Thread: Ditto gravel pit

Wow! Good info. Can't wait to get my kayak. DS that Native Ultimate 12 does look like something I could fish from. I will have to look into it more. I'm not going to rush out and buy just any kayak. I want to get the right one and be happy with it.

It might require you to drive aways, but find locations that sell kayaks and allow you to rent or test them. I've been to a few places where I was able to test 2 dozen different kayaks in an afternoon in the water.

Thanks for all the info. It takes a real sportsman to share all those things that took you YEARS to figure out. These fish you are catching have eluded me for all these years. I never knew they existed. I have crappie fished the tenn. river and coosa river all my life(over 40 yrs.) and I never thought about these trapped fish. We catch more crappie than we know what to do with 9 months of the year, but the summer has always been tough on me. I'm a dock shooter most of the year. Been doing it for almost 20 years. I have often thought about shooting docks out of a kayak so you can get under them easier. I have an 11 year old son that loves fishing and has his own kayak. He can hold his own catching crappie with any adult, with me in our boat. I would love to tag along sometime and see you in action if a couple of people casting around wouldn't bother you.

Shooting docks is a blast in a kayak, you worry less about boat control and bumping into stuff and more about fishing. Take a look at Google Earth for areas along the rivers that are flooded during high water, but cut off again during normal water hight.

When I lived in Missouri I found some old gravel pits on national forest land that a river flooded into during high water. The local state fisheries biologist told me that he went years without even getting a single Crappie in surveys on that river because their numbers were so low. The first trip I made resulted in a limit of 30 Crappie. All 30 were 14 to 16 inches. I didn't take any photo's and no one believed me! That's what got me started snapping photo's of my catches.

Thanks again DB for some great info and pics!!

Bob D,
They say the number of fishermen is in decline, us old timers (the way I fell some days anyway) have to teach the up and coming the tricks. I tell my kids all the time, I'm not wise. I've just been luck enough to make most of the mistakes and survive.

Besides, I've always injoyed paddeling up next to a $30,000 bass boat in my $500 kayak. They're not catching anything and I'm throwing everything back because I have a limit.

That's good stuff DB. I enjoy helping other folks but some fish in their basket too!! Keep it up.