Better-late-than-never report. And sea-sickness. And sunburn. Hiwassee River

...kind of a ho-hum report, several days late, but I haven't posted (or fished) in quite awhile.

Decided that I needed to start getting ready for the community fish fry in September, for which I will be the sole-provider of crappie fillets. I'll need about 100-125 fillets, started the day at ZERO in the ice-box. Yes, it was Sunday. Yes it was 2pm. No, there wasn't an empty spot to park at the ramp. Should've known better.

Water was 85* with what seemed to be a NEGATIVE current, flowing UP the river. May have just been heat exhaustion though. Spent as much time trying to keep my butt IN THE BOAT and OFF THE BANK as I did fishing, for all the "parting of The Red Sea" wakeboard boats towing "people". I'll NOT be doing a weekend, mid-day trip again anytime soon.

Added 14 fillets to the freezer and no telling how many bites I missed while pirouetting around the front deck trying to stay dry. Fish were DEEEEEEP and sporadic (22-30 ft, 1 fish here, 2 fish there). 3/32oz with monkeymilk+blue ice+patriot is what was thrown. No color seemed better than another. Never caught a single short.

Will try to get out again ON A WEEKNIGHT pretty soon.

On a high note, I did get to start making friends with the jigs with lightwire hooks made by Mr. Hobbs. GOOD STUFF. LOTS less breakoffs than before
:cheers2

Attachment 380813

Good start and keep us posted on your count. LW hooks are a must fishing that deep in and around structure.

Now that’s a good report. Been making lots of 3/32 lately....

The summer boating traffic is certainly a plague for the reservoir fisherman for sure. Yesterday, my brother and I went to Jordan Lake here in Central NC and no matter where we went there were wake boats, water skiers and jet skis back and forth, back and forth, back and forth with their loud music, hollering and screaming blaring nonstop. We were trying to bass fish on the main lake and main lake points, but could hardly feel the bait presentation or the subtle bites for all of the wakes and waves tossing our boat. Used to be you could avoid the majority of this chaos by limiting your fishing trips to weekdays and staying clear of the lake on the weekends, but with the perpetual Covid 19 vacation that seems to go on and on without end... there is not a day that you can avoid the chaos. I realize that everyone has a right to use the waters to have whatever brand of fun they choose, but nonetheless, I'm so looking forward to colder weather and some peaceful fishing time.

Good looking fish and kudos to you for even trying on a weekend midday trip. Water chiggars alone keep me off the water, let alone the heat. Grin.

Great report, thanks for sharing. Yep, Mr Hobbs makes good litewirehooks.com

Great catch , good to get a report from my neighborhood.

Those are some hard caught crappie! Makes them taste even better! Thanks for posting!

Great post, thanks for sharing. I too stay off the lakes on the weekends due to high volumes of boat traffic and personal watercraft that seem to pay attention to absolutely nothing but themselves.

Thanks for the report. It's tough out there fighting all of the wakes. Keep up the good work. You can do it...only 50 more keepers to go.