Thread: Fishing report 9 Dec 2016 - chilly but the fish don't seem to care

Yes, it was chilly today. According to NWS the temperature was 27F when we launched at 530am and it was still 27F when we got off the water at 1230pm. But the fishing was good. Water temps were measuring around 51F and there was plenty of baitfish to feed hungry crappie - according to the fish finder.

We started catching fish around 630 am and stopped catching them around 1200, when TVA shut off the generators at Guntersville and water was flowing in from the river. It wasn't bang, bang..bang but it was a few now and then, a pause and then another few. All total we caught about 55 fish but kept 45, which were 10 inches and longer. We caught a couple approaching 2 pounds.

We were using red-headed jigs and BG mayfly bodies, again. I tried a couple of others - monkey milk, bluegrass and blue thunder, but the fish weren't having any of it. Today we vertical jigged and we'd also cast out and just let the bait swing back toward the boat, where we got most of our strikes around 12-16 feet deep.

The key is to find some structure, next to a deep channel, that provides some shade/cover - something they can hold to. Like I said, it wasn't fast and furious, just good and steady. So put on those old deer hunting insulated coveralls, fill the thermos with some hot coffee and enjoy some cold weather fishing. We had the bridge to ourselves today, no other fisherman till about noon - just duck hunters going and coming.

Thanks for the pic!! Looks like monkey milk on top with crawdad on the bottom. Good looking bait, no wonder they gobbled it up!