Headed to Nickajack early this morning expecting to get into the crappie big time. Didn't catch a single fish....of any kind. My 3 buddies I fish with down there all stopped by to see me. They fish 7 days a week and as many as 4 or 5 times a day. They have not caught a crappie at all this year. I knew when I came over that hill and saw only one boat in that bay it was not going to be good. For whatever the reason the crappie are not doing it at Nickajack. After a couple of hours of that I decided to stop off at Normandy and try for some trout. I caught a couple of dozen like the one in the pic and 10 Spots like in the pic along with 6 small black nose crappie....along with a few smaller trout. The wind was not helping at all today. I must have missed 80 fish today. The trout just seemed to be nosing the jig. The fish gave me all the fight I wanted. The spots being a nice bonus. I ran into Jim from the forum that lives in Mt. Juliet...I already forgot his forum name. Also TransplantedSportsman...Jesus...showed up. It was good to see him. I won't try Nickajack again until 7 April. I guess Normandy will be my spot until some of my waters warm up. I am tired...wind burned...but I am a happy fisherman. I had to fish 5 hours to get those fish today but the fight on 2# test was well worth my effort. Those spots didn't want to come to the net....makes for a lot of fun.
Good to meet you today Randy - I didn't stay long, but I'll be back to Normandy - it was a bit windy plus I had the family in tow...so my time was short. If anyone likes to hike and see some killer waterfalls - we first started at Short Springs State Natural Area right outside Tullahoma - gorgeous day and Bobo Creek is beautiful along with Machine Falls.
Good info Randy and Jim. I just learned about Short Springs bouncing around from the campsite pages for Normandy. Interesting.
We'll be fishing down at Harrison Bay/Skull Island area on Chickamauga next weekend and will report. Going to stay off Nickajack till better intel comes in.
Tonight we are at Montgomery Bell SP and will be putting the kayaks on one of its small lakes tomorrow.
Nickajack-Normandy
