Crappie on the verge

[thehick176]

Fished up river from the steam plant this morning from 6-12:30. We caught Crappie anywhere from 1 ft to 15ft. We fished coves with docks and even fished main river structure. Caught them all over.
We could only catch 6 or 8 at each spot. They aren't stacked up just yet. When the sun got up good, you were guaranteed a hit on the shadey side of a log, dock, etc.
If we get some cooler weather soon it should bust wide open. We had 7 solid keepers this morning but caught a ton of fish.

[thehick176]

I also noticed when I was cleaning them that a few of them had worms in the ribcage and a couple in the meat. I've never noticed that before and I've cleaned my fair share of Crappie.

[luckystratos]

Wow. Thanks for report. I have never crappie fished in fall but going to try. Been working 7days a week but will be off next weekend I hope to try it since bass sound like have disappeared. Are you using live bait or artificial.

[thehick176]

1/16th ounce jigs. Nothing against live bait but I'd rather catch them on jigs if possible. I was using a white jig head with a pearl plastic body and my buddy was using all chartreuse.

[TNBronzeback]

Great report! cool weather is just a few days off.

[Pinwheeled]

Great report. Thank you for sharing.


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[FishAddict]

Drakes was pretty dead yesterday AM, good to hear about someone getting into them. I see worms in them all the time, just cut that area out. That worm has a complicated life cycle where it passes through a bird first....

[skillet]

I did the same thing Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Did better Friday than Saturday. Same deal, catch a few crappie in a spot and it'd die. My best spot produced 3 keepers all weekend but caught a bunch of shorts.

As far as the "worms", just cut that out, no big issue there. Grease will take care of the remnants 😂


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[massman]

great to hear someone is catching them posted here a while back and no response's that's cool when I start catching them I will post on this fishing board good for all to know I just don't get out much but when I do I post what I catch and tell people where and what they hit on no secrets here. get out there and good fishing

[Heiny57]

I hope to get out to JPP Sunday and drown some minnows. I will post then. When are they going to draw the lake down?

[TNBronzeback]

I hope to get out to JPP Sunday and drown some minnows. I will post then. When are they going to draw the lake down?
The spill gates have been oien some for several days now. Not much water below the dam though.

[XxthejuicexX]

great to hear someone is catching them posted here a while back and no response's that's cool when I start catching them I will post on this fishing board good for all to know I just don't get out much but when I do I post what I catch and tell people where and what they hit on no secrets here. get out there and good fishing


How about period and comma use........ Tough reading. I'm guessing you are upset that no one responded to a report you posted?

:confused:

[skillet]

How about period and comma use........ Tough reading. I'm guessing you are upset that no one responded to a report you posted?

:confused:



Glad I wasn't the only one who's eyes had crossed reading that!!! 😂😂😂.


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[massman]

i don't punkuate

[XxthejuicexX]

i don't punkuate


We have noticed :D

[massman]

No just looking for good info , like my first question was I bank fish and was looking for a good place to drag some out . Most of the time I would be on a boat but buddy sold his :mad:. But it's all good just getting back on this board been a while . Like seeing what others in my area are catching, and on what type of lures.

[XxthejuicexX]

No just looking for good info , like my first question was I bank fish and was looking for a good place to drag some out . Most of the time I would be on a boat but buddy sold his :mad:. But it's all good just getting back on this board been a while . Like seeing what others in my area are catching, and on what type of lures.


I don't have any place I could share for bank fishing this time of the year. All my crappie have been in the 15-20' range hanging tight to brush. I will say that either white/chartreuse or purple/chartreuse crappie mags have been my go to.

[skillet]

I don't have any place I could share for bank fishing this time of the year. All my crappie have been in the 15-20' range hanging tight to brush. I will say that either white/chartreuse or purple/chartreuse crappie mags have been my go to.



Same here...no bank fishing for me unless I go below old hickory dam and walk the rocks and bank at the boat ramp. I'm a live bait fisherman when it comes to crappie, not much luck on artificial for me. The fish I've been finding have been shallower, but that's old hick for ya. It's hard to find 15-20 fow unless you're around the channel. Not saying the depth isnt out there, just saying the average depth is shallower than that.

