03-23-2010, 09:00 AM
My dad drove down from Grainger County yesterday (Sat) to get some crappie. Put in at Richland Creek in Dayton. Had to take a number to park and find a place on the lake to fish. Started catching within 5 minutes about a mile from the dock in shallow water at creek edge. Perch -- big one. Next fish was stripe. We had all the stripe we wanted. One crappie keeper size mixed in with the stripe plus some bluegill. Now that we had some practice, I told my dad-- lets go where there isn't so many boats. Must have passed a dozen or so boats between there and the main channel. Water temp in Richland creek at 11:00 am (when we started actually fishing) was 52 - 53. Got out on the main channel and we looked for rock with wood lay downs or stumps. Hopefully right on the break with 3 - 10 foot of water around them breaking to deep water. Water temp by that time was 52 on the edges of the main channel with good current flowing. Used chartues feather jig 1/32 oz suspended under a small float 2 - 6 feet depending on structure depth. Ended up keeping 29 crappie and the 1 perch. Missed count or we would have got our 30. Went up into summerfield a bit --- mostly bluegill there. Water temp was 55 there fished for bass about 15 minutes. Saw a fish breaking on a flat 3-4 ft deep. Caught him on a red eyd shad ---14 inches long. Great day of fishing with my dad and fish to enjoy after church for lunch.