01-05-2015, 10:00 AM
Chris invited me to join him in a 1/2 day of Shellcracker fishing below Watts Bar dam. It was cold, wind out of the north to begin with, changing to the west and back to the NE before we finished at 1:45. We were dressed for the cold weather though and nothing suffered except the tips of my fingers and I had on 1/2 finger gloves. But I survived. emoBig
<br /><br />We fished with nightcrawlers and the bite was extremely slow. We fished a drop shot rig and would just let it sit on the bottom for up to 3 or 4 minutes at a time before one would finally pick it up. Sometimes, we would just go to move it and the fish would be on for no telling how long. We caught a lot of little ones that we threw back, but did manage to keep 14 for dinner and a couple of bags for the freezer. We also landed probably 20 or more bluegills. Only kept one that was big enough to fillet. It was a fun type of fishing and one that I want to do more of in the coming year. My goal is to catch a 10&quot; bluegill which would give me the master angler 3 award from TWRA. <br /><br />This is probably my last report of the year. Unless I go crappie fishing in the next 2 days, I and my fishing buddies will have landed 2399 crappie this year. I don&#39;t really know how many tarps. My PB crappie this year was 16&quot; 2 lb 1 oz fish in our first CCC tournament. Biggest Black Nose crappie was a little over 15&quot; and just at 2.0 lbs. <br /><br />Happy New Year everybody. Thanks for taking me fishing today, Chris. You really know what you are doing. emoBig emoGeezer
<br /><br />We fished with nightcrawlers and the bite was extremely slow. We fished a drop shot rig and would just let it sit on the bottom for up to 3 or 4 minutes at a time before one would finally pick it up. Sometimes, we would just go to move it and the fish would be on for no telling how long. We caught a lot of little ones that we threw back, but did manage to keep 14 for dinner and a couple of bags for the freezer. We also landed probably 20 or more bluegills. Only kept one that was big enough to fillet. It was a fun type of fishing and one that I want to do more of in the coming year. My goal is to catch a 10&quot; bluegill which would give me the master angler 3 award from TWRA. <br /><br />This is probably my last report of the year. Unless I go crappie fishing in the next 2 days, I and my fishing buddies will have landed 2399 crappie this year. I don&#39;t really know how many tarps. My PB crappie this year was 16&quot; 2 lb 1 oz fish in our first CCC tournament. Biggest Black Nose crappie was a little over 15&quot; and just at 2.0 lbs. <br /><br />Happy New Year everybody. Thanks for taking me fishing today, Chris. You really know what you are doing. emoBig emoGeezer