Now, with the blue bird skies we've had and end of August weather, the crappie still have not grouped up real tight yet. So it's hard to bank fish for them in one area. And the schools that I have found are moving. They're not staying in one spot. Example: Friday, deezeltek and I went bass fishing that morning. We marked two or three trees that looked like there was crappie on them. We got off the water at lunch, he went to work, I grabbed a bite, and went back with a bucket of minnows. Those fish that we had seen and marked on my graphs had disappeared. So, I looked around in deeper water and no fish. Looked shallower and found some scattered. But could only manage 2-3 fish off a tree.


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[massman]

lol thanks guys I will have to walk around chutes branch and cedar creek and maybe some pockets of priest . until I come up on some two years ago I walked up on a great spot . but that was a one in a million shot of being there again . do good and fish hard :)

[SAMBOLIE]

I don't have any place I could share for bank fishing this time of the year. Both fish I caught this year have been in the 15-20' range hanging tight to brush. I will say that either white/chartreuse or purple/chartreuse crappie mags have been my go to since I caught one on each color

Nice of you to share this info.

[XxthejuicexX]

lol thanks guys I will have to walk around chutes branch and cedar creek and maybe some pockets of priest . until I come up on some two years ago I walked up on a great spot . but that was a one in a million shot of being there again . do good and fish hard :)

Go back to that spot. All my spots produce year in and year out.

[XxthejuicexX]

Nice of you to share this info.

I see what you did there. I started typing out a response about being a typo and noticed you changed my post...... I've caught more that two!








5

[agelesssone]

i don't punkuate

Spellingisofftwoits punchueight notpunkuate

[skillet]

Spellingisofftwoits punchueight notpunkuate



Well ain't you being the grammar FBI tonight!!! Don't you need to be looking into some emails or something???


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[jaycee]

Bank fishing is doable on JPPriest when water level is at winter pool.

[massman]

I am going to try a spot or two this weekend . maybe around suggs creek or seven points . maybe stay around old hickory fish the water below dam in the old hickory area of town .but that always a toss up for me LOL, have fun and fish hard

[thehick176]

Heading back out there this morning. I'll update the Crappie report this afternoon.

[agelesssone]

Since Priest has been spilling for a few days now, there should be all species of fish below the dam on the Stones river.

[thehick176]

Not much of a report from this morning. They were extremely sluggish. We caught 10 Crappie with only 1 being a keeper at 11 inches. We downsized our baits and slowed down the retrieve thinking that would do the trick. Guess not. It was a nice morning to be out there and even talked with a few deer hunters that had killed a few.

[Heiny57]

My son and I put in at 7 points at 9:00 Sunday, yeah I know way to late, we spider rigged Suggs Creek with 6 rods baited with minnows for an hour and boated 1 short Crappie. We had dozens of light bites, so they were small or finicky. Then we ran over by Hole in the wall Island to our White bass spot and jigged up 1 15" hybrid, 2 14" whites, 3 Yellows in about 10 minutes with a 1/4 once CC spoon, and then they quit. Not productive, but it was good to get out.

[Transplanted Sportsman]

I fished Normandy this past Saturday for about 4 hrs after midday and only managed 3 keepers, marked lots of fish all on brush or adjecent to, an unbelievable amount of bait, cloud after cloud of them with lots of fish under them, I wonder if one would be better off spider rigging, I have only seen one person do this on normandy in years, do any of you guys on here spider rigs in the fall and winter months and what settings do you do this?, creeks, or mouths of creeks? how deep, how fast? I would like to try this and see if I can do beter and keep my daughters entretained, they get bored watching a bobber, thanks in advance!!

[agelesssone]

I fished Normandy this past Saturday for about 4 hrs after midday and only managed 3 keepers, marked lots of fish all on brush or adjecent to, an unbelievable amount of bait, cloud after cloud of them with lots of fish under them, I wonder if one would be better off spider rigging, I have only seen one person do this on normandy in years, do any of you guys on here spider rigs in the fall and winter months and what settings do you do this?, creeks, or mouths of creeks? how deep, how fast? I would like to try this and see if I can do beter and keep my daughters entretained, they get bored watching a bobber, thanks in advance!!

