First 2 Trips in TN, Daughters did great!

[htr2133]

Last Thurs. I took my 7 year old to Old Hickory. I told her before we left, it was time to learn how to fish for crappie. She said she was ready. This was my first time to crappie fish Old Hickory Lake. We launched at Shutes Branch and hugged the coves and protected areas because man was it windy! We fished from 1-7 and brought home 3 nice crappie. Caught all crappie in 6-12 fow about 4 ft deep on spinning rod. I felt the crappie were really wanting to bite, but boat control was near impossible in the areas I wanted to fish. I was so proud of my daughter, she never gave up even though the fishing was slow and by the end of the day she was presenting her baits so much better. This was the first trip together where I felt like we really fished together.

Sat. I went back with my 4 year old daughter who amazed me; aside from a couple of snack breaks she fished hard the entire day from 12-7:30. I had to force her to leave at 7:30 when it was getting dark. She was determined to catch one by herself. I was also blow away by how much improvement she demonstrated being able to cast as the day went on. I also kept 3 good keepers on Sat. The fish were shallower on Sat. it seemed, but it was sunny and I didn't catch any crappie until I fished some shadowed areas late in the day. All crappie Sat. were caught on BGBS electric chicken (pink/char); I also caught a few on black/char tube jig.

Both of my girls are asking to go again and both are determined to catch a crappie by themselves without my help. I couldn't be more excited to fish with them this year.

[Dave and Lynn]

Your a lucky man to have such great fishing partners. You may want to check out the home page article about slip float rigs. It makes it a lot easier for the little ones to cast on short poles. Great pics.

[htr2133]

Your a lucky man to have such great fishing partners. You may want to check out the home page article about slip float rigs. It makes it a lot easier for the little ones to cast on short poles. Great pics.

I am a lucky guy!

I definitely read the slip float article. I tried using slip floats to help with casting on both trips and just gave up. I think the ones I'm using are cheapies and the knot never stays put. I definitely need to use that with the kids bc their short rods can't handle the correct depth with a fixed float.