Taste A Legend Review

With folks out putting critters in the freezer and all of the talk about hitting the grill I got lucky to be asked to try some marinades made for game. Melissa at Taste A Legend got in touch with me an asked if I would like to review what she makes which I was glad to do.

When it arrived I found several different bottles of marinade each formulated for a different type of meat along with a package of wild rice and a dry rub/seasoning mix. The first thing you notice is the packaging looks good, better than a lot of what you find at the store. I checked the ingredients list along with the cooking instructions to see how they suggested I use each type. The only problem I ran into, this was just before I took a deer so I didn’t have any venison for the first test. I did have some squirrels so decided to start with that using the marinade for chicken, pork, beef and lamb.

I marinated the meat for several hours only to realize I couldn’t grill that night. Great, since it says to grill. I baked it instead which is not the way I would do it again. My fault not theirs’. When I tasted it for the first time I will say it is not subtle, this is made for game which tends to be stronger than squirrel. The seasoning is so different from what we have here it took a couple of bites to be able to really taste what was going on. To me it has a strong influence of the Southwest, spices with lime and lemon, not spicy just bold. This blend has two of my favorites, basil and rosemary, which I grow to use on game. Despite my cooking it in the oven rather than on the grill it had a good taste. The smoke and texture from grilling would have made a huge difference which I found out later.

I managed to get a deer so next up was some Tennessee surf and turf. I had a channel catfish fillet ready to go along with a cut from the deer. The fillet was from a larger cat which tends to have a strong flavor which I am not a fan of. I normally spice these heavily to kill the fishy taste this time I put it into the fish marinade for 4 hours. For the venison I used the dry spices which I put on about 45 minutes before going on the grill.

I have to say it sure smelled good while cooking. The fish came off with a nice crust, the venison like a good steak. I didn’t add anything, no salt, oil, anything to change the taste. The fish marinade reminded me of one of my favorite things I use to cook fish, a friend from Japan introduced me to a Japanese BBQ sauce which is soy sauce based. Taste A Legend has a nice mild flavor but managed to tame the strong taste of the channel cat. Now this is saying a lot for a southern boy. While I love food from all over the world we have two ways to cook here, fried and on special occasions deep fried. Grilled fish has to be good for me to enjoy it and this was. I will use a higher heat next time to get a bit more crunch but the taste was good just as it was.

For the venison using the dry mix I grilled it to medium rare. I used a cut that wasn’t the best to see how the spices held up, I really liked this. Not salty or too strong and with smoke from the grill it sure made that venison taste good. I am a fan of using dry rubs, over the years I have used many commercial and custom blends, this one worked right out of the bottle. Again to me it tends to the Southwest tastes which I don’t get much here and was a nice change from what we use. Nothing hot or too spicy for the folks that can’t take the heat but a good well rounded flavor when grilled. I want to try it again with some vegetables on the grill to see how that works.

The first three flavors I tried from Taste A Legend were good and I can’t wait to try them again since now I know what to expect and how to use them. The first that I put on squirrel had a bold intense flavor and next time I will use it on meat that can take the strength. I can see on something like lamb or goat it would be the thing to use, I bet chicken grilled with it then used for tacos would be great. The dry rub was just plain good, I think I will stick to using it for when I have something to grill, it just seems to get better with the smoke added. The fish marinade is going to go fast here. I need to grill more fish but don’t like most of it no matter what is on it but this makes it into something I enjoyed. I have a lot of strong catfish that will be visiting the grill in the near future thanks to this sauce plus keep me from frying it.

I still have more marinades and their rice blend to try, I will get some cooking done so I can let you know how they do. Taste A Legend is a company that has the hunter and fisherman in mind with their flavors. They understand that wild game can take and at times needs flavors that can stand up to the strength of the meat. If you want some new bold tastes for your cooking I think you will enjoy what Taste A Legend has done.

