Nickajack 4-18-2013

[Alphahawk]

This getting up at 2:00AM is killing me. I am only a year older but last year it was fine....not so this year. Caught 28 on Nickajack today. Bison Trout Magnet was the lure. About half of these fish were caught twitching and the others under the float. Had to go to the float as the wind was just out of hand. hotwielen65 from the forum showed up down there next to us. Ray is a super nice guy and it was a pleasure to finally meet him. He needed 3 more fish to limit out and we needed 9 more.....we came up short by 2 fish. But I knew if I did not leave right then I would have to get hotel. Me and my nephew headed to undisclosed location to get out of wind and try to finish out and I gave Ray a tip on an undisclosed location where he could get out of the wind and maybe get 3 more fish...which he did. If you wanted black crappie, fish right on the bank...if you wanted white crappie, cast about 30 feet out. We had a few fish at 11 inches but most were 12 to 14 inches. The best is still yet to come down at Nickajack. The water is still too cool for them to spawn. Hardly any Gills were caught. My nephew had a nice 3 pound large mouth. Where he caught it at I couldn't get to him to take a good pic. That was it...no sand bass.....no white bass....just crappie. The wind is not going to let up until sometime next week. Had I put the kayak in I could have flown down wind but it would have been a tough paddle back...if I could have made it back. It was a steady wind at 21 MPH and gust sometimes to 30 MPH.


Regards

[MNfisher]

Man those are some nice crappie!! Nice job again!!

[Travis C.]

Boy that's a nice crappie.

I can't help but think what kind of damage you could do with an Alabama Rig of Bison Trout magnets.

[Transplanted Sportsman]

Man Alpha you make it look just so darn easy!! it makes me think you must carry one of those electric sampling devices that TWRA uses to shock fish on a back pack or something to have a cooler full of them slabs Lol!!! but I know better, you are just one heck of a fisherman!!, congrats!! PM sent by the way!!

[Alphahawk]

Man Alpha you make it look just so darn easy!! it makes me think you must carry one of those electric sampling devices that TWRA uses to shock fish on a back pack or something to have a cooler full of them slabs Lol!!! but I know better, you are just one heck of a fisherman!!, congrats!! PM sent by the way!!

Thanks...but I just happen to know some places that crappie hang out. There is a great fishing report via Doug Markham's facebook page. It describes what is going on with the bite on Kentucky Lake. But the report would apply to Nickajack as well....and probably many other bodies of water. It talks about how the weather has been playing around with the crappie....scattering them. Also goes into lake elevations doing same. So basically it tells why you go out on a day at Nickajack and catch no crappie and someone else goes the next day and kills them. We also have another cold front coming in so it is just going to confuse them more. It looks like it will be about 5 or 6 days before the crappie will get into that mode where they hit at anything that comes by.


Regards

[master_cat]

i want to learn how to use those trout magnets is wat i want to do looks like great fun i catch giant catfish but somedays i just wanna do normal fishing

[nomad60]

Great job again, Alpha! You are truly the master of the TM ;)

[creekcrappie]

Giant slabs! That first black crappie is dark!

[Alphahawk]

Giant slabs! That first black crappie is dark!

Yeah that get so black they will be purple! My camera is not good enough to show just how colored these fish are.


Regards

[MNfisher]

! My camera is not good enough to show just how colored these fish are.
Regards

I know someone whose camera will show those colors quite nicely!! :)

[chaseasl]

Y'all are earring them out

[tsuggs]

sweeet!

[hotwielen65]

It was great to finally me you also, I enjoyed watching your technique with the TM. I worked with it when I was down there and caught several, just getting use to feeling the bite before they spit it is the hard part for me. I'm going to get a rod with a little more back bone to feel the strike better.
There is just something about the crappie down there, they are broad across the back and put up a better fight, very healthy fishery. When I cleaned mine I had about 2 males to every female, I'm guessing that the full blown spawn is getting real close. I have to develope more customers in that area for sure!

Great fishing to all,
Ray

[fatherof4]

WOW-those are nice. The water temp up here has dropped to 57- I managed 5 yesterday that looked to be from Ethiopia- never seen such skinny crappie in the Spring!

Ben