Ron Swallow and his friend Tom Ensley drove all the way from Dayton, Ohio to fish with me Saturday. They've been down to Chickamauga Lake several times on their own to fish for bluegill and shellcracker, but they wanted to learn how to catch some crappie.
I did a great job showing them my crappie technique... I did a lousy job showing them crappie.
Crappie had lockjaw Saturday. Water temps are in the low 50's... stupid cold for this time of year. Personally I fear that the crazy weather and water conditions have pretty much ruined any chance we'll have for a serious, en masse, crappie spawn this year.
But back to report... we slugged it out with the crappie and crazy wind until a little after Noon for a grand total of seven keepers. So I decided it was time for Plan B. We pulled the boat out, I stocked up on wax worms and shiners (thanks to a morning report from my buddy Sam) and we headed below the Dam.
The wind was a major headache even down there... no way was I going downriver against 3-foot rollers. We messed around and caught bunches of bluegill for a while, although the "bigguns" haven't shown up yet. One keeper crappie teased us, but we could find no more. I wanted to wait for the "late bite" to break out the shiners. Ron and Tom were clearly none too impressed with the fishing while we were "killin' time."
But when the first shiner went in the water, Ron hooked up and we were in for a ride. After a ten-minute battle without seeing the fish, I was betting on a big drum or big catfish. Lo and behold Ron brings a striper to the net that was pushing 20 lbs. Not a bad job using an 8 lb. leader!
From then on, it was "on." Not numbers, but quality fish. Both of them landed a mixed bag of big drum, stripers, smallmouth, and catfish.. with one or two "break off's" thrown in for good measure. Besides his "personal best" ( and first) striper, Ron also boated a trophy smallmouth that was an ounce or two shy of 5 lbs.
I hated for the two of them to come all the way from Dayton, Ohio for lackluster fishing... but after a long, hard 14-hour day on the water the stars aligned and we ended on a very high note. They tipped well ... which means life is good and gettin' better every day.
Perseverence Pays Off
