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Got on the phone with everyone's favorite school resource officer and TN multi-species hammer/guide Clay Wilson to talk slabs...but not crappie. Talkin' big TN shellcracker!
Clay said that after the spawn, folks don't target them as much because they seem to 'disappear' – but when you learn to find 'em, it's cooler-filling time:
Why target shellcracker?
> "Everybody catch can catch 'em. It's a fish that once you find 'em you can stay with 'em – they're more predictable. But finding them...is the hard part.
> "I'd take a 4 year old kid or 85 year old person and catch them just as good. I just want to introduce the younger kids to fishing and going out there and catching something."
Why do people think shellcracker disappear in the winter?
> "You know, they go on bed starting to bed in Apr...into Jun.
> "[Post-spawn] they kind of go out and navigate out to main-lake points, gravel and humps. And they start moving back to kind of those same places to feed up in the wintertime. You can catch some of the biggest shellcracker of the year right here in Dec and Jan."
> "If people would look out a little deeper – that 6, 7, 8' of water – and find that magical bed, you can catch some big shellcrackers."
What kind of habitat should folks look for?
> "Guntersville has got grass, and all the shellcracker get up and around that grass and eat stuff coming by.
> "As far as the [other] Tennessee River [lakes], usually anywhere that you can find some type of sandy banks or pea gravel....
> "Shellcracker relate to pea gravel because you got those shells where they get their name. Then they also get little crawfish that swim by and they eat those too."
Is there a difference between targeting numbers vs size?
> "You never really can predict [size] this time of year.
> "The same size-class fish seem to hang around each other in the spring. But in the winter, you could fish the same spot and catch a 10-incher and a 5-incher in the same spot.
> "When those fish move in off the river in the wintertime into these creeks to feed before it gets real cold – you could sit there and catch 20 shellcracker in a row that would be keepers, and then the next 10 you catch are 4 or 5 inches. They all run together in the winter."
How big of shellcracker do you typically catch?
> "A smaller shellcracker is going to be as big as your bigger bluegill most of the time.
> "Around here on Pickwick and Wilson, shellcracker will weigh 1.25 lbs. My personal best is a 1.49 around here – I've never seen one bigger than that, but heard tales of some people catching some 2-lbers around the harbor."
If somebody wants to go out and just fill a cooler right now, what should their gameplan be?
> "If someone's has some current – fish behind the current break.
> "This time of year they're in schools, big wads you can see on LiveScope almost like bait balls.
> "Everybody knows about Cypress Creek on Pickwick – there's a ton of current out front moving in, and you've got water coming from the back of the creek. There's a bunch of trees, a bunch of pea gravel. I would go somewhere that has some current and fish behind current breaks.
> "It always seems this time of year, in the backs of marinas, around boat docks or any kind of gravel humps in creeks is where they're at.
> "I would target somewhere in middle ways back to these creeks, 8-12' of water. When you catch 1, there's going to be a bunch...."
What baits are you fishing?
> "...it's hard to beat a nightcrawler on a dropshot. But there's some days that doesn't work – days they're not on the bottom.
> "Usually the fish are going to be on the bottom or they're going to be suspended a little bit. If the water is 8' deep...on the bottom, or about 5' deep.
> "[When they're suspended], we typically throw the 1/16-oz Charlie Brewer Slider with the little 1-inch Charlie Brewer Grub in 'caterpillar' or 'strawberry red'.
> "Then it always helps to add some BaitFuel to it – that gives that natural scent.
> "That BaitFuel is a game-changer as far as the scent on a plastic bait. You don't need it on a live on a night crawler, but if you throw plastic it's definitely a necessity."
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