Bro came out from east tn this weekend to fish, all in all a pretty good weekend given slight northern breeze we had yesterday. we got a good mixed bag of fish. we ended up for the 2 days with 72 crappie (kept 20 for eating) 8 nice hybrids landed another 4 lost (released) 3 fat catfish, i would guess about 3-4 lbs a piece (released), 6 largemouths (released) and buckets of yellow bass and bluegills all released.
most of the fish came from the area's around Bryant Grove/Long Hunter/Poole Knob. Some fish came deep 20-22ft of water and some as shallow as 3-4 ft.
used a mix of bobby garlands and jigging rapalas. didnt find any number of big crappies, biggest was just a smidge over 13, but we only had 2 shorts for the 2 days.
it wasnt easy trying to vertical jig a 1/16th oz jig in 20ft of water with the 15-20mph winds yesterday over a school of suspending crappie. LOL
finicky fish sometimes. if you were perfect vertical, they hammered the jig, but if we got off on an angle just a few a few degrees, we couldnt buy a bite. im sure if we would have kept shallower alot more than what we did, we might have had an easier time, but my number 1 rule of fishing: never leave fish to find fish. we also found some deep water structure that i plan on parking over in the summer months.
some of the hybrids were over deep water, 40-50 ft but about 15 ft down, and some were in shallower water. we had the big shiners swimming seductively, but all of them came on crappie minnows. warmest water we found was just over 53 degrees.
pic of one of the hybrids and one of the nicer LM we got. It was good to hear that drag sing again when we stung those hybrids!
Jpp 3/22-3/23-
