Confirmation trip: M GO BLUE, Hiwassee shallow, springtime Crappie

[M GO BLUE]

I spent Saturday TRYING to work with the turkeys, but my RIDICULOUSLY HORRIBLE turkey season continues. Decided I'd rather spend my time Sunday chasing fish instead of giving these stubborn gobblers another minute of my precious weekend. Maybe next weekend.

Wanted to go to Watts Bar to see if I could post a follow-up report to the AWESOME report DK/Doc Phil posted, but couldn't arrange to get my butt going early enough. Off to Hiwassee I went. Decided to try to repeat the pattern from 2 weeks ago, only this time in a location I had never fished. Same deal, floating bobbers with BG shad on 1/16oz heads. Stuck with chartreuse patterns.

Not TOO bad, but pattern definitely showing signs of breaking down (fish are starting to bed is my guess, not positive). This north-side creek showed anywhere from 8-10 degrees warmer than two weeks ago.


I tried shallower/deeper areas, just to see and found them in all depths from 8' to 1.5'. Blacks "appeared" to be deeper and whites "appeared" to be shallower. If memory serves, all keeper blacks were from > 4ft and all keeper whites were from <2ft. Did fling my first white up in the net and saw something go flying:




...sadly, neither of the two critters previously pictured made it.

Ended up with well over 30 fish but most were lil' fella's; no bigs this time but did have what I refer to as a dandy white. These guys are inhabiting the freezer now:


Had a very relaxing afternoon, sure beat chasing turkeys that won't communicate! Anxious to try to learn the transition-period on these fish. Not sure where to look next?? (but thinking Watts Bar, to chase the toothy-critters)