Priest SLOW

[gravelscraper]

Fished JPP today for a few hours in the morning.Worst trip of the year so far.Only 4 fish,none measured.Tried everything but minners.Maybe live bait is the trick right now.Fished from 20ft to 1.5ft and evrything in between.I'm puzzled,baffled,confused,and any other ED you can think of right now.It seemed so easy last month at winter pool and now at summer pool I'm lost.Every fish I caught was a single,couldn't find the numbers.Boat traffic and pressure was unbelievable today.Every spot I wanted to fish had a couple boats sitting on it.It's a wonder anything worth eating of legal size can make it that long in Priest.Somebody humble me and tell me how you killed em today.

[fiddlefarter]

I killed a bunch of carp and gar bowfishing last night in Stewart creek. But I decided to go bass fishing at Old Hickory today rather than deal with the large number of yahoos I knew would be out there. I'll probably go Monday or Tuesday after work. I have been and I know others that have been catching a few with minnows but I would much rather use a jig.

[DENNIS BOWERS]

Same Conditions Here On The Hollow!! My Son An I Fished 2 Hours Yesterday Afternoon-3 Crappie,1 Keeper. The Boat Traffic This Weekend Was Unbearable--bunch Of Inconsiderate Morons!!!never Saw So Many Rude People Here At One Time!!makes Me Glad For Weekdays1!!!good Fishin To Ya!!!dennis

[scott715us]

Same way Sunday on Priest. It was a zoo. Caught a few in the Suggs Creek area on live bait and jigs in the morning. Went out Monday in the Fate Sanders area and caught 7 keepers in about 2.5-3 hrs. Not enough to keep to cook so I'll catch em again another day.

[tnbumblebee]

Same way Sunday on Priest. It was a zoo. Caught a few in the Suggs Creek area on live bait and jigs in the morning. Went out Monday in the Fate Sanders area and caught 7 keepers in about 2.5-3 hrs. Not enough to keep to cook so I'll catch em again another day.

Yeah Priest brings out everybody on weekends. I was pulling into Stewarts creek boat ramp 1 time last year on a Sunday evening to do some night fishing. When i pulled into the road to the ramp a lady was leaving and she said good luck. What she meant was there was i bet 10 people waiting to get their boats out of the water and i believe everyone was drunk. Had 1 guy pull his boat just out of the water and then started strapping it down on the ramp. A fight broke out there and bout 10 minutes later 2 women started fighting til the county police came.
Getting back to crappie,i believe theyve already spawned,most of tehm anyhow. I caught 10 last thrusday and only 2 very small ones had a few eggs. They should pick up again by this coming weekend though. Bass fishing is good though,i caught 5 keepers yesterday with 1 4 lber and im still a rookie

[scott715us]

Sounds good on the bass fishing. I fish an occasional Elm Hill Mon nite tourney. May hang up my crappie pole in a couple of weeks and hit the largemouth.

[fiddlefarter]

Went after work yesterday (Mon.). Caught about 12 fish had 6 keepers. My Uncle was cleaning about 10 or 12 when I got there. He fished for about 30 more minutes after that and caught another keeper. He gave it to me when he left so I cleaned 7. Not bad as slow as its been. Only fished about 3 hours. Caught all my keepers shallow 1'-3' on ice/chart. slider grubs. I think the biggest thing with the fish being so slow on the weekends is the fact they get barraged on Fri. Sat. and Sun.

Old Hickory is like that with bass. Through the week you can catch bass pretty good. But by lunch time Sat. you can't hardly buy a keeper. As much as PP gets fished for crappie I think that might be the culprit. My opinion tho. I once read PP and OH are 2 of the busiest lakes in the country. And that can't help any.

To combat this I have been trying to throw jigs they don't see as much. Like the slider. When I fished last Monday my dad fished a stump row with the usual tube. He didn't have a keeper and he said he only caught one or two fiddlefarters (short fish). I fished the same stump row an hour later with a slider grub and caught 5 keepers and about 7 fiddlefarters. Yesterday my uncle had just fished a pocket and caught a couple of fish. Then they quit. I took the slider to 'em and caught 3 keepers right away as he and my aunt were cleaning fish beside me. Like I said I am just opining, I need a lot more study time to test my theory and come up with a conclusion on if fish become accustomed to seeing certain jigs/lures and become uninterested in striking.

Try the Slider crappie grub though, I'm beggining to become a fan. I have never really caught many on it before but I tried some different colors and its growing on me.

[gravelscraper]

Glad to see I'm not the only one that's finding it tough right now.I also prefer to fish jigs over live bait.I just can't sit there and watch a float for hours.I need to be moving and casting.Too many years of bass fishing will do that to ya.Fiddlefarter,If you like to bowfish you should try Woods Res. about mid May on into June for the carp on the upper end of the lake.You can literally load the boat with em and you dont tear up any arrows at all in that muddy bottom.I've shot em over there till my arm got tired several times.

[tnvol]

Fiddlefarter... Are you rigging the small
slider heads weedless? How are you getting
the best results with them? Maybe they will
help me at the Spring Fling on Watts Bar this
weekend. Come on over !

Thanks!

[fiddlefarter]

Wish I could come but I'm shooting the Muzzy Classic bowfishing tournament at Guntersville this weekend. If I had not already planned that, I would definetely be there.

I just rig the slider grub on a regular 1/16 oz jighead. Just rig them where the paddle tail will swim right. I like the blue ice body/chart tail and ol faithful: blackbody/chart tail. I tried the weedless Slider heads but I didn't really like them, too expensive. My uncle makes all our heads so I don't worry about losing a few. I'll just tell him I need more and he brings me a huge bag full. Plus his heads are top of the line, all hand made and trimmed perfectly. He is a perfectionest. Next time I need some I'm going to go over to his house and help him make some up. That way I'll know all the little tricks and I won't feel bad about asking him for some. I use 4 pound test on my rods I cast jigs with so I use and lose a lot of heads.