Reelfoot 4-9-09

Well I had a few hours to be able to fish this morning. I normaly dont go unless I have the whole day but after the fun day Sunday I was chompin at the bit to get out there. I studied this week and had a theory i wanted to put to the test. I had to be off the water early and I told a couple of my crappie.com buds I was hoping to just get enough for supper tonight! As far as i am concerned the idea I had worked out good.

I got to the ramp about 30 minutes before even a hint of light. i knew my time was limited today so I wanted to get out there very early. It also fit into my theory:D I got the boat ready and launched and sat at the ramp for about 20 more minutes untill it got light enough to see. Shot across the water and got set up. Got my last pole in the water and checked the time. 6:31am. Right away i hung a ver big fish. Easily two punds and probably more by my estimation. Dropped it trying to get it in the boat. Had not even got my net from the back yet. I was very upset. I fished on and at 7:15 i had 5 nice fish with one bigun, and two semi-biguns, and couple right at 1lb. Hung a catfish that got several of my poles wraped up and had to stop and re-rig the rods. Got off my spot a bit so trolled back over to where I started. Righ taway i hooked into something big. A drum :(...several more poles wrapped around each other. Got them ready again but by that time I was very upset. Not much longer I could fish and wasted a good hour tying up the rods again. Pulled the phone out it was 8:25. Called Reelfoot Yankee and he was in shallow water just poking around. Got the rods back in the boat and headed to find the Yank. Met him coming to me. He said it was a no go in the shallows and he was gonna fish where I had been fishing. I had spent all that time tying and putting up the rods I was frustrated. I hit one shallow spot on the way back with the jig pole but no luck. Had the boat back on the trailer and was talking to a couple guys at the ramp by 9:30am.

I missed several along witht he 5 I kept. They hit it hard but never held on. I literally got to fish 45 minutes and it was all I could do to keep up with everything during that time. I wish now i had hung with it a while longer but I was well satisfied when i got home and thought about what i had learned for next time. I will say that these fish were very very thick. Some of thickest crappie ever. The big one was monsterously thick! I will put Reelfoot crappie up against any lake as far as thickness goes. All in all I had a good time today. Going back tomorrow. Weather just will not cooperate at all. But we say that every year!

Trolled jigs tipped with a minnow. 4-5ft of water right off the bottom. Water temp was 52.5-54.5. 3 females loaded with eggs and looked like they were dropping a couple. 2 males bellys were super full. Fish tasted very good too! here they are

4-9-09 picture by westtenncrappie - Photobucket

Sounds like the plan came together that was a gooden too!!

Good deal, glad you got out there for a little while and caught some.
Lynn

great looking crappie... and you did accomplish what you set out to do ( catch dinner ). I am new to crappie fishing but this trolling and spider-rigging appears to really put fish in the boat, one question though with the 2 types of fishing mentioned above is the learning curve very steep, I have heard a lot of guys talk of multiple lines in the water how often do you get tangled up. Early morning crappie fishing is awsome when you get there the water is still nice and smooth so you can stay on top of the fish or right next to them.

Good plan and day, congratz.

It's good to have a plan work out. Good job.

good to see yours did. I tried to call you a couple of times from the water this past week, but kept getting some sort of verizon message that didn't make sense :( I did get to meet and talk with John on Wed. He stopped by the state park where we were camped.

The wind really put a damper on things for the first couple of days and we tried our luck in the trees in Allen's opening, but only managed to land one casting. We didn't get out on the upper Blue which prolly was a mistake. Any way, it was great to fish the Foot and will definitely be back again. Sorry we didn't get to meet this time around Justin.

We fished the 8th & 9th and gave up on the 10th because of the weather.

We caught some real nice black crappie = 12 + just not very many.
we ended up with a fair catch 10 inchers were as low as we kept. The trip wasn't like we hoped for,but it was "Reelfoot" and that ain't bad. There's a lot more to it than fish. ;)
We were casting jigs and it makes me face the fact that i'm getting old after a day of that and fighting the wind.I'll be happy when i sit down and there is a big ol' pile fried fish and beans and slaw and some of Fred's hush puppies and my wife's fried peach pies;)


MT---:)

"We were casting jigs and it makes me face the fact that i'm getting old after a day of that and fighting the wind.I'll be happy when i sit down and there is a big ol' pile fried fish and beans and slaw and some of Fred's hush puppies and my wife's fried peach pies"

That's enough already...I'm hungry and I just et.

:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WestTennCrappie

Well I had a few hours to be able to fish this morning. I normaly dont go unless I have the whole day but after the fun day Sunday I was chompin at the bit to get out there. I studied this week and had a theory i wanted to put to the test. I had to be off the water early and I told a couple of my crappie.com buds I was hoping to just get enough for supper tonight! As far as i am concerned the idea I had worked out good.

I got to the ramp about 30 minutes before even a hint of light. i knew my time was limited today so I wanted to get out there very early. It also fit into my theory:D I got the boat ready and launched and sat at the ramp for about 20 more minutes untill it got light enough to see. Shot across the water and got set up. Got my last pole in the water and checked the time. 6:31am. Right away i hung a ver big fish. Easily two punds and probably more by my estimation. Dropped it trying to get it in the boat. Had not even got my net from the back yet. I was very upset. I fished on and at 7:15 i had 5 nice fish with one bigun, and two semi-biguns, and couple right at 1lb. Hung a catfish that got several of my poles wraped up and had to stop and re-rig the rods. Got off my spot a bit so trolled back over to where I started. Righ taway i hooked into something big. A drum :(...several more poles wrapped around each other. Got them ready again but by that time I was very upset. Not much longer I could fish and wasted a good hour tying up the rods again. Pulled the phone out it was 8:25. Called Reelfoot Yankee and he was in shallow water just poking around. Got the rods back in the boat and headed to find the Yank. Met him coming to me. He said it was a no go in the shallows and he was gonna fish where I had been fishing. I had spent all that time tying and putting up the rods I was frustrated. I hit one shallow spot on the way back with the jig pole but no luck. Had the boat back on the trailer and was talking to a couple guys at the ramp by 9:30am.

I missed several along witht he 5 I kept. They hit it hard but never held on. I literally got to fish 45 minutes and it was all I could do to keep up with everything during that time. I wish now i had hung with it a while longer but I was well satisfied when i got home and thought about what i had learned for next time. I will say that these fish were very very thick. Some of thickest crappie ever. The big one was monsterously thick! I will put Reelfoot crappie up against any lake as far as thickness goes. All in all I had a good time today. Going back tomorrow. Weather just will not cooperate at all. But we say that every year!

Trolled jigs tipped with a minnow. 4-5ft of water right off the bottom. Water temp was 52.5-54.5. 3 females loaded with eggs and looked like they were dropping a couple. 2 males bellys were super full. Fish tasted very good too! here they are

4-9-09 picture by westtenncrappie - Photobucket

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Went today. Fished till noon with no luck just some small fish. Man it was cold this morning and a north wind made it worse. I lost alof of boat those first hours so i may have been getting bit but never new it. It was windy and seemed like the fish were small. Moved at 12:00 and got on them pretty good in 3-4ft of water trolling jigs tipped with a minnow. Same as two days prior they hit it hard but wouldnt hold on. They hit steady though and I learned alot today about an area I never fished much before and crappie behavior. Im tellin ya guys I get a great thrill out of learning things about this lake that will help me catch fish in the future.

Fished with CrappieHound and his girlfriends father. Good times. Let the hound have the fish i had to go with his to make a good fry for the family. I took 3 home for me to eat. we didnt put big numbers in the boat today but they were there. Just hard to catch. I learned em though. No pics, me and hound split at the ramp. Man im tired. Fishing is going to get good again real soon.

Justin,
Sounds like it was really rough. I'm glad yall had a good time while you were out there and learned something too. Have a great Easter!
Lynn

Hey WTC, Sounds like you had a good time on the water. Was just
wondering if you could share some info on your setup. I have been
experimenting spider rigging mostly with just minnows on reelfoot rigs.
When using jigs, are you using a single or double and what pole length
do you prefer? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Still new to the game.;)

I use 12 ft rods. I would probably prefer 14-16ft rods int eh shallow water but its a handful as it is. When I pull jigs I use a single hook setup. Mostly becuase the water is shallow and its not difficult to figure the depth the fish are holding

Right On WTC!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WestTennCrappie

I use 12 ft rods. I would probably prefer 14-16ft rods int eh shallow water but its a handful as it is. When I pull jigs I use a single hook setup. Mostly becuase the water is shallow and its not difficult to figure the depth the fish are holding

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i think ya need a yankee to help ya out with getting the limit brother.