A couple of weeks ago I thought the crappie bite was about to really get good, but last weeks Northeast Georgia blizzard kind of threw a monkey wrench into that plan.  Recent reports said the bass bite was fair and the crappie bite was good, they were both gross exagerations.  The water temp stayed in the low 50's even though the air temp was pushing 80 all weekend.

Friday I met my brother and nephew at Long Shoals landing to put the boat in the water.  We went north towards Sugar Creek to fish some of the docks that were surronded by deeper water.  We figured a few fish might be brave enough to get out of the deep channels so we mostly threw crankbaits and spinner baits with little luck. 

While we were bass fishing I saw a hawk fly off near one of the docks and my nephew said he saw another one grab something on the shoreline.  I really couldn't see much on the shore, but I took a few pictures anyway to see if anything would come out.

Look how well this guy was camouflaged

Here's a crop of the previous pic.  It looks like he got a mouse for dinner.

Next we tried trolling the creeks for crappie.  We landed a couple of nice ones, but they went back for somebody else to catch.  We heard that hybrids and stipers were holding up in some of the deeper water near the Oconee River Dam, so we loaded up the live well with shad and tried out our jigging skills.  We saw a few folks pulling in a few 2-3 pounders, but never saw anything to write home about.  I think DNR has only been stocking Oconee with Stripers for two seasons, so they haven't had a chance to grow yet. 

My nephew ended up with a real nice one.  I'm not sure if the shad were bigger that his fish though.

Due for a National Championship since 1980.