drumking, chickamauga, crappie, 5/27/10, Wanda

[FishNews]

Wanda and I had all our work done for the week, so we decided to take the boat out for a couple of hours and see what was biting. Bass weren't biting for us. Windy, and we just couldn't find any schools of baitfish or bass. We did fish at small numbers of fish, but they weren't having what we were offering. <br /><br />Then we went crappie hunting. We had a much better time of with the crappie. We landed 16 and kept 8 for supper tonight. I added a 5 lb 10 oz bluecat on 4 lb test line and crappie jig. Wanda hauled in a spotted bass and I got another bluegill. At one particular floating dock, I hooked a huge fish, and it took off for the east side of the river. I told Wanda after 30 seconds that this fish might spool my reel. It kept going and going until the reel was just over 1/2 full before it stopped. I thought that it was the Energizer bunny. I began to try to work it back, Wanda was standing with the net in hand and saying that if this was a catfish that it was going home with us. I could feel the fish shake his head every once in a while, but I couldn't budge it. It would decide to swim off again and pull out more line. After a few minutes, the line finally parted without us getting to see what it was. emoBang Don't know what it was for sure, but it felt the heaviest of any fish that I have caught this year. It was probably a big catfish.<br /><br />Our crappie were caught on docks, both floating and with wooden posts. 1.5 inch stubby butts in crystal shad with a tail light was the best color for us today. The fish were about an 8 to 10 count deep and some were aggressive and some were passive in the bite. We did a lot of boat riding and saw Norman (Labman) over there in the creek just aggravating the bass. He found them with his magic side scanner and followed them up and down the creek. He said that the fish were moving and following a huge bait ball. We were crappie fishing by that time and didn't want to switch back to bass.<br /><br />Sorry, but old DK forgot the camera again today. I can take a pic of the fish fillets when I get them done if anyone is interested in what they look like. emoBig emoGeezer