Thread: Very short crappie trip to Watts Bar 7/10/20

My brother in law, Leon, lives in Cumberland County and so we decided to meet in the middle and fish for crappie at Watts Bar with the understanding that we quit at 9 am because of the heat. We did that.

He met me around a quarter to 7 and off we went to our first spot. There was a very good movement period between 5-8 am and we hit it in the middle. We landed 6 total keepers and a couple of short crappie and all came on Monkey Milk Minnow Mind’Rs glued to 3/32 oz round ball, Litewire hooks. Most of the bites between 7:15-7:30. Only one keeper and one short after 8.

So our decision to quit at 9 was a good one. I did catch my first TARP sized White crappie in the month of July. It was 14” even. Surface temp was 87 degrees and with temps expected to reach 94-97 degrees all of next week, I may not fish at all. I’m not a glutton for punishment. Only one pic today.

BTW, I wanted to add a little bit to the report and talk about an idea that hit me a couple of days ago concerning the 8 lb Nanofil line. I thought that if I put a small barrel swivel on the braid and a 10 test Fluorocarbon leader on that and tied my jigs with a loop knot, that my presentation would be perfect. I caught all 6 keepers and Leon was using 4 lb test mono, so I conclude that it didn’t hurt and might help me get more bites. I didn’t lose a jig even though I hung up several times this morning.