Tim’s Ford summer bite help!

Ok- just joined, first real post.
Experienced fisherman, grew up on Peercy Priest and can catch fish pretty well there no problem.
Got a lake house on Tim’s in Lost Creek area.
Have all the gear and electronics.

I have no problem locating fish on Tim’s. But man the bite is tough. 5-7 trips out for 3-4 hrs each and only 4-5 fish.

tried every color, size and technique.

mainly livescoping and vertical jig or pitching out to swim by. Also have been shooting docks with fish.

NADA

1/16 mainly and have went down to 1/32. 4lb Mr Crappie & Vicious lines, mostly using various BG baits, and curly tails.

Just bought some Sauce. And big eye jigs. To change it up.
Hopefully that produces bites. Haven’t tried yet.

The few fish I have caught have all been 13”-15” for sure some slabs in this lake.

Anyway determined to figure this lake out!

Any help is appreciated!!

The late summer bite has always been the hardest for me. I was going to suggest you go smaller, but it looks like you have already tried that. I am a fan of bobby garland skirts. I hate them, and love them at the same time. You can normally only catch 2 fish before you have to replace it... I would say stick with it and good luck. I hope it gets better for you. I fish KY lake and I have had the same problem lately.

Watch some of Brandon Lester’s crappie videos on YouTube.

That’s pretty much the same report that I get from most folks fishing at Tim’s in the summer appears to be tuff !
They are a lot of good fish there and I hear it gets better in the fall but a lot of folks call it the Dead Sea I’m sure if you stay at it you will figure them out ! Summertime gets tuff for me at times I have to cover lots of water just picking up 1-2 here or there occasionally finding a school or two that will cooperate. Good luck and tight lines welcome to the area.

oh, trust me I’ve watched all of them. But he doesn’t have any summertime videos, that I have found. All fall and winter when bass trail is slow

The only thing that I would suggest is that you fish 1-2 hours before daylight. We have been catching good quality crappie over here on Chickamauga before daylight but as soon as it gets light out, the fish seem to shut up.

Check out his newest video

Thank! I'm an early riser especially when at the lake house so will give it a go!

pretty close to what I've been doing but I noticed 2 things, he's in 25' water (I've been 12'-20') and he's staying WAY off the school 30' or more (I've been 2'-12') doing more vertical jigging then retrieving. time to change it up

I grew up fishing Lost Creek quite a bit. It's always been fairly tough for me with crappie for some reason. Tim's is a hit and miss lake for me anyway, and Lost Creek even more so. I don't know why, but there is a reason most of the crappie guys seem to favor the upper end of Tim's. Gordon Pettie is another guy with some Tim's crappie videos. But again, they are all mid and up lake and fall/winter videos.

I'm thinking that as well about lost creek- I feel its in direct correlation to the more aggressive White Bass (Stripe) being everywhere crappie should be. Using my Wildlife Biologist intuition here