Daniel Tn, Chickamauga, Crappie, 10-21, Dad

[Daniel Tn]

This is sort of a crazy ride. Dad and I had never fished Chickamauga before...well other than below Watts Bar dam on the rocks. We've been hearing about these big bass that the Chick holds, and wanted to try for one of the 6+ pound beasts that roam the waters in supposed large quantities. So off we went. We put in at Wolfetever...I think that's how you spell it. Anyway...the first trip down there was last week in which we bass fished the entire time. Didn't do worth a crap. But out of what I thought was a fluke...I catch a nice 12 or so inch crappie on a 3/4 oz lipless crank.

To cover some water quick, we tied on some crankbaits and just began trolling the ledges and marking stuff along the way that we found with the side imaging. Hoping to encounter a "mega school" of bass....we instead, began catching some nice crappie. We just threw them all back for the day. All in all, we ended up with what woulda been 11 keeper crappie. We didn't have any crappie gear with us that day...but said we would come back later armed for business.

Here's dad with one of them:



So we came back Monday...the 21st. We started off with grubs and tubes...put in at the Wolfe again and didn't go far. There are a lot of anglers fishing out of there...most look to be crappie anglers. It struck me as kind of odd that there was nearly a whole parking lot full of people on a work day...both times we've been t here. Anyway...started off in the area we caught a lot of them trolling the crank baits in....except this time we were trolling grubs. Didn't catch but 3 fish on those...and two of those were very small. Only one keeper.

So what do I do? Throw that crankbait out there for kicks and giggles while we trolled along. And one right after the other, began boating crappie. Dad soon followed...and next thing we knew, we had 20 keepers in the boat. Biggest was 14.25 inches...most all were white crappie, except the bigger ones were blacks. They were hitting VERY hard...but for some odd reason, they didn't want grubs and the normal crappie tackle. Water is falling pretty good...it had dropped about 2 feet from where it was last Monday...and temps in the upper 69 degree range. We seemed to do better in the wind blown spots vs the calmer spots...lots of shad everywhere. Lots of fish showing up on the graphs too but couldn't get any of those to hit anything...no idea what species they were. I took a snapshot on the sonar for ya'll though. Been a while since I logged a report...great to get back on the water.

 

[tp44]

another troller, go for it. looks as if you had some good luck.

 

[Tenncrapie]

Good job Daniel. Looks like the deadliest catch sonar. Your running a good speed too.

 

[Daniel Tn]

Don't hate. 2nd time on an unfamiliar lake...can't expect us to know all the hiding holes, brushpiles, etc to sit over and jig fish. Difficult to do in 20+ feet of water in an open area. So on an unfamiliar lake...what do ya do? Cover water and lots of it til you find some spots likely to hold fish for future trips.

 

[Kingfish]

emoThumbsup emoToast

 

[Javelin33]

I agree thats a great way to find new water. Did yall fish the mainlake ledges or further back in the creeks?

 

[drumking]

emoThumbsup emoBigsmile emoGeezer

 

[Muskrat]

Nice ! emoThumbsup

 

[BassERT]

emoThumbsup emoThumbsup

emoCool

 

[Daniel Tn]

We found most of the fish kind of transitioning between the main river channel and the flats near the creek channel. They seem to be roaming after shad and not stacked in one big place...very scattered schools of crappie. If we weren't seeing baitfish on the screen we weren't getting bit. Towards the end of the day, we found lots of baitfish near the Hwy 58 bridge at Wolftever but couldn't catch a fish there. That's where the screen shot was taken on the sonar. We found what appears to be an old road that runs for over a mile long...and when you go up on the road the water goes to 14 feet...then off into 20-22 feet on the sides. We followed this road on the side imaging and set way points along it. Apparently the fish use it as an underwater highway. Nearly every fish we caught was along this road.

 

[Daniel Tn]

Here's a pic of going over the top of the roadbed or whatever it is. It could be anything...but we're fairly sure it's not naturally made and is man made. Possibly an underwater pipe line but we're thinking it's a roadbed. We noticed several anglers fishing over this one particular spot, and made a pass when they had left...and we sort of think that they think it's just a hump....but it's actually a roadbed of some sort...and it goes for a mile or more long. It's not straight...but you can zig zag with the sonar and find it pretty easy as it makes its way across. You can actually see it in this pic of 2D version and side imaging...and on the side imaging, you can see crappie stacked up on it on the edges of the drops. This thing is about 38 feet across the top of it according to the software measurements...and like I said, it stretches for over a mile long and has crappie and probably other schools of fish following it all the way.

Pic coming...

 

[Javelin33]

It's definatly a roadbed I've been over it with side imaging before and caught some fish on it. It is surprising how tall it is from the bottom.

 

[theweekender]

Nice report, nice fish, nice pics! Happy eating!