04-21-2011, 09:00 AM
Today was the day for lesson number 2 for Candi. I must say that she picks terrible weather conditions to try to find crappie. emoPoke It wasn&#39;t too bad when we first started, but the wind picked up quickly and gusting enough that it was white capping in the river. <br /><br />I must admit that from the first lesson until today, she has improved in the dock shooting technique. It was daylight to dark difference in her ability to shoot the jig around and under docks. Next lesson, we will work on detecting the bite of a crappie. Don&#39;t want to put too much strain on her all at once. emoBig
<br /><br />However, she does get bragging rights to the biggest fish caught today. A nice 2.5 lb (trashy green fish) largemouth bass. It was probably the fish that Chad Brauer lost last Thursday during the FLW tx. I saw him lose a bass of this size last week in this area. To say that the crappie were finicky today would be an understatement. It was an almost non-existent bite. We did end up with 17 crappie, 1 golden shiner and the lone bass. Of the female crappie that we caught today, most were at least 1/2 spawned out, and a couple of females were completely flat bellied. Already done their duty for the year.<br /><br />The fish were about 8 feet deep or better. Most of our strikes came as we were dead sticking the lure. I usually counted down to about 8 to 10 before even starting the retrieve and I would move the lure 1/2 turn on the reel. Let it glide for a few seconds, twitch, the turn the handle another 1/2 to 1 turn and repeat the process. The fish were in deeper water than one would expect for a spawning bank. Of course, the lake is 2 feet above summer level. I just hope that the spawners don&#39;t go real shallow today and drop their eggs, cause TVA is going to drop the bottom out of the lake again.<br /><br />We caught our fish on electric chicken and ghost scent wigglers and 1/32 oz jigheads. I had a great time with a great student of the game. I can&#39;t wait for stabilized weather conditions so Candi can actually see the little &quot;tic&quot; of the line that crappie make when they are biting so lightly. emoGeezer
<br /><br />However, she does get bragging rights to the biggest fish caught today. A nice 2.5 lb (trashy green fish) largemouth bass. It was probably the fish that Chad Brauer lost last Thursday during the FLW tx. I saw him lose a bass of this size last week in this area. To say that the crappie were finicky today would be an understatement. It was an almost non-existent bite. We did end up with 17 crappie, 1 golden shiner and the lone bass. Of the female crappie that we caught today, most were at least 1/2 spawned out, and a couple of females were completely flat bellied. Already done their duty for the year.<br /><br />The fish were about 8 feet deep or better. Most of our strikes came as we were dead sticking the lure. I usually counted down to about 8 to 10 before even starting the retrieve and I would move the lure 1/2 turn on the reel. Let it glide for a few seconds, twitch, the turn the handle another 1/2 to 1 turn and repeat the process. The fish were in deeper water than one would expect for a spawning bank. Of course, the lake is 2 feet above summer level. I just hope that the spawners don&#39;t go real shallow today and drop their eggs, cause TVA is going to drop the bottom out of the lake again.<br /><br />We caught our fish on electric chicken and ghost scent wigglers and 1/32 oz jigheads. I had a great time with a great student of the game. I can&#39;t wait for stabilized weather conditions so Candi can actually see the little &quot;tic&quot; of the line that crappie make when they are biting so lightly. emoGeezer