Scott Manning

Scott Manning is a U.S. military veteran and professional guide who runs Tennessee River Monsters out of Clinton, Tennessee. He specializes in trophy blue and flathead catfish and striped bass in the Clinch and Tennessee Rivers, where TVA dams built one of the country's best big-cat fisheries. In his In The Spread videos, Manning teaches drift and anchor tactics for blue catfish, transition-zone targeting and live bait for giant flatheads, and how to read electronics and position the boat in large river systems.

Instructor's videos

Scott Manning hunts the biggest fish in freshwater that most anglers never think about. A U.S. military veteran turned professional guide, Manning runs Tennessee River Monsters out of Clinton, Tennessee, and he has built his reputation on trophy blue and flathead catfish and striped bass in the Clinch and Tennessee Rivers of East Tennessee.

There is a reason this region grows giants. When the TVA dammed these rivers for power and flood control, the rising water swallowed valleys and forests and left behind a maze of underwater structure, deep and cool and full of bait. That habitat produced a catfish fishery of staggering size, and the predictable current from the dam releases pushes forage to aggregation points where big cats stack up to feed. Manning studied these waters until he understood them, and now he fishes them as well as anyone.

What makes him a strong teacher is that he treats blue catfish and flathead catfish as two different problems, because they are. For blue cats, he covers water, reading when to drift across flats and ledges to find scattered fish and when to anchor on a current break and hold, matching bait to conditions and weather. For giant flatheads, the game flips to patience: fresh live bait soaked in specific transition zones, hours of waiting justified by the shot at a hundred-pound fish that will not chase. Across both, he leans on electronics not just to see structure but to tell a flathead from a stump on the screen and to fish productive water instead of guessing.

He is a steward of these rivers as much as he is a guide, and that respect for the resource runs through his instruction.

In his In The Spread videos, Manning breaks down drift and anchor tactics for blue catfish, transition-zone targeting for trophy flatheads, bait and electronics use, and the boat positioning that puts you on fish in big river systems. If you want to catch a truly giant catfish, learn from the man who chases them for a living.