If you want the girls to not be bored, STAY OFF NORMANDY!
That is a very tough lake that passes out MANY, MANY goose eggs every year. And does this quite often to seasoned anglers that fish the lake often.
I know guides that work there and struggle a lot of times to come in with 5-6 fish and rarely catch more than a couple walleyes in a trip.

Better to take them to a place that has bluegills or crappie or yellow bass, critters that are willing (usually) to sacrifice themselves for the enjoyment of youngsters.

[Transplanted Sportsman]

Thanks Merv!, the reason why I fish it is because it is the closest to me, 25 minutes puts me on the boat ramp, and I really do not know any other lake as I have only fished Tims or Priest a couple of times, this lake can surprise you with some well above average crappies more times than not, although very rarely I limit out, just seeking some general info on spider rigging as I never done this before and dont know anybody that does it, I figured I try something new, I love to get the hang on Priest as I did very well early in the spring crappie fishing from the bank, then work and family placed a damp on my fishing for most of the year but things have stabilized now and I'm anxious to catch up, thanks again!

[agelesssone]

I'd like to fish Normandy but it is 85 miles from me.
It does have some killer crappie and good walleye.

Go on the Crappie.com website for spider rig information.
Lots of guys do it. It is a very good way to catch fish, a little expensive to set up though.
It might be tough to do on Normandy because of the clear water and the spook easy fish there.
Good luck to ya!
I don't know how far you are from Woods Lake but that is a good crappie lake too.

[Transplanted Sportsman]

I bought the 14' long poles a couple of years ago, and this year I bought a drift master rod holder, I'm planning to do this just from the front of the boat for now, I'm in shelbyville so woods and jpp are the same distance from me, I used to fish woods often a few years ago, we caught fish almost all the time but they mostly short fish and the keepers didn't have the shoulders crappie have on normandy, thanks for the crappie.com tip, I have been on the forum looking in the past but only on the TN section, will try that then report, thanks again Merv!

[TNBronzeback]

If i ever around to consistantly catching walleyes out of Normandy im gonna send carrier pigeons, horse riding messengers, telegraphs ect, letting the world know i cracked the code on that lake! lol.
2 times ive gone, 1 trip was sun up to past dark and the last trip was a solid 9 hours and skunked both times....not just on walleyes, but anything in general. Lol. The snags were biting good though. Lol

[Heiny57]

I use 8 rods at a time. What questions do you have? I can post where I got all my equipment if you like.

[Heiny57]

Dual seat mounts and depfinder riser

[Transplanted Sportsman]

Man, that is a very nice set up Ray!, since I have decided that for now I will just do this with 4 poles in the front until I get the hang of it to minimize tangles and not to invest too much in this, I have what I need, now the question that I have is where to spider rig?, is this normally done on flats?, drop offs?, creek channels?, on structure or open water?, and how fast you normally go? all this is very new and trying to minimize the learning curve due to my limited time to fish, thanks in advance!

[Heiny57]

Literally all the above. It depends what part of the lake I am in. When I fish lower end of JPP I fish open water and watch for bait, if I'm up the river I fish channel edges. I try to move about .6 mph. Things are different when it's winter than spring, and when lake is low or high. Just cover water and you will figure it out.

[Transplanted Sportsman]

I guess it will have to be a lower speed in the winter time depending on weather and the conditions for the day, now it's a matter of spending time on the water, I will post how I do, thank you for all the advice!

[thehick176]

Fished up river from the steam plant this morning from 8:30 until noon. We had 18 keeper Crappie and caught about 30. All came on 16th ounce jigs close to the bank. We were sitting in 20 fow but within casting range of the bank. All of them came off brush or fallen logs using a very slow retrieve.

[FishAddict]

Any crappie reports on the lower end? I'm really wanting to go catch a few.