Finally got a break from teaching in Amarillo and got to come home the Athens for spring break. I put the tube on the lake this morning to see what wanted to play. The lake was a zoo! Seems they have some sort of bass tourney on Lake Fork and are using Lake Athens for "warm up." At least that is what a couple guys told me. So the parking lot was full of trucks and trailers with every corporate sponsor you could imagine. That stuff makes no sense to me but I digress.

So I launched the tube and made my way to some boat houses about 3/4 of a mile away. I went against the wind because I could drift and fish my way back. As always I tied on a jig and sort of just trolled my way along. I was hoping to get into some crappie and wasn't disappointed. Took the first fish trolling along and it was a pretty good fish.



Sorry the photo isn't the best but it was sort of rainy and my phone has moisture on the lens. Since it was apparent that crappie were available I took off the jig and tied on a Bobby Garland baby shad in bluegrass and started to work the boat houses. I got into crappie pretty steadily but they weren't bunched up. I'd take 1 or 2 from each house and then move on. All total I took about 20 fish with all of them over the 10 inch minimum size. I got 2 fish that had some sort of oozing wounds on their sides and turned those fish loose. I did have one really good fish hit next to a piling on a boat house and it wrapped me up and broke off. Probably a bass. I use 4lb line so if a fish wraps it is nearly always gone.

I ended up keeping 7 fish for supper. Me and the wife like us some fried crappie.



Life is good. Cheers Y'All

Cool. I may hit some of the big bluegill at Athens soon

Nice slabs Flags. Good job Sir!

Nice post. Good to see you made it back to lake Athens for a little fun. Wednesday this week will be the day of the big bass tournament.

Great Post and Nice fish. It's good to see someone only take what they need instead of all they can catch. Excellent job Flags!!

Nice catch. The fish sores you saw were probably a pink fungus that crappie get here in East Texas. It's ugly but is normally just on the outside of the fish and seldom gets into the meat.

Nicely done.

so there a big bass tourney out there on Wed? ive never fished that lake but have a job going on a house remodel on the lake and planning to stay there and try some bank fishing Thursday night. any friendly advice can be sent to me. lol . im hoping to catch some crappie

Across from the boat ramp there is a bridge that the 2495 road goes over. The south side has kind of a sandbar a lot of people fish from. If I was bank fishing and wanted crappie that's where I would try. To tell the truth I have never fished it from the bank. I always use a float tube.

Awesome! Keep the lines tight..

Nice haul!