Report: Chickamauga Lake Crappie 10/19/2015

It is great to be back home after a week in sunny Panama City Beach where the temps were high 70's to low 80's. Out this morning to get our crappie fix to 37 degrees. Wow! What a difference 400 miles makes. Grin. Water temp on the Chick early was 67.5 and when we quit at 12:30, it was 70.2. Getting down there to the temps that the fish really like.

We caught all our fish, except the first keeper, on off shore brush in 10-15 feet of water. Bites were subtle most of the time. Almost a feeling that something was different with the line. Set the hook, and many times a crappie would be just holding the jig in its mouth. Slow start, but hot finish as we started out around 8:00 AM and finished at 12:30 PM. Feeding bite was from 11:15 until 12:30 when we decided to stop fishing.

Since I was out of crappie, I kept 18 keepers and we had about that many shorts as well. 2 white crappie and 16 black crappie, plus a keeper sized spotted bass that went home with me too. No really big fish, but very good eating size crappie. 10.5" to about 12.5". The wind started out a little stronger than predicted and was from the NE, but before noon, the wind shifted to the SW and that is when the bite got hot. But most of the time, it was what I would call calm wind. Just slight enough that "Crazy Ivan" had me insane trying to keep the boat from front ending either me or Pat. We tight lined jigs with Bobby Garland plastics and the hot colors today were Monkey Milk and Crystal Shad both with tail lights. It is good to be home. Grin.

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good report, thanks for sharing

Very nice report. Welcome back home. Bet it felt good to be back on the water.

:Rofl ... maybe that's what I'm doing wrong, and can't seem to catch many of those Tenn Crappie .... I'm not hooking my stinger shad bodies "upside down" :Doh: like you guys do !! Devil Icon

But, seriously fellers ... thanks for the report & congrats on the catch :ThumbsUp

... cp :kewl

Good lookin fish Dickey.
Pats fish look pretty nice also.
Good Job!

Great detailed report. Thanks for sharing the information and happy eating!

Very nice catch. Welcome home.

Thanks for the trip today, Dickey.
Bluebird skies with a weak front passing just at the right time.
I started slow on familiar water, but we changed positions and the bite got better for me too.
The pair of bald eagles to start our day was a good sign, and I got the footage and pics of a fine figure of a young buck deer swimming out of the river was a special treat to end our trip.

:cool:

Good job guys. I thought that Dude had done headed to Florida. Glad you had a good day. The Almanac says this may be a duzzy comin up this winter.

Nice catch and pictures.