Thread: Kayak Trip Report, Cotaco Creek

Originally Posted by Ditch Basser

I love Indian Creek but with the off-limits area at Redstone only being a mile in from the river you can quickly run out of creek if the fish aren't in that mile during the winter. I seldom drop an anchor or stop moving. I'll pull into a laydown and jig around it looking for active fish then keep moving. Even if I catch a few and the tree is covered up with fish on my fish finder I'll start moving again in a few minutes without a bite. I've often fished Cotaco creek and only caught fish above or only below the bridge at Sharps Ford.

Once the water comes up a couple feet and warms into the upper 50's/low 60's the Crappie move heavily into Barron Fork Creek also. I hit Indian Creek much more then. FYI, I live in Madison off Slaughter Road so Indian Creek is very close for me also.

Thanks! That’s very helpful.

I'm not an expert, but fish normally feed ahead of an approaching cold front. Often a front doesn't mean a temperature drop but cloud conditions and increased wind are the two thing that I think get the fish moving shallower in the water column and looking for baitfish. Typically, after a front passes we get a sunny sky, that always seems to slow down the Crappie bite. We're lucky since the weather is staying warm. As the water continues to warm up fish metabolism will also increase. As the fish eat more, we have more opportunities to catch them, LOL! Again, just my 2 cents.

There's always a few that are willing to take a bait if you can get it in front of the fish no matter the weather or time of day. I usually fish when I can, not when I'd like too!

One more thing, I've got an old laydown in Indian Creek that always holds fish. I've also got a couple in Cotaco. I'll fish those trees from inches deep near the bank all the way to the other end in 10 to 12 feet of water. I'll fish every depth from just a couple feet down to inches off the bottom. If I don't catch a fish, I'll go back over them with a different bait and I'll fish several different ways. Single pole on laydowns is always the same:

First question is what depth are the fish in the water column?

Next what color or body shape are the fish looking for?

Once those are worked out, you'll begin to watch to see if the fish only relate to large heavy logs, maybe they want newer trees with tiny limbs and branches on them still.

Also remember as the sun gets over head the fish may move deeper, shallower or change preference to a different color. Lastly, Crappie always look up so error fishing too shallow rather than too deep. A jig six inches below a crappie will never be seen.