Fishing Forum

My wife has been wanting to go fishing for quite some time. She is only off on Saturdays vs me being off during the week. Traditionally, I hate fishing on the weekend anyway just because of the people and fishing pressure. But we decided to go. She went hunting Sat morning and passed on 5 does that came within' 50 yards of us. But I'm kind of glad she did, other wise we would have been skinning and cutting up a deer the rest of the day vs fishing. So we went and "commandeered" dad's boat and off we went.<br /><br />Anyway...to the fishing stuff.<br /><br />We put in at Wolf T in the after noon. The water is pretty low...not sure how low it gets down there, but it was just a few inches deep at the end of the dock @ the ramp. Might have to skip using the dock until the water gets back up. <br /><br />Conditions: Mostly cloudy, with a little sprinkle here and there. Wind was steady but not as bad as it was the last time I was down there; still had minor white caps. Water was decently with a 2 or 3 foot visibility. Water temps were in the upper 50s...saw 58-59 degrees in most places we went. <br /><br />My main objective was the idle around until I found bait fish...and I knew if I did that, we would find crappie. Last time down there, we couldn't find much of anything in regards to bait fish. This go around, we searched a bit and found several large schools of it. Some were so thick it would blank the screen out on the depth finder. Not far from those, I found the tell tale sign of suspended crappie...several schools of them suspended between 7 and 15 feet in the water column. Knowing they are there is one thing...catching them is another.<br /><br />We've not figured out the 30+ fish days thing down there, but can find the fish for sure. The wind made it hard to fish..we didn't get bit on any jigs that we threw. I dunno if we just ain't doing it right or don't have the right color that they want for jigs. But for whatever reason, they just don't like what we have. So we decided to try the crankbait trolling thing...which I wasn't sure if it would work with the water being that cold. We boated only 3 keepers and they were barely 10 inches but at least it showed we could find the fish. Had several hits but they just weren't actively chasing or nailing the cranks. We would only get bit when moving WITH the wind...when we could make a turn and come back into the wind, we wouldn't get a hit. I tried to duplicate the speed of the boat to see if that was what was going on...but no dice. I think maybe the fish were facing into the current generated by the wind...and thus when we would come into the wind, the cranks would be approaching via their tails...vs coming with the wind, in which it would be coming right at their faces. Not sure...but it sounds good to me. Moved to the cove that we've been seeing the gulls diving on, and caught a few yellow bass/stripe there but no crappie. Also caught one little 10" spotted bass. But we decided to call it a day since it was getting toward the dusky part of the day. Still a fun time on the water. But I believe it's about time most of our efforts will be on the Hiwassee.<br /><br />http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b241/danieltn/PART_1384047213923_zpsc5e45b41.jpg<br /><br />http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b241/danieltn/PART_1384047161603_zpsced172e6.jpg<br />