Percy Priest report 10/7/18

I wish I could report on what's working, but unfortunately I can only say what's not. The action pulling cranks has slowed way down for me the last couple weeks, today got 2 undersized and a 14 incher in 4 hours of trolling. A 20 inch striper was also fun and helped salvage the morning. All came on cranks with some kind of striping paint job. Got the crappie action after slowing down to 1.2-1.4 mph.

Seems as soon as I get a seasonal pattern figured out, they change! Oh well, that's the challenge of fishing I guess. At least it was a beautiful day to be outside.

This is my first year fishing Percy Priest so if anyone has any pointers for fall fishing, I'm all ears!Attachment 318694

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My first pointer would be that 88 degrees ain’t fall! I think a few days of the predicted cooler weather will get em fired up! I know it’ll fire me up enough to get out and try! Seriously, if you’re in to it, a night fishing trip could be quite productive.

Get your jigs and minnows out and find some brush. Scan, and if their home, hammer them.
Good luck!

Good report, not much of a Fall fisherman either but I know as the water cools the fish will move up a little shallower and follow the bait back into the large creeks and pockets. Just continue fishing and learning the lake, and keep a log of the conditions when you do find them!


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by TerryD

Get your jigs and minnows out and find some brush. Scan, and if their home, hammer them.
Good luck!

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Thanks, that's part of my problem though (and why I liked trolling so much) - on a new lake I don't know where any brush piles are! Might have to just take a day and a tank of gas strictly for scanning.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by StantheMan2567

Good report, not much of a Fall fisherman either but I know as the water cools the fish will move up a little shallower and follow the bait back into the large creeks and pockets. Just continue fishing and learning the lake, and keep a log of the conditions when you do find them!


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I'm definitely keeping a log. I just started learning how to crappie fish in 2017 so I'm keeping track of everything I can. Date, water temp, clarity, depth, lures, wind, time of day, anything to draw upon next year. Fun to read back through the year's memories too!

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Trolling is how I've found most of the brushpiles I fish at Priest and Woods. Keep an eye on the finder and hit the mark button when you see them. You will be amazed at how many piles are in Priest. I mainly troll 16-20 ft of water and that is where most man made piles are located. My last trip I caught fish in that depth, but only 8-12 ft down. They were suspended over the brush.
Stay after them as it's about to get real good!

Here is my priest report from 10 7 18,
Got to crank crappie again on priest. Did my usual pulling bandits 300s in 18-20ft of water at 2mph. Water was 77 at 630 am and 81 at noon. SE winds 2-5. Hit my favorite ledge first and it was full of grass that kept fouling my bandits so relocated to a short pull hump/ledge about 300 yards long. From this one spot we had 3 double hook ups, 19 keeper crappie, 3 shorts and 4 unbuttoned at boat. This included 6 fish over 16in and 8 over 15 with 3 of them being huge blacknose crappie that was a surprise to me. 3 nice cat, 1 chunky well fed bass. Pulled thru a school of nice stripe and had a triple play. Bite was better during the over cast skies I did notice. After Shock, Plum Point colors were what they wanted and they hit aggressively. Fish were sitting on top of brush and could see them on screen before we hooked them, I could almost call the bite every time. Put a gallon bag of fillets in freezer so not a bad mess of fish !
D.D. Rose Jr.

Attachment 323744Attachment 323744

David, crank baiting is at it's best after the spawn when water surface temp gets to 75 degrees or better. I have friends that live
and breath it. They will start using cranks when the temp gets to 75 degrees and continue until it drops below that. Jig polling
or slow trolling will be more efficient than crank baits at that time. Early spring = jig pole or trolling starting with minnows and
going to jigs(water temp). Summer = crank baits. Early fall to winter = jig pole or trolling jigs tipped no faster than 4 tenths
mph. I left out long lining but it is a very efficient method after the spawn also. It works well in the same time frame as the
crank baits. The crank baiting and long lining works because the fish are no longer schooled and are scattered out all over the
place. You are running 1.7 mph or better so you are covering a lot of water. Just my 2 cents.

The 75 degrees I am talking about is water surface temps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ddrosejr

Here is my priest report from 10 7 18,
Got to crank crappie again on priest. Did my usual pulling bandits 300s in 18-20ft of water at 2mph. Water was 77 at 630 am and 81 at noon. SE winds 2-5. Hit my favorite ledge first and it was full of grass that kept fouling my bandits so relocated to a short pull hump/ledge about 300 yards long. From this one spot we had 3 double hook ups, 19 keeper crappie, 3 shorts and 4 unbuttoned at boat. This included 6 fish over 16in and 8 over 15 with 3 of them being huge blacknose crappie that was a surprise to me. 3 nice cat, 1 chunky well fed bass. Pulled thru a school of nice stripe and had a triple play. Bite was better during the over cast skies I did notice. After Shock, Plum Point colors were what they wanted and they hit aggressively. Fish were sitting on top of brush and could see them on screen before we hooked them, I could almost call the bite every time. Put a gallon bag of fillets in freezer so not a bad mess of fish !
D.D. Rose Jr.

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14 fish over 15" out of 19 keepers? That's a stellar day anywhere, especially in the mid TN area!!
Congratulations and thanks for the detailed report.

That sack was in my top 5 for the year, Priest,Old Hickory and Duck River Bottoms on Ky Lake. We fished over 50 days. Priest crappie don't get pressured like back in the day and this was a good year for size and numbers. The Southern Woods and Water tv series here in TN reported in August that 2 crappie fisherman caught two 30 fish limits on Priest in 4 hrs and all were over 14 in. It happens.....It has been my experience that the bigger crappie love bandit crappie series 300s on Priest as its rare that we hook a short, I hardly ever had to measure a fish this summer. It's a completely different story on Ky Lake, numbers are down and big fish hard to come by this year and I have fished it for over 35 years, back in the day it was not hard to catch a limit all 2lb slabs this year we had 17 inch fish thin as paper couldn't even fillet them and that's very disappointing. We have big crappie here if you know where to go, my partners wife caught a blacknose few weeks ago on Old Hickory that went 2.05 lbs.

2.05 lb Blacknose, Old Hickory Lake, Attachment 323824going on the wall.