The Pond "Crappie City"
 

Went to the Pond on the Caney today hoping for some trout or bluegill. I knew if nothing else I would get some chunky Gills and have some fun. I didn't catch a single bluegill.....not even under the water falls. I caught one brook trout and had two massive browns follow a Rapala UL #3. I paddled all over the Pond looking for fish. The sonar did not show what I thought I would see. There was a small shad kill this a.m. and a few rainbow would come up and play with the shad but wouldn't eat it. Yet down past the steps at the campground the white bass were tearing them up. In the end I found some very nice crappie and after I boated number 27 called it a day. The crappie were caught using a white Trout Magnet along with a Bison Trout Magnet. Got a shot of some big fish on bottom....maybe walleye...I don't know. I didn't keep a single fish but wish I had brought a cooler. The crappie were really nice. Talked with Janice at Big Rock and she remarked how the bluegill have been noticeably absent but said some really nice crappie had been coming out. The water temps I got ranged from 54 to as much as 62 degrees in one place but most places it was around 58 degrees. Janice told me before they turned the generators on water was 52 degrees.

nice report with great photos and screens shots.. thanks as always.

Wow Alpha, amazing. Although I'm a few years short yet, I need to retire now and spend more time on the water. 27 Crappie? Can't catch them on a weekday when I'm 20 floors up in downtown Nashville. I'm bummed.

Just curious what area of the caney is called the pond? Dam or ...?

Right below the dam on the waterfall side.

Very cool, looks like they were stacked up in there pretty nice. Not sure about the Walleye pic, I'm no expert on those fish but sitting that low on the bottom that would be my guess. Only one way to find out :D

What do you attribute the shad kill to? Do you think its natural process? Nice crappie for sure. Thanks for the report.

I don't know. I feel it was a natural thing.....maybe thermal shock. Funny to watch the trout just play with them and not eat them.....at least the ones I was seeing. Very strange to not catch a bluegill up in there.

Regards

Nice crappie as always.

The water has been pretty cold this year it seems even down at Stonewall it's still in the upper 50's-low 60's.

Maybe those browns were cousins to mine Saturday night. ;) Usually if a brown tails your bait it's not gonna eat it.

I'd guess those could be walleye or trout. Both will lay on the bottom in a river setting. Trout typically are either in the top 1/3 of the water column or bottom 1/3 rarely the middle. Wouldn't shock me if those Alpha were big bows.

Great stuff! I actually already had plans to fish the pond tomorrow after work! How did you know about the whites down at the steps? I might have to check that out.

Walleyes????? Did somebody say walleyes? My ears started burning and i got a nervous twitch! LOL.
Do any of you guys that go down there specifically target the walleyes?
I know as much about the caney as i do about greek mythology!
Do you need a kayak to fish the pond or can ya get a boat there?

A guy floating the river and staying at campground told me so I drove in and saw for myself. They must have been doing it all morning and up through the afternoon. None up by the dam...that I saw anyway. The Pond fished strange today.


Regards

The Pond "Crappie City"
 

Awesome!

Yeah browntrout and I have witnessed so many follows up there with big browns makes one sick.....LOL. I agree with you...could be either specie..but most assuredly large fish. Two areas of the Pond are over 20 feet deep with one generator going....I would have never guessed. Out in the middle and the catch basin right below spill gates...it is actually a trough as you can tell from image.

Regards

It's tough to get anything bigger than a small jon boat in there. Darn near got a bass boat stuck in there one night. Chewed up a prop trying to get it back on the trailer.

I was up there one time when they were pushing 11,500 cfs fishing the pond and the water was 3ft over the top of the divider wall in front of the sluice bucket.

Yeah, right after the concrete pad from where the sluice ends its a good drop off heading into the bluff corner.

Held a ton of fish today. Life is good!



Regards

Yeah depending on water it can be tough. Did you get the new di on your boat yet? and if so any images? Humminbird needs to get their software fixed for the di display on their si units.


Regards

Gosh Alpha! 27 Crappies, I have not caught that many this year let alone one outing, those screen shots are sickenning!, man are they cool!, now I know what a Crappie looks like on the DI, what kind of transducer do you have and what are your DI settings if you dont mind me asking? congrats! and great report!

Thanks.....I have the HD transducer but I rarely use the 800 kHz. The di was set to 12 on sensitivity and 10 contrast with sharpness set to low. I had my scroll speed set to 3.....which was a mistake. I had read an article that said if MPH was 2 then set scroll speed to 3. Well on the di you see little dots.....had I set the scroll speed to 2 the dots would have been bigger and if set to 1 even bigger still. In the kayak I can get 2 MPH but that is about max so I need to keep scroll set to 2. I have always caught crappie in the Pond but that was not my intended target today.....but I am grateful for what the river gave me.


Regards

Interesting...

I'm headed to the Caney this weekend so I might have to see if I can get in to a few panfish. I've caught a few small sunfish out of there but I've never really targeted them. I don't typically keep fish but I bet crappies out of that cold water are delicious. I may have to take home a couple for the wife and I.

Wow I bet it was wild out there with 11,500.

I have fished under those same conditions. What is interesting is the pan fishing is usually better with no generators. The more water the tougher it is to get them. But for the big browns.....stripers......the fishing is better. As long as stay away from generators it is just like fishing a lake.

Regards

I didn't see the tree Travis.... Will look for it next time up. Should hold fish.

Regards

Yeah I was there last summer in the yak and they had 14000 going from the 3 generators. It was interesting to say the least.

That may have been what it was. 11,5 now that I think about it was where I jumped out of a plane.


Here's a reference at low water Pinwheeled. The falls on the bluff side I remember only the top one visible and huge gar as well as carp all around those green bushes when the water was that high.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xP11urIMKs...evins+dam1.jpg

Yeah, I remember just a few feet of falls. Pretty wild! It was around 15-16' deep below the falls, and none of the sluice bucket walls were visible.

Wow that's wild. How was the fishing though?

Landed my biggest fish to date then:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...ps591f8fed.jpg

I can't remember what all else we caught but caught other fish as well.

The next night was when Nick Adams caught that beast of a striper that was somewhere in the 40-50lb range. We were initially there for them and fished that same spot he did but were just a day early I guess.