Thread: Chickamauga Lake Crappie report 3/28/2017

My friend, Tim Smith from Athens came down to help me diagnose the problem that I have been having with the new Helix 7 and afterward, we fished for crappie. The sonar was clear, the side scan was clear, but there is a problem with the down scan on the Helix. It is having problems with interference or maybe transducer. Tim went through all the settings to optimize them and we could not get the down scan to clear up. So, I have the next step to take.

On the crappie report side, we started off just a little slow, but finally hit the fish after about 15 minutes. We were tight lining to begin with, but when we put a floater on our Bobby Garland Full Moon jigs, it was game on. Tim gave me part of his fish and I ended up taking 20 home to feed the starving kids and grandkids. (Mine) Grin. Tim also caught probably the biggest Warmouth bass that I have seen and another really nice yellow bass went home with me as well.

I might not have reported this, but on yesterday's trip, I found the female crappie to be in 7-8 feet of water on the spawning banks. The males were in 5-6 feet of water. Two of the females had almost spawned out, and 3 other were bulging with eggs. Last night was the New Moon phase and the females moved onto the banks to spawn. We caught and kept about 3-4 females and they were all spawned out. The males all had their tuxedos on and my biggest male was 13.75" long and the only fish that could possibly be prettier than a male crappie in full tux may be a Smallmouth Bass. I didn't weigh the big black crappie, but I wish that I had. It was very heavy.

The water temp today was 63-64 depending on what part of the lake we were on. We did catch a couple of spawned out females on the American Fish tree. This is it for me for a few days. My wife and I have a ministry meeting to attend, so I will be out of pocket. Tight lines everyone.

Great trip Tim and Dickey. Thanks for sharing.