Back From Mid-April Reelfoot

The bite at Reelfoot was tough this past weekend. A cold front came in on Friday morning to start us off which kept most of the crappie in deeper waters. Everyone we talked to was catching them by drifting in the deeper parts of the lake, mostly spider-rigging; and they were catching them. Piles of crappie were stacked on top of each other in the fish dressing room. As one fisherman said, “Buddy, this cooler ain’t got ice in it.” I looked, it sure didn’t. It was filled to the lid with black and white specks.

We decided to take a different approach and fish the gills in calmer waters. Pitching around tree stumps and avoiding overhead branches is most of the fun of Reelfoot anyway. However, to quote Tim Huffman, “there is nothing more exciting than a tug on the line.” This quote and many others we refer to comes from the Grizzly Fishing video and can be purchased at the Grizzly Jig Co. website.

There were definitely some LAB award winning bluegills caught on the cypress stumps, but one in particular was enormous. A 1.1 lb redear caught by Gill Slayer. However, the judges are still out as to whether a redear can be considered a bluegill and thus win the award for biggest bluegill.

The days were cold, rainy and windy but we kept at it and found the gills holding close to cypress stumps. Almost all of them were caught on meal worm tipped “Killer” Grizzly Jigs. It wasn’t until the clouds broke on Saturday afternoon that I busted out “Norman’s Rainbow” and took a few more in all tight lining with a 9.6 pole and a Pflueger automatic fly reel.

Leaving on Sunday was of course beautiful and in the 70’s. We made it home in record time and before noon which gave me just enough time to do eight hours of yard work. Ah it’s good to be home.