Nickajack Cats

Friday I got to the lake for some bluegill, Monday rolls around and I am headed to Nickajack for cats. I have a neighbor that feels better having someone go with him when he heads to the river. At 86 he is still going and doing but likes some help now. I told him a few days ago, as I was helping thin pigeons out of his barn, I would go if he ever needed someone to fish with. Monday was the day.

We planned on leaving at 4:30, when it arrived so did rain and wind. I checked the weather, it looked fine in South Pittsburg so we headed out. The weather improved and was about perfect when we got to the ramp. The only bad part was not enough water being released from the generators to get the biggest cats feeding.

I had never fished this part of the river before, I knew the technique but not the area. We ran all of 100 yards, shut down and got started. Our rigging for drift fishing is simple, we used 3 way swivels to drop a 1 ounce sinker to the bottom and hold a short leader about a foot up. I kept the hook leader to about 6-7 inches long to keep the bait off the bottom and keep tangles with the sinker to a minimum. I was using my 9’ 6” casting rod, BPS Catmaxx reel loaded with 20 lb Firewire. For hooks I started with a 4/0 circle hook but changed to a 4/0 Kahle because of the way the cats were hitting. For a vertical presentation a Kahle hook is hard to beat. Bait was rooster and turkey livers.

 As I was getting rigged and baited up Kaiser had already put a bait in the water. Just as I dropped mine down he set back hooking a good fish. With a big smile he told me this was a big one so I grabbed the net. A few minutes later he had it beside the boat and it was big, turns out the biggest of the day. Just over 25 pounds of blue cat which he calls white cats for some reason. We got it wedged into the live well and dropped back in for another try. Just a few minutes later he puts a good 10 lb blue in the boat.

Right out of the gate.

And a couple of minutes later.

Since this was my first trip he really wanted me to hook a big blue but all I managed was a 2-3 lb channel cat. He thought I was crazy for wanting to keep (A) a channel cat and (2) one that size. To him if it doesn’t weigh 20+ it really isn’t much of a fish. To me, I am filling my freezer along with some other folks that want fish. A 2 lber eats good. He just gave me that I’ll tolerate it look and kept fishing.

 A 22" channel he considers a trash fish.

We drifted along waiting for more water to be released getting a few hits but I just couldn’t hook up. He managed one or two more smaller fish. The whole time cats were rolling on top all around us. Blues do this every morning which helped us figure out which runs they were using consisting of rock piles and small channels providing them cover. When we would hit rocks with our sinkers we knew a strike was coming. The cats were stacking up just downstream, grabbing bait just as it dropped off the deep side.

After an hour or so I had a hit that bent my rod to the handle. Finally I had hooked a decent fish. Blues tend to stick their nose down and hug the bottom which this one did so I knew what I had, channels like to twist and thrash about. Over 9 feet of heavy rod made it change its’ mind pretty quick and I had my first 10+ blue of the day. Now it was on. After catching this one things clicked. Sometimes you just need to break the ice.

On the board. This one was 11+.

We made drift after drift which is boring to write about and worse to read but that was the formula for the day. Each drift usually produced a fish or five with, what to me, were some good cats running 6 to 11 lbs. The day got hot but if we found the right drift fish would hit. All along the way he would tell me stories of past trips and where to fish this stretch all the while apologizing for it being a bad day. Funny since I catfish a lot and we were catching more big cats than I ever do, I tend to target channel cats in the 2-5 lb range on Percy Priest.

We fished for about 7 hours before running out of bait. The wind had gotten up and without much current the boat wouldn’t go downstream or up. Weird to sit in a wind and current but not move. I put one last 6 lber in the boat and we wrapped it up with a total of 14 fish in the boat. The cooler was full, 3 more good fish were in the live well, I had too much sun and was tired. Time to go.

A full cooler makes happy fishermen.

I'll take this any day. Good times.

What a day. 85-90 lbs of cats on ice, some great memories along with enough knowledge about a new stretch of water to go back on my own. Can’t get that sitting on the couch. I am ready to head back as soon as I can. For such a fun day it is hard to get into words for some reason. Sorry about that. I hope the pics will add a bit to where words fell down.

