Chickamauga Lake crappie report: 3/23/2017

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For the past 4-5 weeks or so, I have been fishing below dams for Stripers, White Bass, Spotted Bass, and Smallmouth Bass and have left the crappie alone. I really don't like to fish during the spawning period when all the ramps are clogged up with crappie fishermen and every place you go, you find 2-4 boats in the area that you want to fish. This is mainly the reason that I fish below dams for other species. But, Dr Phil wanted to crappie fish today, so we fished out of HBSP.

We started around 9ish this AM and the wind was calm. Water like a mirror. I like to fish like this. Others like to fish in the wind. The wind did get up around 10:30 and was white capping the main river by 11:00. But we caught our biggest fish during the wind. Dr Phil got aggravated at the wind and he had an appointment in Sparta, so we quit fishing at 12:00. I brought home several nice keepers to dress up and get ready for the Crisco Lake.

Technique: First stop this AM was to a spawning cove and I hooked up a nice keeper right off the bat on a floater and jig. I thought 'hot dog', we are in for a great day. But, alas, it was the only one that we caught in shallow water under a float. We had to resort to fishing deeper stumps and brush to catch our fish. Our last spot to fish was the area that I had put out a couple of America Fish Trees and my biggest 3 fish came from this area. The lake was also white capping and we just couldn't stay on this off shore spot and it was nearing the time that Dr Phil had to leave anyway, so we motored back to HBSP and called it a day. Before the wind got very strong, we were using 1/24 oz jig heads and Bass Assassin Pro Tiny 2" Limetreuse Ghost with orange painted heads. When the wind got too strong for that, we went to 1/16 and 3/32 oz jig heads.

A great short fishing trip. I don't know what is happening with trying to post pics, but something is changed with this site. Irritating.

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Great report!

Had you been doing any good with the stripers before? I like fishing below the dams too this time of year.

Glad you guys got out.

Thanks for sharing both the report and pictures.:ThumbsUp

Back to fun fishin for the sac-o-laits

:cool:

Those March winds have been rough lately. Thanks for the report.

Quote:

Originally Posted by novorandall

Had you been doing any good with the stripers before? I like fishing below the dams too this time of year.

We have been below Watts Bar and the Chick, but, so far, all we have caught are Drum. It is a little strange because this time of year we usually kill them. We have caught 1 striper from both dams. Baitfish are there, flow is there, but the gamefish have been a no-show. Could be because the water temp is still just a little bit low. The fish could show up anyday now.

Ya, we tried a few weeks ago and the water flowing out of Watts Bar was only 49F. Maybe we'll see ya down there in a few weeks!!