Percy Priest Crappie Spring Bite

Fishing at the Fall Creek Ramp on Percy in the Spring was quite an experience. I caught several large white & black crappie on chartreuse & yellow paddle bugs tipped with medium & small minnows at about 7 feet suspended in 10 feet of water doing a slow backwards troll in my kayak. The crappie were difficult to land because they were so aggressive and kept getting off. I had to have my net in the water as soon as I had the bite. Overall it was my best crappie day yet in Tennessee. Beat that Speicher!

Early Spring at Shearon Harris, NC

Brian flew in for a couple of days of early Spring (or is it late Winter?) fishing at my hometown lake. We hit the water early on Sunday, just before sunrise, and stayed on the water until about 5. We used mostly live minnows and had spotty success. First day I got a fairly nice crappie.
Brian landed a nice largemouth, though he was disappointed it wasn't a crappie?!?

Day 2 started out promising, I almost landed a grass pike and we had a few crappie early. Though things were slow. We crossed over in midmorning to the west side of the lake and Brian caught the crappie of the weekend and along side my "big" one of the day:

Old Hickory Bull Creek Ramp Area Jan 08

Eric's Blue Cat was pushing 10 pounds and was the big fish of the day. He caught it in 30-40 feet of water on an Erie Deerie with a night crawler. It was one of the few fish caught that day.

Striper fishing off of Virginia Beach

I was fortunate enough to take a weekend charter for Striper / Rockfish off the coast of Virginia Beach. I went aboard the Debra Christine which is typically out of Maryland but the skipper moves south for the stripers. We limited out on both Saturday and Sunday. I do have a bit of fish for a while.

J Percy Priest-Stewarts Creek Ramp Nov 07

Fishing was slow on this cool foggy and then windy fall day. Eric Lawson and I landed a few cherokee bass (hybrid stripers) and some nice crappie. It was a beautiful fall day and a very interesting place to fish. I caught the first Cherokee Bass before dawn and Eric caught his about 10am. We will be back. See pictures of cherokee bass, scenery and a nice crappie caught by Eric.

Old Hickory Lake-Douglas Bend Access Dec 07

It is early December in Middle Tennessee and their is an unusual warm front caused by a high pressure system from the Gulf. The temperature is almost 70 degrees with the water temp being 54 degrees. There is light south wind and a lot of fog. Douglas Bend Access is a somewhat shallow cove with water depths being mostly less than 10 feet, but up to 20+ feet in the creek channel. I was hoping for a crappie fishing outing but struck out. I was catching a lot of drum and bluegill and one nice channel catfish. The channel catfish was caught on a large fathead minnow in the creek channel about 18 feet down in 20 feet of water. The picture does not do this 26 inch catfish justice. It was a very fat cat probably weighing in at about 8 to 9 pounds. The bluegill in the picture is a little smaller. Maybe next time I will catch a crappie.

Shovel Head Close Up - Old Hickory Lake, TN Nov 07

November 2007 Old Hickory Lake, Tennessee
Great Kayak Fishing morning in Cages Bend Campground area of Old Hickory Lake. The approaching storms stirred the fishing up a bit. Several catfish and nice crappie caught on this outing including a rare daytime flathead. I was using medium & large fathead minnows and shiners for bait.