Made one of my annual 75 mile treks down to Chickamauga this week. Met up with Jim (Catfish1) at harrison bay in search of slabs this Thanksgiving. We was wanting to search for a few good areas for tomorrow before we got serious about it. Fished for a few hours without much happening. Found a few good prospects, even though no one was home at the time, I did add a few more waypoints to the library. We ventured up into Wolftever Creek looking for some of Polo's pets when we found him standing on the dock. Of course we stopped by to say hello. This was the first time I had actually met Mark in person and what a nice fellow. He tried to put us on the right course for the biguns but I guess me and Jim just didn't offer the correct presentation for em on these locations. All we caught was yellow bass. While we was fishing some deep offshore structure this other fellow came by foaming at the mouth mumbling Crapppie Crapppie Must Find Crapppie. I think most of you know him as the Wolfteverkid. Everything I've heard about this machine appears to be true. He couldn't stay long cause he said he needed to be off and on the fish when the peak feeding period began. Then he headed off south just as fast as that 90 could could carry him. Now there goes a true crappie lover.
Jim and I only had seven fish between us with one keeper by the time we had to leave and have Thanksgiving dinner with out families. Bummer. Why does time go by so fast when you are fishing?
Today had to be one of the worst trips I have ever had to Chic for crappie.
Darn it.
Since the fishing was so poor on the South end today me and Jim decided we would fish the North end tomorrow. Puling into Grasshopper this morning the fog was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Had to dodge deer standing in the road all the way to the ramp. Sure was glad not to hit one. Put the boat in then followed M17Glock as he made a big slice in the fog on over to Sale Creek where I picked up Jim. We thought the fog would lift quickly but boy was we wrong. Stuff hanged around for hours. We fished around the area for a few hours until we could see better then headed on out in search of specks. The difference was night and day from yesterday and today. Just yesterday we barely drew a bite on the south end. Today on the north end the fishing was much better. Yesterday we only netted seven fish with one keeper and today we brought in seventy two crappie. Most were shorts at around 9 and 7/8. The best fish today was 13 inches. I'm sure at least 10 got off the hook near the boat today due to poor hook set. Jim took home twelve fish in the twelve inch range. We threw back 5 fish in the 10 1/8 inch range to grow larger. Gonna leave those for at least another year. I've never seen this many shorts to keeper ratio in the years past. Hmmm Makes me wonder. Anyhow heres a few pics we took along the journey.
Jim and I only had seven fish between us with one keeper by the time we had to leave and have Thanksgiving dinner with out families. Bummer. Why does time go by so fast when you are fishing?
Today had to be one of the worst trips I have ever had to Chic for crappie.
Darn it.Since the fishing was so poor on the South end today me and Jim decided we would fish the North end tomorrow. Puling into Grasshopper this morning the fog was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Had to dodge deer standing in the road all the way to the ramp. Sure was glad not to hit one. Put the boat in then followed M17Glock as he made a big slice in the fog on over to Sale Creek where I picked up Jim. We thought the fog would lift quickly but boy was we wrong. Stuff hanged around for hours. We fished around the area for a few hours until we could see better then headed on out in search of specks. The difference was night and day from yesterday and today. Just yesterday we barely drew a bite on the south end. Today on the north end the fishing was much better. Yesterday we only netted seven fish with one keeper and today we brought in seventy two crappie. Most were shorts at around 9 and 7/8. The best fish today was 13 inches. I'm sure at least 10 got off the hook near the boat today due to poor hook set. Jim took home twelve fish in the twelve inch range. We threw back 5 fish in the 10 1/8 inch range to grow larger. Gonna leave those for at least another year. I've never seen this many shorts to keeper ratio in the years past. Hmmm Makes me wonder. Anyhow heres a few pics we took along the journey.
