Need help on Old Hickory Lake

[htr2133]

Hi everyone, I am still new to the mid-tn area as well as Old Hickory Lake. I'm also a beginner at trying to spider rig/vertical troll. This past week I was able to fish 3 separate times early morning before it got super hot. I figured crappie would be in deeper water near creek channels and drops.

I fished all over the cedar creek channel and on drop edges in 12-28 FOW. We caught 2 keeper crappie and those were the only crappie we caught.

I am seeing brush/structure and fish suspended around 12-15 ft deep. Am I on the right track here as far as general area and water depths for this time of year (85 degree wt)?

I am using double jig rigs w 1/2 -3/4 oz egg sinkers in between 2 1/16 oz jigs. I've got my jigs spaced about 2-3 ft apart. I've tried about ever color I own.

If I had to guess, I think I'm fishing too shallow and too fast. Here is why: today I had 12-14 ft of line pulled off my trolling rods. I tried to keep the boat in 16-22 FOW bc this seems to be where I mark more fish. 2 different times this morning I quickly came up on shallower flats or humps. The shallowest was only 8 FOW. My baits never even bumped the bottom. I was shocked. This whole time I was confident my baits were running 10-12 ft deep, right above the majority of the fish I am marking. In reality, I think they may have been running more like 6-8 ft deep. My TM is a 5 speed and on my lowest speed into a head wind I pull about .9mph. I guess w this speed and the line and weight resistance my baits are riding up much higher than I thought.

Any advice or info to better dial in my presentation or fishing areas would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

[rayzor65]

OH is my home lake, Cedar creek is a good place to start, I also like to spider rig around the lock 3 area, it has lots of creek beds to work around in. I usually fish with my bait around the 12 foot mark as well. I think where we have a big difference is I run a 1/2 oz weight and troll at a speed that my line from rod tip (about a foot of the water) to where it goes into the water is trailing maybe 2" which I'm guessing is .2 to .4 mph. I like to use tube skirts with a minnow, colors usually are green sparkle/chart (firecracker), smoke/white, Popsicle/chart and red/chart. Before I bought my new MK i ran in speeds 1 or 2.

Hope this helps,
Ray

[htr2133]

Thanks Ray; that is great info. Sounds like I'm close, but compared to you I am definitely running faster and therefore shallower. I have been reading this morning on here and I don't know why I haven't tried any docks the past few days? Probably because most of them in the Cedar Creek area are in less than 10fow and I'm nervous people will get upset for me fishing around their docks. Have you every tried docks in that area?

[rayzor65]

My main way of catching crappie on OH is shooting docks, the water belongs to us all whether under a dock or not, no one can tell you that you can't fish around their dock. I've seen them hang rope in the water and other things to make it hard but as long as you don't touch the dock its fair game. That said I have found most people if you show respect for them they will return in kind. I fish docks in as shallow as 6 feet of water this time of the year and catch fish, it depends on if there is bait around the dock, you can tight line jigs and minnows if you don't know how to shoot but I will tell you there are more fish to be had shooting up under pontoon boats in docks than any other way of fishing docks.

Ray

[jimp]

To OP:
Try a heavier sinker or a drift sock to help slow your speed down. GL