Thread: Annual Watts Bar Spring Crappie Trip report

Hey all ... Well, Pappy got to go fishing, finally

Made the annual trip to Watts Bar Lake Tenn, this weekend. After postponing the trip, by one day, due to the storms that came thru on Friday ... my fishing partner, myself, and a fishing buddy of ours headed down to Watts Bar. Fished Sat. from around Noon til 5PM ... partner and I ended up with 12, fishing buddy blanked. But, in his defense, he hasn't fished for Crappie all that much, over the last decade or so
All three of us loaded up in our buddy's Ranger, on Sun. ... so we could mentor him a little more closely. And it worked, as he actually did catch some fish. We ended up with 12 more for the livewell.

Conditions left alot to be desired ... post frontal conditions, windy, cool, cloudy, water temp 54-55deg, Northly winds (Saturday)
Sunday was 2nd day post frontal, windy, cool in AM & warming in afternoon, bluebird skies, water temp 55-56deg, ESE winds

Now for the good news :D .... while the numbers were not the greatest, SIZE was !! Most fish were 12-15" !!

Found most fish to be in the 12-18ft depth of water, suspended a foot or two above the bottom. Downed trees sticking out into deep water, and ledges on cliff banks were the only places we found them. Our usual 10-12ft depth brush spots were devoid of any fish. But, they'll probably be headed that way, in the next week to 10days. Females were full of eggs, but they were still fairly yellow in color. The next couple of weeks, or so, and they should be hard at it

I know, I know ... ya'll wanna see pics :D ... so here they are :

Saturday's catch: (small fish at top middle is a 10" fish, just for comparison)



Yours truly with a couple of the Big Mommas:



Sunday's pics:

Fishing partner Paul, & fishing buddy Kenny, working a pea gravel flat :



Fishing buddy Kenny, concentrating on the slow retrieve bottom bouncing method we taught him :



Me holding up four of the dozen from Sunday's catch :



I think my new Crappie.com hat is now, offically, my "lucky" fishing hat .... LOL !!

.... cp

(this report will be copied & posted in the KY, Tenn, & Main Message boards)

nice fish pappy!

Thanks for the report!

nice catch pappy, its always nice to fish with good friends

You couldn't have had worse conditions for Watts Bar. These fish can get really tough after a front especially like the one you had during your trip. I got em this weekend but I had to work for em. I still don't think its in full swing yet but the next two or three weeks should be good with some cooperating weather. Are you coming back anymore or does that do it for the year?

Glad You Had A Good Trip Considering!!

Originally Posted by croppiedude

You couldn't have had worse conditions for Watts Bar. These fish can get really tough after a front especially like the one you had during your trip. I got em this weekend but I had to work for em. I still don't think its in full swing yet but the next two or three weeks should be good with some cooperating weather. Are you coming back anymore or does that do it for the year?

I bought a year OOS license, so I will be back
It may not be until the Fall, though. Probably around mid to late Oct.

Post or PM me your reports ... I think we may have gotten there about a week too soon, this year, but I'd like to see what the progress of the spawn is, over the course of the next few weeks. I did see the other WB reports, and did notice that the bigger fish were being caught, now ... but, the numbers just aren't there. I'm also trying to see if the creel reduction is having any effect.

With the water temps being what they were, it was a total surprise to me that we caught only White Crappie. There were no Black Crappie to be found, and we found no Crappie under docks
Another surprise was that we only caught about 5 short fish, over the two day period. Like you, I'm thinking that the cooler weather & back to back to back fronts, have put the skids to the progression of the spawning move.

This is the third year in a row, that we've caught White Crappie in mid April ... and no luck on Black Crappie, under docks. This flies in the face of 5 years of tournament fishing (2000-2005) there, where Black Crappie, caught shooting docks, made up the majority of the catches ... early OR late April tournament dates I'm just trying to figure out "why" that is, & what's causing it, so I can adjust my trip schedule more effectively. I have to give 45days prior notice, when choosing my Vacation days, so timing is everything

... cp

That's some nice slabs!

Nice catch and ya'll had fun.

Nice report Pappy! I along with 5 other guys were there from 4/4-4/10. This was our 5th year heading to Watt's Barr. We always stay at Lakeside and mostly fish White's Creek. This was by far the toughest weather we have faced. We slow trolled minnows the first day and 1/2 and then switched to casting 1/16oz jigs with crappie slugs around brush and docks in 20 fow. The 2 other boats slow trolled minnows the whole time. We only caught 2 females with our best day being 19 fish. The guys who trolled didn't catch the numbers but caught some quality fish with the biggest being a 2lb 6 oz female. We had one spot that the majority of the fish were caught. A stretch of bank about 100yds long. If we had more time to cover the water and duplicate that situation I think we could have had better numbers. We caught both black and white crappie.
Back to the weather...WOW! I didn't think I would see white out conditions on the lake that time of year but we did. Never got down to less than a sweatshirt the whole week.
I did catch a nice 4-5lb smallie on a 10 ft jigging pole which made for an exciting moment getting it in the boat. It was caught as you head out of Arrowhead and turn left along the bank in front of the houses.
i would love to hit it right down there some year as it would be exciting!