Quote Originally Posted by ekySlabber View Post
Pappy,

Thanks bud. I really appreciate it. I have checked out the pics from your trips before, and there are definitely some quality crappie in that lake (check out the midwest crappie episode on watts bar.....WOW!!! its on the midwest crappie website), looks like more whites than blacks, w/ some blacknose mixed in. More importantly they all look healthy. I really also want to go somewhere I can focus on fishing visible cover "docks" because they can be relatively easy to spot and are a quick find using Google Earth for a newbie, just gotta find the ones w/ brush and adequate depth. I have a great sonar but since there arent many docks around here the whole dock shootin' deal sound like a lot of fun. Plus, I like using artificial if possible and I got a lot of new baits that should do the trick for skippin and shootin' docks. I little something a good friend and one of the better fishermen I've ever known told me about shooting docks is a bait Id never used before and he said its about all he sees people use down at weiss and those bama lakes, its called a lil' fishie. Just a wally world bait but I have a whole box of em and tear fish up on em during certain times, white/black, chart, and white/red 1.5 inch. Usually he uses a 1/48 up to a 1/16 oz jighead cause theyre action is so much better when you use a lighter weight. He takes annual trips down south specifically to shoot docks and he and everyone else kills them on em'. Not many people round here use em, but they're great, I use em on the Cave Run and the Ohio R. when the fish are shallow and hitting artificial. We use them on a weedless jighead and absolutely love em'. Im sure you know how to catch em' but ya might wanna give em a shot, he said thats about all he uses down there exclusively. He also says you can have 100+ fish days in the spring down there but he's wont leave the docks to fish brush,ledges,and channels cause he said he would rather catch 50 dock fish "which he says are almost always "very" healthy fish compared to catching 100 fish fishing other ways. Anyways, hope you whack em' and lemme know whats up. I wanna spider rig down south in some shallower lakes too. Yall are leaving soon aren't ya?
I don't have to check out the Watts Bar Midwest Crappie video ... Russ sent me the CD, several years ago. Besides, Don York and I were the ones that set up, and ran, the tournies :p I basically learned dock shooting from Don, and some of the other tourney anglers

The quality of the fish is a big part of what keeps me going back.

There's White, Black, & Blacknose Crappie ... you're right on that ! Early Spring & Fall dock fishing is usually gonna get you into B's & BN's. Late Spring for White Crappie (usually on shallow wood). Those dynamics held up almost perfectly, during the 5yr stretch of the tournies. Odd thing is ... since then, it's kinda been jumbled up a little. We've been going down there during the same timeframe as before ... but, in the last few years, we've done better on White Crappie in mid April (when we used to do better on them in early May). Fall fishing has stayed pretty much on course, though. Black Crappie under deep water docks ... White Crappie in 20fow around timber.

I've seen/heard of the Lil Fishie ... and even read where some members swear by them. May have to add a pack of them to my arsenal.

We'll probably be headed down early Fri morning ... back late Sun evening. We're going to be staying at a totally "new to us" place, on a different part of the lake than we normally do ... so this will be an "adventure" for us. (not that ANY trip we take, doesn't end up being one :p )

Will post a report when I get back.

... cp