Thread: Almost!!

What a tough loss, 99 to 94 in overtime for the hometown boys in Orange. A great season nonetheless, and a great coach at the helm. I have been threatening to get the boat out for a month now, and I finally drug the old girl out and over to Cherokee for a shakedown cruise and some Crappie fishing. A beautiful morning in E TN, I probably passed 20-30 boats heading in all directions to the area waters and boat ramps. Water temps were around 57 when I put in around 8am, and for 2 hours I probed the shallows with various offerings, but with no luck, not even a nibble. Brush, bridge piers, rip rap, even a small creek, nothing. I texted the wife and told her if I did not have a fish in the livewell by 10am I was coming on in. Yep, you guessed it at 9:58am I felt a small tick and set the hook on a 12in Slab. A quick reset of the drag and frantic scramble for the net and number 1 was in the hole. For the next hour I worked the mid depth structure 10-15ft with my plastic bait and stuck 10 more nice ones before the wind started getting too rough to do what I was attempting to do in this depth of water. UL equipment and small diameter lines just do not fair well in the wind. Here was the little bait that saved the day, I picked it up at the Fishing Expo, do not even know the name of the color but it doesn’t matter, it worked today.
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I did use Lite Wire hooks, a necessity on Cherokee fishing around the gnarly stuff, and a 3lb fluorocarbon leader on a sinking braid. Knots held a little better today, a few re ties but no fish break offs. I invited 9 home for the freezer, all nice sized fish.
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One scared the 14inch TARP line, a brute!!
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And of course I did find a perfect eating sized Spotted Bass willing to play, and he made the 6 mile trip back to the house with the others.
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A good morning, almost a skunk, but with electronics and some luck, a nice mess of fish. With warming water temps and the Fish staging in the mid range depths, the spawn should start any time now. Get out there if you can, and as always GO VOLS.
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