Finally a crappie report. 9/15/19

[drumking]

It has been 46 days since my last crappie trip and I was needing some Slab Sauce slathered all over my plastic jigs. It felt so good when I caught my first keeper on the second cast of the morning. It was only a small 10.5” Black crappie but he had a ticket to ride, so we let him.

We found these fish on my favorite off shore structure on the main river channel of Chickamauga reservoir. I was amazed at how many fish were on the structure that did not want to bite. We fished this spot a good 30-45 minutes or more and only caught 4 keepers in the 10-11” range and more short 9” crappie (6) along with 2 Spotted bass. Then we went dock shooting.

We had marginally better luck on docks in Ware Branch. 5 more keepers which included the big crappie of the day (13.75”) White crappie that fell for a 1.5” panfish assassin in the Albino Shad color. I had more bites on this color than any other although Blue Ice Baby Shad by Bobby Garland did produce 3 fish in a row when I first tied it on.

Dr Phil came along with me to keep me in the boat and calmed down as much as he could. He kept catching short crappie and keeping them away from my lures. He released a couple of 10” that just barely were legal size but except for that one big white crappie, the good fish were no shows today. I did take 9 home to begin restocking my freezer. I gave all my crappie away last month to my grandkids in Louisiana.

Water temp this morning was 81.6 and TVA running 13,300 cubic feet per second. Wind was calm and sun not too hot for the early morning hours.