One final thought, if you have a neighbor that needs a little help with something it might be a good idea to give them a hand. Because I did I got to fish with a cool guy that had some great stories plus got invited to hunt his place again after 2 years. He is 86, a veteran that served in the Philippines after entering the Army in 1943, lived here all his life and just knows stuff. A great guy to spend time with.

 Not bad for just helping get rid of pigeons.

Overlooked, River Silver

I grew up in Nashville, actually , East Nashville, which let me have access to some of the large TVA lakes and dams that dot the state. Just outside of Nashville is Old Hickory and Percy Priest, both have been favorite stomping grounds since we were kids. Priest is a draw down impoundment, turbines below the dam only run a few weeks a year to pull the lake down to winter pool or if we have a lot of rain, enough to hold the level. Old Hickory is different, it runs 24 hours a day, providing electrical energy to the grid, the more power needed the more of it’s twelve turbines they run. This provides good fishing on both sides of the river just about whenever you feel the need to head that way. Rockfish (stripers), hybrids, catfish, sauger and a list of panfish are caught below the dam either from boats or the two catwalks, one on either side, built for fishermen.

Percy Preist in the summer. You might call this limited fishing opportunities.


I loaded up the boat to try for rockfish and cats one warm Saturday afternoon during mid summer. No wind and a partly cloudy sky promised a good evening on the river. I got to the ramp at Old Hickory, which I hate, it is extremely steep, long and narrow, got the boat launched, then headed upstream to the dam. The turbines are on the left side going upstream with flood gates in the center and the lock on the right. Underwater downstream of the flood gates are large rock piles that hold fish but steal terminal tackle at an astounding rate. There is a good current break where the turbines meet the flood gates, this break flows down the edge of these rock piles at mid river, this is where rockfish and cats cruise.

Gary Hanson with a nice rockfish from Alabama. One of the fish we were after. Photo credit: Gary Hanson

I was at the far end of the turbines. This view is from the fishermens' catwalk.


I pulled up to the face of the dam where the current break begins, we rigged heavy jigs and started casting into water flowing fast from the turbines. This provided good exercise but no strikes so I started wondering what I needed to change. I was tied to the corner of the dam in an eddy and noticed something running shad along the front of the flood gates in the slack current. Stripe (white bass) do this all the time and I sure don’t mind catching them, I’ve caught big stripe in this spot, so my decision was made.

I rigged a 6 ½ foot spinning rod with a #7 Countdown Rapala, another with a white ¼ oz Roostertail and started casting where I could see strikes. It only took a couple of casts for the rod to bend to the handle and a fight to start. After a few seconds a silver rocket came out of the river, back arched, mouth open, twisting and throwing spray. My fishing partner throws into the same spot and gets the same results, now two skipjacks are putting on a show like miniature tarpon, at times several feet in the air. Landing a 2 pound skipjack, I smiled, forgot about what I had come to the river to catch, made another cast and held on.

Tennessee tarpon. Great fighters and almost completely overlooked.


Skipjack are called Tennessee tarpon around here and have earned their name. Besides being some of the best live or dead bait, they are an absolute blast to catch. Every evening during warmer weather they move along the dam and riprap assaulting baitfish. This particular evening they were moving, along with schools of stripe, against the dam face keeping shad pushed to the surface. All along the walls shad were jumping out of the water trying to shake the predators. All I needed to do was follow along with my trolling motor, casting past the splashes, then retrieving through the school. Very few casts went without a strike.

We had hit after hit from stripe and skips, spinning rods bent, reels screaming from the strain as good fish stripped line. We followed schools along concrete surfaces watching shad as they flew out of the river, onto the sloped face, flopping as they went from frying pan to fire. We weren’t the only ones that knew about this evening ritual, black crowned night herons and great blue herons, stood along the water’s edge waiting for shad to appear. They happily speared a shad supper they didn’t have to work for. The action continued, larger fish began showing up as light levels dropped. As bigger fish came in they got more aggressive, several times we had two large skipjack on one bait, straining the poor light rods and eight pound test we were using.

