Percy Priest

[Alan 54]

I went to Priest yesterday fishing for crappie. It was several years ago that I fished Priest. Put in at Fate Sanders about 8 in the morning. Fished up river to the split. We had one keeper. Saw a couple guys fishing minnows about a foot deep and close to shore on steep banks. They had 5 keepers. We turned around and headed toward the dam. I had several spots that has been productive years ago. All of those spots had boats on them. We caught one more nice crappie in a marina and several yellow bass. We kept 2 crappie and 2 yellow bass. We then went back to FS and had supper at Hoppy's Marina.
Not sure when I'll get back out. Both trucks need some repairs, minor repairs, I hope. Alan

[TnCreekMaster]

thanks for the report Alan, glad you were able to get back out there!

[Alan 54]

thanks for the report Alan, glad you were able to get back out there!I barely made it. I live in Columbia and it's at least an hour drive. That morning I hooked up the ford to the boat, no trailer lights and no power to the plug. So I switched trucks. Got lights !!! so as I am driving down 840 East the truck started acting up. Service brake system soon was the warning. On the way home I started to get hiccup's in the transmission. The next day I drove it to town and it hiccuped several more times. I stopped at a stop sign. Truck wouldn't move. Like it was in neutral. The dash said, selected shift was inhibited. I took it to a friends shop. They did a complete diagnostic and found the transmission module bad and the speed sensor. Waiting on the trans module. I haven't had time to search out the issue on the Ford. All the fuses and power are good. I'm hoping a broken wire or wires.
I am thinking of OH for crappie. I have never fished OH for crappie before. Any suggestions on where to start looking and ramping would be appreciated. Priest has to many boats and fruitcakes driving them. Alan

[TnCreekMaster]

I barely made it. I live in Columbia and it's at least an hour drive. That morning I hooked up the ford to the boat, no trailer lights and no power to the plug. So I switched trucks. Got lights !!! so as I am driving down 840 East the truck started acting up. Service brake system soon was the warning. On the way home I started to get hiccup's in the transmission. The next day I drove it to town and it hiccuped several more times. I stopped at a stop sign. Truck wouldn't move. Like it was in neutral. The dash said, selected shift was inhibited. I took it to a friends shop. They did a complete diagnostic and found the transmission module bad and the speed sensor. Waiting on the trans module. I haven't had time to search out the issue on the Ford. All the fuses and power are good. I'm hoping a broken wire or wires.
I am thinking of OH for crappie. I have never fished OH for crappie before. Any suggestions on where to start looking and ramping would be appreciated. Priest has to many boats and fruitcakes driving them. Alan

I actually had a very similar issue happen to my 05 avalanche, backed down the ramp at shutes branch, loaded up my stratos, took it out of park and instally lost all my gears, like you said it was like I was in neutral, turned out my shift linkage broke, luckily a nice guy there happened to know exactly what to do and I was able to get the boat home and drop the truck off at the shop. I'm just thankful it was a slow evening at the ramp cause that area can get really busy.

My suggestion for crappie on old hickory would be to focus on the bigger creeks like drakes, cedar, station camp (east and west) and Spencer creek, all of those having really nice wood and big flats. I haven't been out on ohl this year but going off the Omohundro Wtr Plt gauge it's saying 61 degrees so the mid to upper parts of the creeks should be getting in the upper 60's and crappie should be in full spawn mode. If you coming from the south side there's a really nice boat ramp off hwy 109 in laguardo (upper part of Spencer creek) or there's another ramp mid creek called tyree access. Both ramps have courtesy docks and are rarely full especially on weekdays. Personally my favorite way of catching pre and post spawn crappie is to troll 1/16oz - 1/8oz jigs with either grubs or small swim baits, some small crankbaits also work really well. You'll also pickup catfish, drum, Yellow and white bass trolling those baits, it can really make for a fun day. I wouldn't be fishing anything deeper than 12ft.

Tight Lines 🤙
Tyler

[Alan 54]

I actually had a very similar issue happen to my 05 avalanche, backed down the ramp at shutes branch, loaded up my stratos, took it out of park and instally lost all my gears, like you said it was like I was in neutral, turned out my shift linkage broke, luckily a nice guy there happened to know exactly what to do and I was able to get the boat home and drop the truck off at the shop. I'm just thankful it was a slow evening at the ramp cause that area can get really busy.

My suggestion for crappie on old hickory would be to focus on the bigger creeks like drakes, cedar, station camp (east and west) and Spencer creek, all of those having really nice wood and big flats. I haven't been out on ohl this year but going off the Omohundro Wtr Plt gauge it's saying 61 degrees so the mid to upper parts of the creeks should be getting in the upper 60's and crappie should be in full spawn mode. If you coming from the south side there's a really nice boat ramp off hwy 109 in laguardo (upper part of Spencer creek) or there's another ramp mid creek called tyree access. Both ramps have courtesy docks and are rarely full especially on weekdays. Personally my favorite way of catching pre and post spawn crappie is to troll 1/16oz - 1/8oz jigs with either grubs or small swim baits, some small crankbaits also work really well. You'll also pickup catfish, drum, Yellow and white bass trolling those baits, it can really make for a fun day. I wouldn't be fishing anything deeper than 12ft.

Tight Lines 🤙
Tyler

Tyler, Thanks for the information. I will post something on here when I catch something....LOL. I did get a report from TN River south of the I-40 bridge. Almost a zilch. a few shorts and no keepers.
I think the trailer plug is fixed. Somehow it came partially unplugged. The dually is still not repaired. Needs a transmission control module. We had one and it was a bad one. Another one was shipped today. I will see.