Muskrat
Well-known member
The 2013 spring sport fish survey conducted on 10 Tennessee reservoirs from March thru May - a total of 18 hours of electrofishing. There were 9.937 black bass ( largemouth/ smallmouth/spotted ) and 2,866 crappie collected.
You can get the overall results and for individual reservoirs in 2013 and some of the previous years. The numbers are a pretty good indicator of the great fishing around now and especially on Chickamauga Lake for both bass and crappie. Just go back and compare the 2013 results with 2006. I know fishing has really improved on the lake but 2006 was one "stink-a-roo" of a year. I imagine some of the previous years were pretty bad also. I found some of the results to be..."shocking" ??? No pun intended.
Chickamauga Lake...
2013 - number of largemouth bass - 1130 >------> 2006 - 608
2013 - number of black crappie - 295 >------> 2006 - 29
2013 - number of white crappie - 102 >------> 2006 - 3
Both smallmouth and spotted bass were the lowest they had been over the last 7 years on the "Chick" but with 42 spotted bass it still had the most of the 10 reservoirs in 2013. The 295 black crappie on the "Chick" were the most also in 2013 but in 2009 Chickamauga had a total of 508 black crappie. The result that blew my mind was Watts Bar Lake...< drum roll > ... a survey fish record of 832 crappie and out of those crappie...755 were white crappie ! That leaves 77 blacks - I did the math. That's a crazy white to black ratio. I guess that might have something to do with the big increase in white crappie around here - some sort of trickle down effect ? Anyway...quite a few more interesting numbers in the survey like the increase in 3, 4, and 5 pound fish on Chickamauga Lake and I found Pickwick, Chickamauga, and Guntersville the most interesting to read about. It's hard to compare some of the lakes as some had as little as 6 hours of electrofishing. I know factors like drought, flooding, maybe zapping a school of crappie, etc. in a certain year might skew the numbers just a little but it probably paints a fairly good picture on what is going on in each reservoir along the river. Check it out on the TVA site under River Management if you get a chance.
You can get the overall results and for individual reservoirs in 2013 and some of the previous years. The numbers are a pretty good indicator of the great fishing around now and especially on Chickamauga Lake for both bass and crappie. Just go back and compare the 2013 results with 2006. I know fishing has really improved on the lake but 2006 was one "stink-a-roo" of a year. I imagine some of the previous years were pretty bad also. I found some of the results to be..."shocking" ??? No pun intended.
Chickamauga Lake...
2013 - number of largemouth bass - 1130 >------> 2006 - 608
2013 - number of black crappie - 295 >------> 2006 - 29
2013 - number of white crappie - 102 >------> 2006 - 3
Both smallmouth and spotted bass were the lowest they had been over the last 7 years on the "Chick" but with 42 spotted bass it still had the most of the 10 reservoirs in 2013. The 295 black crappie on the "Chick" were the most also in 2013 but in 2009 Chickamauga had a total of 508 black crappie. The result that blew my mind was Watts Bar Lake...< drum roll > ... a survey fish record of 832 crappie and out of those crappie...755 were white crappie ! That leaves 77 blacks - I did the math. That's a crazy white to black ratio. I guess that might have something to do with the big increase in white crappie around here - some sort of trickle down effect ? Anyway...quite a few more interesting numbers in the survey like the increase in 3, 4, and 5 pound fish on Chickamauga Lake and I found Pickwick, Chickamauga, and Guntersville the most interesting to read about. It's hard to compare some of the lakes as some had as little as 6 hours of electrofishing. I know factors like drought, flooding, maybe zapping a school of crappie, etc. in a certain year might skew the numbers just a little but it probably paints a fairly good picture on what is going on in each reservoir along the river. Check it out on the TVA site under River Management if you get a chance.
