Watts Bar Crappie

[hydrabass]

Made my first trip to the Bar Sunday , went to Whites Creek, had 4 big crappie on jigs in the tree tops , what few trees that are actually in the water.
The minnow fishermen looked like they where picking a few up. Just couldn't get the numbers I get on Loudon ,but the size was impressive on the 4 i caught . Was this a good place to fish or are they other areas on the bar that are better to crappie fish ? I mainly just cast jigs and flies .

Thanks Hydrabass

[wbl2014]

I am always looking for info on the bar as I own 3 acre's on the lake. Wlll be there in 2014 when I can retire.

[CrappiePappy]

Made my first trip to the Bar Sunday , went to Whites Creek, had 4 big crappie on jigs in the tree tops , what few trees that are actually in the water.
The minnow fishermen looked like they where picking a few up. Just couldn't get the numbers I get on Loudon ,but the size was impressive on the 4 i caught . Was this a good place to fish or are they other areas on the bar that are better to crappie fish ? I mainly just cast jigs and flies .

Thanks Hydrabass

and the two adjoining creeks, are hard to beat .. if you know where/when to fish.
As I understand it, Watts Bar's water level is still a bit low ... when it starts to rise (slowly, hopefully), you'd best be on your way there :D ... and forget about tops and submerged wood, and concentrate on shooting docks :p

Seriously though ... If you like to cast jigs, and know how to "shoot a dock" ... then the White Creek area is prime territory, when they start coming in !! It's still a bit early for them ... but, if the weather holds and the water level starts to come up ... THEY could bust loose, early, too !! They will be "mostly" Black Crappie ... as the White Crappie tend to come in late April to early May.

If you've got time to do a little reading, check thru these posts :

http://www.crappie.com/gr8vb3/search...earchid=290971

........ cp

[hydrabass]

Shooting docks on Weiss is what got me to quite bass fishing, now all I want to do is fish with these little 4 1/2' rods and cast, skip and shoot those little jigs for crappie . I can't wait for the water to start to rise, is there away you can read the tva generating schdule and figure it out .

[fishin3]

Suppose to start rising the first of April and be at full pool by the first of May I think. But in between it is day,:D or rather hour to hour. They will play with the levels soooooooooo bad . All in the name of flood control . My best suggestion is find a buddy on the water and ask him what it looks like. Going by the TVA site can be tricky to say the least.

[slabber_time]

I actually went fishing on Watts Bar / Tenn River area Monday. 3 of us went and had good luck. Just find you some tree tops or submerged brush / stumps . . . We were fishinging 3 - 5 feet of water with jigs and caught 38 keepers. NICE fISH - Threw about 20 back that were 9 3/4 - how come the short ones are all 9 3/4" - LOL ..... the water is waayyyy down. TVA will flucuate with the water to middle to late April. Just like the last poster you never know what it is going to do from one day to the next. About 2 weeks ago I thought the water was up more than usual for this time of the year - I marked it and it is now down quite a lot from the last few weeks. It's when they raise it for a while then drop the bottom out were it is bad.

[Crappie1]

I was there on Saturday and went to 3 ramps before I could get in. The water is the lowest I've seen it in years. The water temp was 64-66. Caught a few trolling but I think they'll be shallow real soon unless they get some rain.

[hydrabass]

Good looking mess of crappie Crappie1, the size difference from fort loundon crappie to watts bar crappie just blows my mind .Is that a softball player in the pic?
SlabberTime when you say you fish the river, are you fishing around mouths of creeks?

[slabber_time]

Nice looking fish. I went yesterday with a relative of mine that usually fishes Ft. Loudon. He also was amazed at the difference in Crappie size.

We ended up getting our limit in a little over 3 hours. (30 fish) Most were pretty nice fish yesterday about 4 - 5 feet deep on chartruse and blue/white jigs retrieving with a float. Water temp was 63 degrees when we got there and warmed up some from that a little later. (66 - 67 degrees)

Not necessarily the river mouth channels on the Tennessee. Just coves off the river.

[slabber_time]

Hello everyone,

I went again today and we caught about 35 crappie but only had about 16 that met the size limit. We caught several that were extremely small. This is nothing like we have been doing in the last week. We still caught some nice fish though.

Water temp about 69 degrees. Got windy in the afternoon. Fishing jigs in 3 - 5 feet of water.