polo-dog, Chickamauga, Huge crappies, only 1 TARP 2lber, Friday the 13th 3/13/09, Freida

[FishNews]

Decided after being inside all day that I would see if there were some fish willing to bite in WT. First checked to see if there were any fish in the area where my big bass was earlier this week but the water temp had dropped from 60 down to 50 and didn't get the first peck out there. Figured I'd see if there were crappie that would be interested. There was a bass boat going by the area that I wanted to check so started in a different spot close by and didn't get a bite. It was cold and starting to rain so when the bass boat moved off I tried the area out. I fished from about 5- 6:25 there and had 4 bites and 3 fish but all were really big. Had one TARP crappie just over 14 inches but weighed 2lbs. I thought the UT basketball game was to start at 6:30 so ran home to turn on the dvr and get a bite to eat. I don't weigh crappie often but I remembered about Hamilton's big crappie contest when I went down to fish til dusk and last time I was at Hamilton's a 1lb 14 ozer was in the lead. Got back down to the boat just before 7pm and saw that the fish was 2lbs and called Hamilton's and was told that the leader was now 2lbs 7oz. got a pic of the big one and let her go. Went back to the area to see if more would bite and the bite was really on. I ended up with 18 total crappie with 15 over 13 inches and almost every one of those was over 1.5lbs and many were 1 3/4lbers. Never have I caught so many big crappie and no non-keepers. I think that only one was less than 11.5 inches. All were thick and had really deep bodies. I did let them all go because I want them all to spawn and produce more just like them. <br /><br />The fish were holding on a steep bank and a 4 and 6 count worked. I was using panfish assassins and crappie stingers on 1/32oz jig heads. Initially I was shaking the bait just before every pause and that seemed to be working. That shake/pause had been working pretty well over the past few weeks but I know that I was missing some fish today because sometimes I would shake and pause and would see the line move and set the hook and there not be a fish. I expect that what I was seeing was the fish expelling the bait from it's mouth rather than seeing the strike. I started to catch a lot more fish when I switched back to a retrieve without any shakes but just 2-3 second pauses. Here's a pic of the 2lb TARP and two of the 1 3/4ozers. <br /><br />I forgot to say, the weather was nasty, 40's and sprinkling rain but the crappie liked it.<br /><br />I'm not supersticious about Friday the 13th, in fact it was a very blessed day for me today. What a week, PB Largemouth and biggest crappie limit ever all in a 4 day stretch. I love March!