rsimms, Chickamauga, Crappie, Feb. 14, 2015, enmreal

[FishNews]

Last Wednesday was a very "crappie" day on Chickamauga (in a good way). <br /><br />I was dying to know if that day was a fluke, and it looked like Saturday was going to be the last decent weather day we're going to see for a while. Cold, but sunny and tolerable. I headed out with Ed McCoy (CFF's enmreal) to see if we could pull off a repeat performance to Wednesday.<br /><br />We did.<br /><br />It started slow, but we finally figured out that all (or most) of the crappie in the creek were hanging in one particular area... most in about a 150 yard stretch. Once we began concentrating (trolling) on that area of the creek, we started filling the livewell.<br /><br />I always tell clients that when you're trolling, it's a marathon, not a sprint. In other words it usually won't be fast & furious as you are targeting fish that are suspended, staging up in creeks in a pre-spawn mode and mostly following bait schools. They're not concentrated on specific structure. The theory is to put lots of lures in the strike zone and cover water water (slowly, 0.7 or 0.8 mph).<br /><br />Ed came up with a great saying years ago. "When you're trolling, it doesn't matter where you go as long as you keep going."<br /><br />Our hot bait on Saturday was a pink/chartreuse Crappie Magnet on a 1/16th oz. Road Runner head. We caught fish on some other stuff, but by day's end nearly every rod was pulling a pink/chartreuse Crappie Magnet.<br /><br />We started at 8:30 and put our limit crappie in the boat at 1:30 (CLICK for a really fun video of #30). That equals six keepers per hour, which is an excellent measuring stick for the pre-spawn trolling pattern. Anything less is poor-to0OK, anything more is outstanding. Of course you ALWAYS catch a bunch of short crappie and miscellaneous species as well, so there is plenty of action.<br /><br />I'm not sure I'll be on the water with this week's weather. And I'm sure hoping the weather doesn't break our current pattern. But if it does, that's fishing and we'll track 'em down when Mother Nature lets up on a little. <br /><br />If you want to book a trip, call now. Prime dates are filling up.<br />