As dusk set in the action slowed, so under the sodium lights illuminating the river from the dam, we rigged up for catfish with a fresh stock of bait. With a live well full of stripe, any cats would be bonus fish. Darkness came and we drifted the current break with a breeze created by water from under the dam rushing by cooling us and keeping the skeeters at bay. We did manage to catch a couple of good cats that night, one blue going about 8 pounds, before packing it in. If we hadn’t seen a cat that night it wouldn’t have mattered, stripe and skipjack had given us a great time.

When I lived close enough to run out in the afternoons many times I went just for the skipjack. I would fish the lock side of the river since it has less current, waiting for the schools to start running the banks late in the day. I use several baits to catch skips, jig and twister combos, Roostertails, #7 Countdowns, anything 1 ½ to 2 inches in length mimicking a shad works. 6 ½ to 7 ½ foot spinning rods with 8 to 10 pound test is all you need. These are fish that so many people never fish for and I love to catch, they are incredible fighters and provide bait for my catfishing trips.

Skipjacks are simply one of the best baits for cats and stripers, either live, cut into chunks or whole, they are great and free. I get as many as I can and freeze them, guts in one bag and fillets in another for later use. Most people use a cast net and it works like a champ. There are several guys from Viet Nam and Laos I’ve met that net big numbers of skips and big gizzard shad to eat. They cut the bellies out leaving a really nice fish which they stack into boxes, the bellies and innards go into a bucket. They will gladly give you the insides which saves me time on those days if I just want to catfish and they are at the river.

Keeping with my theme of having fun outdoors, not making it work like tournament fishing or big time deer management, I have no problem fishing for species most people turn their nose up to if you mention fishing for them. I am out to enjoy whatever time I get plus I need skipjack to help fill my freezer and those of needy families I bring food during the year. In many areas skipjack are plentiful, almost completely overlooked, great bait and better fighters. Do I even need to say it?

Go out and give these guys a try. What a fun way to spend a summer afternoon, rod bent double, drag screaming, silver in the air throwing spray and a smile on your face.
　
　

Cats an Evolution

 My earliest memory of fishing was below Pickwick dam on a warm summer night, my family fishing the tail waters for catfish. This was the only fishing I ever got to do with my Grampa and, being very young, I was just along for the ride. A chubby little boy just happy to be out. They would build a fire, set out rods, sit around the fire cooking and waiting for fish to bite. This is special to me since it is probably this fleeting memory that got me started fishing. Fifty years on and I can still feel the rocks as I laid on a pallet made of old handmade quilts, smelling the wood smoke, watching the fire dance as night settled in and the chill as dew starts to form.

Pickwick Dam at dusk.

For years this was how I went after cats, the same as my family did way back when, cutbait or worms below a dam or a gob of chicken liver chucked into a lake or pond, fingers crossed, hoping a cat would find it. Bullheads to channel cats, from Florida to Michigan to California, over time I caught them all. I got caught up in bass fishing, tournaments and such, other fishing got pushed aside. Bass got to be work so I started looking for something fun, catfish got my attention by accident.

While fishing Percy Priest I did a lot of trolling for stripe and bass since my fishing partner couldn‘t cast for long. Priest has lots of flats covered with chunk rock where, during warm weather, stripe run shad on the flats and bass hold in the rocks. A crank bait running down 10 feet covers lots of water and finds fish. The thing is, along with bass and stripe I kept catching catfish. Channels and flatheads would turn up just about every trip. This brought up questions, why and how. Why are they there and how can I get them. This was 20 years ago and my quest for cats had begun.

Most people know about trotlines (not trout, trot), limb lines and jugging for cats. I tried all of these with some success, the problem with the first two is they are static so you are waiting for fish to find the bait. Jugging seemed to work better since the bait moved but at first it was pretty much throw them out and hope. I decided jugging was the way to go.

