Whitewater bassin' part II

<p>Two boats run up the Coosa River Saturday morning. The boat to the right is Jared Miller and to the left is Day Two leader Brent Chapman. Both anglers fished the area the previous two days.</p>

Two boats run up the Coosa River Saturday morning. The boat to the right is Jared Miller and to the left is Day Two leader Brent Chapman. Both anglers fished the area the previous two days.

Miller stops short of the dam and begins fishing an eddy about 800 yards from the dam. Chapman stopped well short of that.

Miller, though, moves up toward the dam.

He finds a scene like this, which in stark contrast to the way it looked on Day Two.

This is the scene Miller found on Day Two.

A big reason for that was the amount of water spilling over the Lake Jordan Dam. This was the scene from Day Two.

This was the scene on Day Three.

Despite the difference (about a 6-feet drop) Miller is able to fish rocks he hadnât seen before.

He quickly boats a keeper.

And follows that up with a second keeper.

While heâs catching bass, a local angler on the other side of the river is throwing a cast net for shad and catches this flathead.

Miller moves closer to the dam.

The water coming over the dam is a trickle compared to the day before.

But itâs still coming over strong enough to create waves that force the trolling motor out of the water and waves over the back.

Miller stays with it, losing a big fish at the boat and breaking off another.

At times it looked like he was surfing in the turbulent water.

Many times the trolling motor would bounce up, others the big motorâs prop would clear the surface.

The rolling water was enough to obscure his boat at times.

The local angler with the cast net moves to Millerâs side.

The rough water proved too much and Miller decides to move.

The rough water, though, causes some issues.

There are times when it appears as if heâs gone completely under.

The choppy waves produce sprays of water as he crosses.

All the while, Miller churns through it.

The waves bounce him and his Marshal around.

The rough ride turns serious when Millerâs lower unit catches one of the rocks.

Miller has to trim up and push to get going.

He tried several times like this one with his prop mostly out of the water.

He eventually clears under the watchful eyes of herons sitting on the rocks behind him.

Out of the turbulence, Miller leaves the opposite bank pointing to the other side as if to say, âIt might be more comfortable over there.â

The river, though, is still rolling.

On the opposite side, Miller fishes an eddy on the back side of a rock point. A dead drum indicates how far the river has fallen.

Wes Miller, a Bassmaster Television cameraman, captures all of the action for the upcoming TV show from a perch above Miller.

Miller gets to close to the rocks and has to push off with his rod.

Miller fishes the heavy current where it folds together with the eddy.

<p>The young angler said that the rough stuff was not by the dam, but downriver before you got there. Some anglers refused to make the run after the drastic fall in water levels.</p>

The young angler said that the rough stuff was not by the dam, but downriver before you got there. Some anglers refused to make the run after the drastic fall in water levels.

Kayak fishermen, which is the common angler in theses parts, fish downriver from Miller.

Miller continues to cast.

On the rocks above, spectators watch the pair fish by.

Down river, two blue herons have a battle in the flooded river.

The loser got too soaked to fly out of the river.

He continued trying, but eventually allowed the current to carry him close enough to a bank to get out and dry off.