Richard Boehm from Dickson, TN and his Dad, Henry (from Mississippi) have been regular clients for a years. They meet in Chattanooga to fish with me and yesterday they brought along Richard's future father-in-law, Darrell Winn. They also brought along the traditional Boehm luck (or skill).
They always book crappie trips before turkey season because once it opens, they are in the turkey woods non-stop. It seems we always have great trips together, but I was worried about yesterday's crappie bite with the up & down weather we've had.
We started off at sunrise like gangbusters, in the rain, in Wolftever Creek. We put a 15-fish limit in the livewell in about an hour, all fairly shallow... 10 feet or less. Then the rain quit and the bite shutdown like flipping a lightswitch. We struggled until Noon-thirty catching lots of short fish, but only had 8 more keepers. Finally I said, "We've got to make a big move," and headed out main lake to one of my traditional deeper water areas. For once I made a smart decision.
We got to the new area just before 1 pm with 23 keepers ... at 5:11 we put our 60th keeper in the livewell, along with a bunch of big yellow bass and a few misc. cats and big bluegill. When the Boehm's come to Chattanooga, they expect to stock the freezer. I had called a friend on the water who moved out with us and they put a limit in the boat as well.
We actually caught mostly white crappie, a couple of 2 lb.-plus fish, with a few fat black crappie thrown in. All caught in 10-15 feet of water slow trolling 1/16th oz. tube jigs... sometimes tipped with minnows (although I really don't think the minnows matter). I am really getting the hang of the i-Pilot now and was able to record a track and troll pretty much "hands-free." It's just incredible!
As usual, it was an awesome day with some great folks that are great fun to fish with. That means life is good and gettin' better every day.
(l-r) Darrell Winn, Richard Boehm, Henry Boehm (I'll post a little video later)
Chickamauga Crappie Bite is Hot
