Hartwell CATT November 16

Fished the CATT at Hartwell this past Saturday. Based on practice I felt like I could catch 10 pounds with no problem but needed a big bite to do much better. I was getting bites in specific places, lots of them on docks, along a 20 mile stretch of the river. I felt like my best shot was fishing rock early and docks later.
I started out on a rocky place I have caught quite a few big fish on over the years and the third flip my line jumped and I set the hook. It felt like I was hung in a rock because there was no movement at all. I knew I had had a bite and hoped the fish was just behind something so I kept the pressure up. After a few seconds the line started swimming off. I knew it had been a long time since I had set the hook on something that heavy and I immediately went for the net, which is unusual when I am jig fishing. After 30 seconds I knew I had a giant - 2 minutes later I found out it was a catfish between 40 and 50 pounds. Biggest fish I have ever caught - I got him to the side of the boat and just cut the line. I didn't want to have to deal with all that slime.
I spent 2 hours in the rocky areas and caught 4, missed about 6, and caught a couple of shorts. At that point I started running my places heading back down. Big mistake - I never had another bite. I should have stayed where I was and kept working but I had no doubt in my mind I would catch at least a full limit off docks and maybe a good one off a crank bait place.
This was a situation that practice hurt me. I had more bites in the area that I started in than I had been having but none in the places I had been getting bit real good. Not really sure what happened other than the sun didn't shine bright to tighten the fish to the docks. Never saw a bream or anything.
Looking forward to getting back down there. We have three more tournaments to fish at Hartwell between now and the end of January. I am meeting a buddy there Saturday to fun fish and do some electronic scouting and then plan to fish Lake James a couple of days next week while I am off and then have a tournament at James on the 30th.