Got up at 4:00 a.m. to go meet my nephew at Murfreesboro.....then to head on to Nickajack. First had to find the crappie. Didn't take long.....they are holding no more than 2 to 3 feet off the rip rap. Once we found them I had 13 fish in 17 casts. The bite was going good and then slowed down as the wind got to blowing pretty good. All fish were caught on a Bison colored Trout Magnet. We used 1/64...1/32....and toward the end had to move up to 3/32 ounce jig head to keep pace with the wind. We had to work hard to finish our limit. I used the twitch method and my nephew fished under the float. The fish were mostly 11-12 inch fish....not the usual 14 inch fare at Nickajack in the spring. But it is still early. Will hit it again next week. The fish are in their spawning colors and were really dark. Didn't take a lot of pics today as the phone keeps locking up....all I need is for something else to go bad to spend more money...LOL. Going to stop by Sprint and see if they can help. The waters still quite cool there and expect the big females to be up there next week. Ran into jaycee down there in his boat.....a real nice guy and always a pleasure to see him.
Apparently took us longer than you to limit. We had exactly the same experience, 11 to 12 inches. No giants, all dark black males. My friend used minnows, me the bison crappie magnet. Wind was tough.
All the fish we caught were males. Where are the big females? I know in another part of the lake. ha
But will the females come shallow to spawn? I never found them there last year. Tried deeper water but no luck. Any opinions appreciated.
John last year my nephew and I got into the big females on 10 April up through late May. It was same the spring before that. I don't know what the water temp was there yesterday. But I am thinking this week the big girls will show up. I will be going again on Friday if not before. The fishing is good on both sides of the rail road track. I don't fish the lake side as it is too difficult to cross tracks and get down to water without killing myself. I talked to my fishing buddy there yesterday and he told me the big ones have not shown in mass yet......and he probably fishes it 3 or 4 times a day. He also thinks this week we should see the big fish.
Nickajack 04/11/2014