My first jugs were nothing more than 20 ounce drink bottles. Free, readily available plus easy to use, they worked. They do have problems, air temperature causes them to expand and contract. They will completely collapse if temps change enough. Another problem was trying to store and transport them. They were a pain to carry around plus you need a rubber band on each to hold your hook. I rigged up a bunch and headed out to where I caught cats trolling and started there. I had no real idea how to make the most of my new toys but I did start to catch fish.

Throw and hope fishermen at New Johnsonville steam plant Tennessee River.

Fast forward about 20 years, now I have designed my own jugs which are really floats. Easy to use and store they have made a huge difference in the number of fish I catch. Besides the floats I spent many years keeping track of how and why I caught fish. One thing that became clear, speed and depth control are as important with catfish as any game fish you try for. Time of year, water temps, water conditions and one of the most important, wind speed/direction, things many people don’t take into account when going after cats became my obsession. After putting in the time it now pays off every trip to the lake.

On my home lake the most productive bait for me has been chicken or turkey liver. It is hard to keep on, especially in warmer waters, but the fish love it. I fish lakes where it might be cut bait or spoiled shrimp but on Priest it is liver. I take 5 lbs for a 2 hr trip. My rigging is simple, 50 lb mono (do not use braid) cut to length, a 1/0 - 4/0 circle hook and a split shot to help it stay down. The line is cut to hold the bait within a foot of the bottom, the split shot is added about a foot up the line. I attach this to the float using a #5 locking swivel.

Once rigged for the depth I head upwind and begin dropping floats every 20 feet working back downwind, carefully watching my depth finder to follow the contours of the bottom. You want the bait to stay close to the bottom but not touching. The wind drifts the baits parallel to the bank hunting feeding fish. I repeat this at two or three different depths depending on the time of year. Pre spawn fish tend to be shallower, as waters warm their depth increases. When you get a hit the swivel allows the float to flip in the air which is fun to watch. Once hooked the fish fights the float and you have fun chasing it around till it gets tired. It is common to have 6-8 fish on at once going different directions, good times.

On Priest I fish shallow flats covered with rocks and stump rows. At deeper depths the oxygen content is low so fishing deep isn’t productive. Early in the year when the water first comes up I rig for 3 feet and 6 feet, later as it warms, I fish 6 feet and 10 feet. These 3 depths produce all the cats I want. One other thing, I only fish in the morning from 7 to 9. Cats will feed during this time no matter your location, plus, I’m not losing sleep over a catfish. When the cats stop feeding do what I do, go fish for bluegill, they are awake by then. Looking back at records I average 20 catfish every 2 hour trip.

Raymond with his two hour catch. He needed these for a family fish fry.

You can target the size and species by changing bait and bait size. Since I want channels up to 4 lbs or so the size hooks and bait I use works great. For flatheads you need bigger hooks, live bait and fish at night when they move looking for food. Big blues can be found under schools of shad where I use whole or cut shad rigged to hang just under the baitfish. For the larger cats hooks up to 8/0-10/0 might be needed. I stick with 50 lb mono on all my rigs.

One very important factor is wind. A wind blowing 10 mph is about the most I will fish in. After that I can’t keep the floats in position and they move faster than the fish like. But if you have a wind of 6-8 mph running parallel with a good bank you are in business. I have banks that are as short as 100 yards or as long as 500. Each is fished basically the same but I also target small rock piles and dropoffs. These are fished with as little wind as possible, dropping floats in a pattern around them. These can produce some very large fish that are territorial and have staked these out as their spot. In short, if it will hold a bass, it will hold a cat.

This is the basics of jugging for cats. It can be taken to levels so far beyond this it is hard to believe it is considered a low level, poor man’s technique. If you look at my bucket list this is the fishing system I am talking about. It is as varied and technical as bass fishing or as simple as you can imagine. If you like cats, have friends or kids where casting isn’t an option for them, give this a shot. I have spoiled more than a few people with a 2 hour trip to the lake without a rod in the boat. A few drink bottles, a handful of hooks and sinkers, a spool of line, there you go. Having fun and catching fish, that’s what it’s about.

Trip saved by bluegill and crappie when wind ran us off our banks. Remember it's about the fun.