Thread: Oxbow lakes in Huricane WMA

If anybody has fished them could you give me some pointers. Can you catch crappie in them now even though the area is flooded into the woods. Looks like the only structure would be the cypress trees along edges.

I do not fish this state but do fish west. tnn. oxbows all the time!! I no a few. heavey hitters that are fishing them wright now. dont no how they done didnt get a report.The one thier fishing is stable no water in it write now but if thier is water in it i always found it tuff unless i guess you can use some kind of current to your advantage. I useaully fish them more when the wheather is stable and water is clearer or clears some.And thats after the water stabalizes the farmers are done planting and thier crops take root (that is so soil runs into them alot less becuase of the plants root system hanging on to the dirt. but thats just me.I dont think i will wait that long this year thou. If fresh water was put into the place your looking to fish thats great becuase the ox bows here been over ran with them jumping carp!! we need new water to flush some them out. And to bring some new fish in!! Hope I was of some help.R.F.Y.

I have only fished them once last fall and most of them were real shallow the best one's in my opinion are honey lake and big hurricane.Mallard pond was to shallow to fish at that time.There is alot of tops and brush in them.Maybe someone else can give you more info.

I have fished them and they are excellent. Big hurricane is good right now, it was really good about a month ago before the water got into it and muddied it up. Mallard Pond is really good to fish for crappie in the spring but you can't get to it right now, the road is closed, it should reopen anytime, AGFC should have all the gates open to let the water out.

Big Fish,

I have been duck hunting the area and can get to some of the lakes. Do you think the fish would be biting now? How would you fish them. I am new to this and any info is much apprecaited.

I have not fished this WMA in a few years. But, I always went to big Hurricane. I loved it!! There was a brush pile in the open water out in front of the ramp that was always good for about four or five crappie. The woods to the right was loaded with red ears. My son and I went one time before they let the water out. I didn't catch nothing that day. There was a strong current that could of had them messed up. I got lost in the woods trying to find my way out.
It just so happens that a local that runs the sawmill told me the other day to be there when they let the water out and fish the spillway where the woods drains into the river. A yellow or white jig will catch just about anything you can think of.
DP

I had a friend that used to duck hunt there a lot in the mid 70's. He frequently shot a limit of ducks and caught a limit of crappie in the same day. He usually fished Big Hurricane. I have to say, though, that I've never done much good fishing in high water.

Also, last year some one on this board reported that these lakes are now yo-yoed so hard that pole fishing is getting tough. I don't know about that, but I do know that an awful lot of White County pipeliners who take the winter off sure love to yo-yo.

I fished Big Hurricane last fall---man, there are some impressive gar in there now. Over the years I've had some good trips in Big Hurricane and Hackleton.

Last spring the one time I went there were yo-yo's everywhere and while we were trying to fish people would run wide open to the top in front of us to hang a new yo-yo before we could fish it.... after the 3rd or 4th time of that we packed it in and just went back to the lake at my house and caught a mess of fish in peace. We did see a guy catch a rainbow trout while trolling in the middle.... that was pretty wild to see.

I'll probably give it a try again this spring, hopefully it will be better!

Wow your oxbow lakes sure sound differnt then ares here in tenn. I fish just about every kind of hole and our ox bows are filled buy back water have no dams flood gates etc... Now our water shed lakes are like that Intresting!