drumking, chickamauga, crappie, 5/5/10, Labman

[FishNews]

Norman (Labman) was gracious enough to give the old Drumking a crappie fishing trip this AM, although Norman's trolling motor still hasn't been repaired. So, with the water being over most of the docks around, we had to fish floating docks. We still had a good 3+ hours of fishing. We landed 30 mostly big crappie. I had one that was a shade over 14.0 inches to become my 4th TARP of the year. We only had about 3 or 4 throwbacks all morning. We had about 6 or 7 that were 13 inches or better. Only a few in the 11" range and the remainders were 12"+. We released all fish to become TARPs next year.<br /><br />The fish surprised both of us as we thought initially that the fish would be shallow with the rising and stained water, but they were deep. Most fish came 15 feet deep or more. Only 3 or 4 that were about 8 feet deep. We used BG shads, slab slayers, and ringer stingers. Bluegrass color was good and bone/chartreuse slab slayers and blue/pearl stingers. Norman used mainly 1/32 oz and I switched back and forth with the 1/32 and 1/16 oz and caught fish on both sizes. Most fish came straight down, dead sticking, and after a slight twitch of the lure.<br /><br />Lots of trash floating on the strong current today. If you get out there, please watch what you are doing or you might have your boat in the shop alongside mine. emoBig <br /><br />Norman, thank you for taking me fishing today. I really enjoy sharing the boat with you and watching your new side imaging plaything. A man could get hooked on one of those. If things remain like they are, then I'm ready for the MCA crappie tx at the end of the month, but things never stay the same. They change almost constantly. That's why it is so much fun figuring out what these fish are going to do next. emoBig emoGeezer emoTeacher