Thread: Watts Bar Crappie ..

What's up with the Watts Bar Crappie, anyhow

Fished Fri afternoon, Sat, and til noon Sunday ... caught about 30 fish, but only 16 were good keeper fish (well over the 10" mark). We threw back at least 5 fish that barely stretched over the 10" mark. All were caught around 15ft deep around submerged trees or under docks, and everyone else was drifting minnows out in 20-30fow ... catching fish at 10-25ft deep (just like everyone was doing over a week ago, according to the locals)

We were using jigs, casting & vertical jigging. Best water temp was ~63deg, water is clear w/3ft visibility and on a slow rise ... but still ~2ft from pool. Males were starting to turn dark, females had light yellow colored eggs. That makes me think they're still a week or two from hitting the shallows. The fish we did catch were in good shape & healthy.

Anyone that goes there & notices their fish are coming from shallow water ... I'd appreciate a PM to let me know. I might make the trip back down, if I start hearing good reports.

FYI/FWIW
Our fish came from the Whites Creek area, and "popsicle" was the productive color.

... cp

dont know about watts bar, but we have been on chicamauga and tellico pretty regularly and the males are heavily colored and the females we are catching are very shallow, today i was trolling in 1.8-2.4 fow. we will be heading up your way this thursday to give it a try. thanks for the report