rsimms, Chickamauga, Crappie, 3/17/2017, enmreal

[FishNews]

I had several guide trips postpone in the past week due to the extreme cold. I hadn't been on huge numbers of crappie, but I lost touch with the ones I had been on. Before this week's trips I needed to try and find a few on Friday. My good friend Ed McCoy (enmreal) was happy to tag along. <br /><br />Longline trolling, we covered a lot of unproductive water. But we finally found an area holding several fish, and they were "bigguns!" <br /><br />Ed had two monster crappie that qualified for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Angler Recognition Program (TARP's). emoEek A white crappie that was 14 & 3/8 inches (weighed 1-10) and a magnum black crappie that was 15 & 1/4 inches (weighed 1-13). We caught 15 solid keepers while trolling (1/8th oz. Road Runner jig heads and Crappie Magnet jigs) . We probably could have caught a few more if we had remained in "the sweet spot," but I stayed on the move just searching/scouting.<br /><br />We quit trolling after a while and went to shoot some docks... enmreal's first time ever shooting. He's a natural! emoApplause We added a dozen good keepers to the box and caught a bunch of short fish. That means life is good and gettin' better every day!