Watts Bar report 4/24-4/27

[Bassky]

Here is my report from last weekend, more bass than crappie:
Well, we had terrible weather. Rained heavy every day. Winds from 15-30 mph, tornado Saturday evening in Mississippi. Worse conditions I have every fished in for 4 days. Whitecaps and swells on main lake up to 3’. Didn’t matter, just fish the windy banks and the fish were there. Saw a lot of bass on the nests. However the largemouth bite was on. 6 of us caught and released 330 bass. Big fish was 5-11, second was 5-3, third was 4-11. Best bait, shallow crankbaits in rootbeer chartreuse. Bass also hit shakeyhead green pumpkin, Ricos/buzzbait early in am, spinnerbait and black/blue jig. Crappie fishing was the worst I had ever seen. Only caught around 20, with only 10 keepers. On top of all the problems, my buddies trolling motor quit working Monday evening. He left and went home early Tuesday as well as 2 other guys. Of course the best weather was yesterday, the day we left.
No one was catching very many crappie. The most we saw or heard out of Piney Point resort was 10 caught one morning. The fish were scattered. We marked alot of fish, they just would not bite. We were marking fish 12-18' in 30-40' of water. We tried shallow, we tried deep. We even tried nite fishing with a green light. I'll be back in the fall.
Bassky

[jcb]

Thanks, excellent report.

[mess]

Nice report. Did you happen to spend any time on the next lake down..Chickamauga?? Was there a few years ago after they had killed alot of the weeds. Was wondering if the weeds are back. At the the time, we had better luck on Chick with the bite for bass being tough on watts bar. Just curious...

[Bassky]

didn't get down to the Chick. Yes, the weeds are back. I have heard nothing but good about the Chick this year, the fishing has been really good for both bass and crappie. Back to where it once was back in the 80's. Watts Bar bass fishing is the best it has ever been. I have been fishing this lake for over 40 years. The TDNR did a creel shocking study about 3 weeks ago and they were shocking 70 bass an hour. Normal results the past few years has been around 40 or so. Even with the terrible conditions we caught bass everywhere we went on the lake. Main, creeks, flats, way up in the creeks, it didn't matter. It was the best I have seen this lake since back in the 80's when Watts Bar had weeds too.
Bassky