Rough River Lake Info

[Larry C]

Anybody catching crappie at Rough? I have been waiting for the level to drop to fish the stick-ups in the creeks, but it's been down 7' and up 9' and starting down again. Guess it'll be mid / end of Nov before it reaches 485'.

[CrappiePappy]

Anybody catching crappie at Rough? I have been waiting for the level to drop to fish the stick-ups in the creeks, but it's been down 7' and up 9' and starting down again. Guess it'll be mid / end of Nov before it reaches 485'.

have only been on Rough a couple of times, so no good info to add ... but, have you seen this site : http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/rrl/

From what I gathered from it ... it may be alot later than the middle/end of Nov, before it gets down to 485 !! .... cp

[Larry C]

CP, "Thanks" for the info.. I had heard most of the work has been put off until later. The level was down to 489 last week before we had that last 2 inches of rain and it went back over summer pool. It's dropping 1/2 ft a day again now so it's down to 493. I like to fish it when there's less water and more creek channel to jig trees on. Seems as if our best luck comes right at 485 when it's 3 - 10 ft deep in the creeks.

You been down to Watts Bar or Weiss this year?

Larry

[CrappiePappy]

You been down to Watts Bar or Weiss this year?
Larry

been to both places. Went to Weiss in March, Watts Bar in April, and back to Weiss in Oct. The Oct trip was originally set for Watts Bar, but last minute change of plans took me to Weiss :D
See report/pics : http://www.crappie.com/gr8vb3/showth...ighlight=weiss

Did reasonably well on all three trips. Good thing, too ... since I haven't had much chance to go locally this year.

How about you .... you ever fish either of these lakes ....(if so) have you been to either of them, recently ?? .... cp

[Larry C]

CP,

Haven't been to Weiss for 6-7 yrs, but have fished Cowen, Spring & Yellow Creeks with pretty good results. I have never been down to Watts Bar; seems as if something always happens every time I try to plan a trip. It's still in the future as a place to go..

We started going to Reelfoot 12 yrs ago and haven't stopped yet. We go the 3rd week in April and usually hit pretty close to or right at the spawn. Since my wife loves that lake and she's my best fishing partner, we look forward to going. Will be there on the 15th in 2007.

Fishing here has been terrible all year. If it's not pouring rain the wind is howling. We're usually fishing Rough River this time of year, but that's on hold right now waiting on the water to drop. Our little 350 acre lake was just getting down the right temps when it started turning over and that stopped that. I'm not much fishing in the cold & snow so I may just dog it off until Spring.

[CrappiePappy]

CP,

Haven't been to Weiss for 6-7 yrs, but have fished Cowen, Spring & Yellow Creeks with pretty good results. I have never been down to Watts Bar; seems as if something always happens every time I try to plan a trip. It's still in the future as a place to go..

We started going to Reelfoot 12 yrs ago and haven't stopped yet. We go the 3rd week in April and usually hit pretty close to or right at the spawn. Since my wife loves that lake and she's my best fishing partner, we look forward to going. Will be there on the 15th in 2007.

Fishing here has been terrible all year. If it's not pouring rain the wind is howling. We're usually fishing Rough River this time of year, but that's on hold right now waiting on the water to drop. Our little 350 acre lake was just getting down the right temps when it started turning over and that stopped that. I'm not much fishing in the cold & snow so I may just dog it off until Spring.

Fishing, locally, has been darn near non-existant for me ... if it isn't having to work, then it's bad weather or messed up lake conditions.
Watts Bar gets started in late March ... Black Crappie/shooting deep docks. That runs thru late April. After that, and on into mid May, the White Crappie start coming shallow. They start showing up around the docks and the brushpiles around them, in late April into early May ... and very shallow brush & blowdowns into mid May. At least that was the way it was, before TVA changed the lake level schedule. Now they leave the lake down later than they used to ... but, I haven't been down there any later than mid April, since they changed, so I'm not sure how that's affected them (if at all). Watts Bar is my dock shooting & brushpile casting/drifting lake. Weiss is my jig trolling, dock shooting, and minnow "bottom bumping" lake :D

If you travel to Reelfoot in mid April ... you probably pass right by one of the best Crappie lakes in the world ... Barkley Lake. Only lake I've ever fished, where I've limited out on 1-2lb fish, two days in a row (and so did the two other anglers with me). And the only lake where I've hooked a Crappie, that had to have been 3lbs or better. And I'm pretty sure I hooked that same fish, and lost it, two days in a row since I hooked up with it in the same stand of buckbrush ... and in roughly the same spot. Now, that might have been many moons ago ... but, that lake still has the potential it always did. If I hadn't started fishing Watts Bar for Smallmouth, then discovered their Crappie, and gotten involved with the former Crappie tournaments there ... my Spring trips would probably still be to Barkley I've fished KY Lake, and had some successful trips, too ... but, nothing like what I've done on Barkley.

......... luck2ya .. cp

[Larry C]

CP,

We're going on down to Rough River in the morning even though it's still at summer pool. Can't pass up a 70 degree day in November. Will post when I get home to let you know how we did..Probably going deep around the trees on the creek channels with jigs.

[Larry C]

Hey CP,

Well, we had bluebird skies, south wind 5-6 mph, dingy to muddy water at 53-57 degrees and too much darn water!!!

We had 6 crappie (3, 10+ inchers) and 3 small bass. We jigged stumps in 10-18 ft and casted jigs with curly tails to cover. Fished laydowns, riprap and docks. Didn't find anybody who was having any better luck. Returned all fish to fight another day.

But, when it's 75 degrees on 9 Nov and you're fishing, I'm not going to complain too much. More rain coming along with a 30 degree drop in temps. Still hoping to see 485' before winter sets in. We limited out on 3 trips last year at this time of the year so I got spoiled in the shallow water.

Take care and wish I had had a better report.