priest is absolutely loaded with catfish, including some really big fish."