Annual Watts Bar Spring Crappie Trip report

[CrappiePappy]

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

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 :p
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 :o ... 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 :p

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)

[slabbandit]

Nice pics Crappiepappy!

[GRIZZ]

I'd trade 100 Chautauqua dinks for a dozen 12-15's any day. Nice report CP. Thanks. Those are gorgeous fish BTW.

[Cane Pole]

You need a beard trim. I just got mine today..:p

Oh, by the way, good fish.

[CrappiePappy]

You need a beard trim. I just got mine today..:p

Oh, by the way, good fish.

The beard is due for the quarterly trim ... in June :p
But, what you can't see is the ponytail, hanging down to my shirt collar :D

As to the fish ... yeah, its' about time I caught some Cane Pole quality fishes

... cp

[Bassky]

Crappiepappy,
Nice fish, it is a shame the weather stunk it up. Nice big ones! I bet they felt good pulling at your line from a long cold, winter! At least you got some. I can't believe the water temps are in the upper fifties! Hopefully, by the time we get there Saturday the fish will start to move shallow. I got a report from yesterday, and they said it was still sloooooooow, but the ones they are catching are big ones. Did you catch them in the creeks or out on main lake points or ledges? Water conditions, color of jigs?
Bassky

[CrappiePappy]

Crappiepappy,
Nice fish, it is a shame the weather stunk it up. Nice big ones! I bet they felt good pulling at your line from a long cold, winter! At least you got some. I can't believe the water temps are in the upper fifties! Hopefully, by the time we get there Saturday the fish will start to move shallow. I got a report from yesterday, and they said it was still sloooooooow, but the ones they are catching are big ones. Did you catch them in the creeks or out on main lake points or ledges? Water conditions, color of jigs?
Bassky

Water conditions were: fairly good clarity ... to about 1.5ft ... and I do think they pulled the lake a little on Sat afternoon. We were fishing a main lake bank, with deadfalls that stick out into 20+fow ... and our lines were being pulled toward the dam.
We actually only found one here & two there, and only three spots were productive. We picked up an occasional single fish, back in the creeks, but most came on the three spots that we rotated thru, over the two days. We got nothing off docks, or from under docks. We caught NO Black Crappie ... they were all White Crappie.
We used a variety of colors, but green/char, white/char, & Popsicle seemed to produce as well or better than any. We were casting & slow swimming the jigs ... ticking the tops of the submerged limbs (around the fallen timber & submerged standing timber) ... and letting it fall to the bottom and running it a foot or so off bottom, on the rock ledge banks.
There were several other groups, that were also staying at Arrowhead ... they were using minnows, and fishing deadfalls. They were catching fish, but theirs were mostly smaller males (10-11") from the stringers I saw. And their numbers were about the same as ours (around 12-15 fish per boat).

I think the next couple of weeks will be the main push, at least around the midlake area (Whites Creek-Piney area). We may have been a week too early, this year, at least for numbers. Be sure and post a report, if you get to go anytime during the next 2-3weeks. I'd really be interested in seeing what the progression of the spawn movement was, in relation to the weather & water temp changes.

... luck2ya ... cp

[Bassky]

Crappiepappy,
Me and my brother and 4 guys from our church are leaving this Sat am and staying through Wed pm. We are staying at Piney Pt in the Piney River. It is starting to sound like we may hit it just right, I hope so. Hopefully the rain they are predicting will not happen. Last year, my dad was with us, he got sick and we didn't get to fish but about half the time. So we are really looking forward to this trip. I will post Thursday our results.
I too will buy a non res yr license, anticipating going back down in the fall.
Bassky