Chickamauga Monday 2/27

[rsimms]

Monday was about the same as far as crappie. We fished Wolftever until about Noon. Had 16 or 18 keepers and one good catfish. Not really sure. Client (Mark Jacobs and his son from New Orleans) didn't want to keep them all so we started throwing back keepers.

After Noon we went out to a bluegill hole. Took a while to get on them but then we started hammering big, monster bluegill. They were horses! Some of the biggest bluegill I've ever caught consistently.

It was a good day. Mr. Jacobs and his son went home with 20 good slab crappie, bluegill and a catfish. We threw back a bunch of nice ones to be caught again another day. Most importantly, they had a great time on Chickamauga and say they plan to return.

Talked to another guy at Hamilton's. Didn't get his name but you could tell he was a hardcore crappie man from the way his boat was rigged out. We compared notes and he said his days have been similar ... catching 15 to 20 keepers a day. And agreed it's usually an early morning bite.

 

[TennesseeTalker]

Little kid sure looks happy!!! So would I if I was holdin' dinner like that!! Nice pic.

TT

 

[JSV]

rsimms,
Sounds like you had a real good day. How about lending a few tips as to where you are finding these slabs. Myself and tndoe270 fished friday evening and picked up a couple crappie and few stripe then we spent all day Saturday in search of those illusive slabs. Fished over 10 hard hrs and had 5 keeper crappie. We fished shallow, deep , docks,drops and brush yet never got on them. Mainly spending most of our time in the Chester Frost Park area with average surface temp. @ 49deg.
THANKS

 

[rsimms]

JSV - 2/28/2006 8:04 AM

rsimms,
Sounds like you had a real good day. How about lending a few tips as to where you are finding these slabs. Myself and tndoe270 fished friday evening and picked up a couple crappie and few stripe then we spent all day Saturday in search of those illusive slabs. Fished over 10 hard hrs and had 5 keeper crappie. We fished shallow, deep , docks,drops and brush yet never got on them. Mainly spending most of our time in the Chester Frost Park area with average surface temp. @ 49deg.
THANKS

JSV - Chester Frost is a good area. One of my friends was fishing there same day you were: http://www.chattanoogafishingforum.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=984&posts=5

Other good areas are Wolftever Creek, Soddy Creek, Sale Creek, Grasshopper Creek, Gunstocker Creek, Agency Creek, so and so on. The fish now are moving up creek channels, staging in 8 to 14 feet of water in the pre-spawn mode. They are NOT concentrated. The key is to simply cover a LOT of water. That's why trolling with multiple lines out is my method of choice. And here's my best advice which I always discuss in detail with clients.

There are basically two philosophies (or styles) in fishing. You have your "run & gun" folks, and your patient, methodical types. The Run & Gunners hit a spot and if they don't catch a lot in a hurry, they hit the key and go running in search of the elusive hot spot. Us methodical types have a huge amount of confidence in our location and technique, and just keep plodding along for hours and hours in the same area. Both styles have their place, but in crappie fishing, I am the latter.

I know when crappie go into the spawning mode in shallow water later in the year, you can catch big numbers in small, isolated spots. But right now I think the fish are widely scattered, and finicky. But if you catch one fish or two in an area, I will stay there and simply continue trolling in big, wide sweeping circles. Right now it is NOT going to be fast and furious fishing (although sometimes it can be). But these days 3 or 4 keeping crappie per hour is average. But you keep doing that for 6 hours and you're going to have 20 to 25 crappie to take home... that's a good mess. I repeat, until things improve over what it's like right now, it will not be fast & furious fishing. But stick with it for the long haul, have patience and faith in your lures and technique, and you will end up with fish. I don't do it a lot, but I believe the same philosophy can apply to bass.

Finally, these days it is definitely a "morning" bite. You can still catch some fish after 1 pm, but my catch rates drop from 3 or 4 per hour to 1 or 2 per hour in the afternoon. HOWEVER, that could change anyday now (I hope). emoCool

 

[JSV]

RSIMMS,
Thanks for the response. We too fish slow and methodical most of the time. We did Sat. and covered much ground while trolling but never got on any fish. It sounds like we were in the right areas. We did fish the edge of the Creek Channels. Thinking back on it , we did catch 3 fish early in one area ,then trolled on to another area.We probable should of kept working that area and may have ate better Saturday night. THANKS FOR THE INFO!