Watts Bar help

[novorandall]

I've got a couple days off to fish this coming week and was wondering if anyone is doing any good either trolling or dock shooting on the Bar as of late? Any help is appreciated, as it's a couple hours driving from here. Thanks!

[CrappiePappy]

With the E Tenn club tourney coming up next weekend, members may be a bit tight lipped about where or how they're fishing.

TWRA report from Sep 29th says .... night fishing under lights ... water temp 74deg

With that in mind, I'd opt for fishing deep docks ... on or near the bottom or just above the thermocline (if one exists). Keep an eye out for schools of small Shad and fish the areas where they're concentrated. It's getting time for the Shad to start moving towards the backs of creeks, so the Crappie should be setting up at ambush points or following them.

If it wasn't a 4hr drive for me, I'd fish there more often and have a better understanding of their seasonal movements. But, as it is, I just have to guess where they're going to be ... and I'm not always right about that

I'd suggest asking on the Ohio forum, as I usually see more boats from Ohio than Tenn when I'm down there ... but, I don't know as any of them were Crappie.com members, so it'd be a crap shoot whether you'd get any replies

No guarantees that my info will produce for you, so I'd watch and see how others are fishing and chat with them to see if what they're doing is productive. I've done that a few times, myself, and "saved the day" on otherwise unproductive trips.

... cp

[novorandall]

Thanks for the info CrappiePappy!

[tenncrappie]

Rite now Dock shooting and pitching brush with jigs seems to be the ticket.

[novorandall]

Well, I gave it a shot Monday morning. Got up at 5 am, drove 2 hours, launched into solid fog, trolled, shot docks, fished brush...all for 1 dink. Did manage some line pull from 8 nice kitty cats. So...I've tried fall fishing the Bar for 2 years now, and just can't seem to figure them out. I'm not giving up though! I KNOW there are lots of nice crappie in there. Just gotta figure them rascals out.