All set to go on Old Hickory

[hankll]

By most ya'lls standards I'm behind.....But it was so nice this weekend, I just finally uncovered the boat and checked batteries, and gear, stripped off old line and re-filled my reels with new Spiderwire 4# line, crappie slip sinker set ups. My wife dancing a jig, while saying when we going out?....I'm ready now, the motor cranked up, the batteries checked ok on voltage, bilge pump works, nav lights work, air pressure in tires on trailer are good, lets see what have I forgotten .....oh yeah! I still need to renew my fishing license......Other than that we be ready to let her go.....What'cha think?

[rudy]

Hello Hankll... I have got my boat ready as well and ready to go after those crappie, I am a bass fisherman ( and new at it ) although been fishing all my life... After working hard and saving the greenbacks for years, was able to finally purchase that new Bass Boat from Nitro and used it as much as I could last year like I said I am new to fishing on a boat, and really like to fish Old Hickory Lake and do reasonably well fishing with 4" to 6" Lizards under docks, I put the boat in yesterday afternoon and fished for about 4 hours caught a few largemouth on the Hendersonville side of the lake, the water temp was in the low 50's. I really want to catch some Crappie as I did not have boat during the Crappie season last year, I have been looking forward to this for a whole year and would be very thankful for any info on when and where, time of the month and bait on Old Hickory as well as techniques for catching these fish, I fish mainly out of the Saundersville Road Dock on the Nashville Hermitage side of the lake and as I am new to the lake I usually stay within a 2mile distance from my dock. Yesterday I am pretty sure I saw on the finder plenty of schools of fish hovering in between 10ft and the bottom at about 5ft... are these Crappie? and is this the pre-spawn routine of the Crappie? the water was in the lower 50's and it appeared that these schools of fish were heading into the coves where boats are docked... are these fish getting ready to spawn, and when should I be able to catch them?... If you are able to provide me with useful info I would be very thankful... P.S. I also fish for Trout below Center Hill Dam and like to think I am pretty good at it I always catch more than my limit... Good Luck and hope your trips to the Lake are safe... Thanks Rudy

[hankll]

Rudy, excuse the pun, but I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. We just got our boat late fall of 2006, but our ProCraft was a project, had to fix it up and buy a motor and seats, TM, Fish finder, took me until right after Christmas and then I needed to take it to Champion Marine to get carbs rebuilt, and water pump impeller put in it. When mechanic got done it was middle Feb, and he hadn't started it before I picked it up, so fuel wouldn't gel the carbs until I went out with it. Took it to him in early April and discovered the oil sensor was bad and only 3 cyl were firing, so it stayed in his shop for over a month, due to his having gotten swamped with every body bringing in their own boats for repairs. Anyway we missed Crappie season altogether.

As to knowing anything about where to fish, can't be much help, unlike you I haven't fished for years, and really almost had to re-learn everything. Lucky for me, my wife likes to fish. After I had checked out everything on our boat yesterday and put new line on our Crappie rods, she really wanted to go out and get on the lake and dip our lines but, she also didn't want to be on the water, because of the wind. So instead, we drove over to Sanders Ferry Park at the end of Hendersonville peninsula, saw a few boats out, and they weren't doing much, except rocking in the wind pretty good. From our side of the lake it was doing a lot of whitecaps and out in the channel looked like 1 foot swells. It'd be hard to fish unless you were in one of the creeks on your side of the lake outta the wind. Maybe we'll run into you sometime. You can see from my Avatar picture about what our boat looks like. We usually put at Rockland up by the Dam. We are thinking about going down to Station Camp Creek towards Gallatin and check down there for Crappie. From what everybody says we won't see any spawning bed activity until water temp reaches around 60-65 degrees. But I appreciate heads up on present water temps.

[klight1122]

Hey fellows, the crappie.com member danny+ lives just outside the park at Sanders Ferry. We fish down there a couple times a month. PM him and see what he has to say. He has his secret sweet spots that he won't give up, but he might give some advice about fishing the lake. He is one heck of a fisherman (liar) lol. All kidding aside he is a good fisherman. :D

[skeetbum]

Hankll and Rudy, Welcome to the site. I live in Manchester and enjoyed reading your posts. I moved here 2 1/2 yrs ago and had little knowledge of the local tactics for crappie. I can relate to most everything you guys spoke of except the "season" thing. One big thing I've learned since joining the site is that there is no season that you can not catch Crappie. I have gotten good catches from 28 to 98 degrees, just have to fish a little different. I go every weekend the wind will let me and get a good stringer pretty often. So don't stay home, get out and find some fish on the sonar and drop a jig or two on em. Good things will happen.

[rudy]

Thanks for the info. And I will try to pm danny+ and pick his brain for some useful info on the subject... I am not going to miss out on this Crappie thing... I also heard that these fish could be caught all year long...if you know how to find them... I hope to learn the techniques... as for Sunday afternoon March 2nd the waves were pretty high but when I got into the coves it was much calmer and less wind... I did not have to work and just could not stay at the house with a boat in the garage. Do any of you all fish for Trout? by the way from what I could see the water looked a bit stained, I still had good visibilty of yellow and white grubs to about 4.5ft so that is a plus at this point, if the weather permits I am going to try again this weekend and going to take some minnows along just a dozen and see what happens. Thanks Rudy

[hankll]

I think from all the rain I got off of Center Point Rd where I live, Old Hickory must be muddy for sure.. And now they are saying possible snow for Friday, man what nice weather this past weekend. I wanna get the boat out, but I'm really not liking the idea of ice on the fishing pole, too much.

[hankll]

Thanks for the info, Klight, maybe I can bribe him or see if he'll give me a "mercy" fishing spot to go to try out.

[klight1122]

He will maybe give up one. Remember he is a great fisherman (liar)........LOL

Thanks for the info, Klight, maybe I can bribe him or see if he'll give me a "mercy" fishing spot to go to try out.

[lag]

Yesterday the river below the dam was the color of coffee. Trash (limbs, trees, leaves etc) everywhere. It has cleared up quite a bit this morning. Crossed the Stones below the dam yesterday and it was really muddy but it looks like it has cleared up some too.