Chickamauga Lake... Day two with Team Lews/Larew/Garland The fishing was tough, but through trial and error we finally got into some fish. I fished with Lee Pitts, and hes definitely one of the better dock shooters Ive ever shot docks with. In fact, last time out he smoked me while fishing on Grand Lake in Oklahoma. This time out, on Lake Chickamauga, no-one was catching any fish to speak of. Not the Bass guys and not the Crappie guys. You see, I was on a writers outing that included all the kinds of fishing, Country and Western, Bass and Crappie! lol So Brad Pitt and I, oh Im sorry, Lee Pitts and I probably fished ten different docks before we finally hit the motherload. We caught nothing until this one dock. I call it the Chicken Wire Fence dock cause out in front of it, the boat bays were blocked off with Chicken Wire Fencing. Weird, but true. We were using Bobby Garland Slab Docktr plastic baits which are great for dock shooting because of their wide profile. They really skip on the water nice. They also seem to glide through the water because it has kinda a vhull design to it. Check them out. I really think theyd be great longlining with these too, particularly because of that v-hull architecture. It should prove to track straighter. Im definitely gonna try it down South in FLorida where long lining the shallower waters is more prevalent the next chance I get. Backing up my story a bit, in the morning I went out fishing with some of the Bass Guys. I found it crazy that these guys would launch their expensive boats into the water, unmanned! Yep, there was no-one on the boat. They shove it into the water and just let it float away! Crazy if you ask me! Anyway, what they do is they hitch a ride to their boat from anyone nearby. It makes me wonder what the last guy into the water does after everyone else has left. I suppose he does the backstroke, eh! lol First thing this morning I had the opportunity to fish with Bud Strader. Very eerie as this monster fog bank rolled in on us. Once it hit, Bud decided it would not be wise to continue to motor down the lake any more. We simply stopped and started fishing. Unfortunately the fog bank made us stop where there were no fish to be had. But it was still fun to be on the water with Bud, hes a really nice guy. Next up was Terry Bolton. We motored up the lake and found a really big fish. Unfortunately it was not exactly what we were looking for. Kinda funny this Drum hit a bass bait, but it did. And it fought like all keck. Woulda been a trophy for sure if it just was the right species! Watching Terry flip his jig expertly was really a sight to see. Essentially as a Crappie fishing dock shooter, we bow out rod to shoot it under a dock. I watched Terry get that Bass jig deep under docks by flipping. And these docks were not high off the water. We woulda had to skip our Crappie jigs on the water to get underneath. But Terry somehow manged to time and aim it just right to get way back under their. I was amazed. Fishing with Fred Roumbanis was probably the most frustrating and most interesting. With Fred we fished a super large weed bed on a flat. The waters looked gorgeous. 4-7 feet of water, loaded with weed cover. It looked like Bass Heaven. We fished it so hard our teeth started to rattle. We just could not believe not so much as a single bite. It was unreal. This flat had deeper water on two sides of it. There had to be fish in here somewhere. Heck I even threw a Crappie jig at one point just to see if anything of any size would bite. Nothing! Talk about frustrating. Well, after we quit on that spot, and on our way back to the ramp, Fred found another large weed bed along the shore line. He could cast his jig into some of the open water holes that were too far for me. I can cast a baitcaster, but I always hesitate a little because I absolutely hate birds nests. Especially when it aint my equipment. After a few casts, Fred pulls out one of the bigger Bass caught that weekend. Good job Fred. Shows that persistence pays off. Alas I got to Crappie fish again. Doug Sikora, aka High Tide on the forum, aka Indiana Slabmasters Tournament Fisherman was gonna take me fishing. Yeah baby. I was looking forward to this. We did a little bit of dock shooting to no avail. We ended up resorting to Dougs primary Crappie fishing technique, fishing brush piles. He used his electronics to locate brush piles and when he found some that were holding fish we sprung into action. Wed fish one for a bit, get a bite or two, then wed move on to the next one. It was slow going, but we did catch fish. We were using Bobby Garland 2 Baby Shads in pretty much any bright colors. Thats a great shot of Doug holding up two of the nicer ones caught. A big Black Crappie and a big White Crappie. Great job catching fish Doung on a heck of a tough fishing weekend. It was a pleasure to fish with you. And I will take you up on your offer to fish with you in Indiana some time. What a great day of fishing. crappie/crappie/content.php?r=1185-Chickamauga-Lake-Day-two-with-Team-Garland
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 12:12:56 +0000
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