Thread: Chickamuga Report 5/7/17

I trolled cranks for about three hours today generally staying in 20-35 feet of water and looking for suspended fish. It was a weird and mixed up catch today. 1 White bass, 1 striper, 4 spots, and 5 crappie. I brought home four crappie to eat, but none of the fish I caught were very big. The recent storms have the lake up still and the fish were hugging the bottom for the most part. I probably should have used a different technique to catch more crappie, but I really like trolling. The water temperature has been pushed back down to the low to mid 60's for the part of the lake that I fished and all of the crappie I kept had eggs.

Can someone tell me what's going on with the spawn this year? I thought the crappie would be all done with the spawn by this time of year and water temperature.

Have a great spring, JayW

Lot of fish on TN river still have eggs as well. My understanding is that they spawn at different times over several weeks so the ones with eggs my not have spawned yet


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rising water and cooler water temps have pushed them back out

rising water and cooler water temps
water needs to stabilize

JayW - It seems like ever since the lake has been up for a couple of weeks the crappie we've been catching in the 20-25 foot range have been tight to the bottom also. We've had very good success with modified Kentucky rigs...drop shot...bottom bouncing whatever you might want to term it we just make sure a hook is about a foot from the bottom. Jigs...Berkley Gulp minnows and "tuffies" have been part of our arsenal. I know this is the time of year when people start trolling crankbaits. I'm not real sure why more crappie aren't suspended right now ?

A lot of the crappie I'm catching still have eggs also and water temp has been the same around mid 60's. We're spider rigging and finding fish around 12-14 ft deep in 18-20 ft of water. Had another decent day today on Ft. Loudon though with 18 keepers. Good luck!


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Thanks for the replies. I am mostly thinking the same thing as you all, but I also think some of the fish may not lay eggs at all this year due to the extreme fluctuation in the water levels this spring. Does egg reabsorption happen more frequently than most might think?

Try this week with the full moon today and stable weather the fish should be on the banks. Good luck and good report.

This reply is about 12 days late, but the crappie that I have caught this week have already spawned. I am finding them on vertical structure (bluffs, etc) and off shore drops with stumps or brush. Most are deep. 15-20 count or more with a 3/32 oz jig head.