What do you do after you plan a trip to north Alabama to get in the fall crappie bite and you’re greeted with bluebird skies the day after a cold front? You make lemonade, and the Tennessee River lakes have just the right recipes.

Capt. Brian Barton, Andy Poss and I still wanted to try to catch enough crappie for a small fish fry and headed into the Bear Creek area despite the weather conditions. We found crappie on the forward-facing sonar, but almost all of them had the lockjaw, a common occurrence after a front. We tried small jigs with a minnow, jigs alone and minnows alone, but the crappie just ignored any of the offerings.

The great thing about fishing those lakes, especially Wheeler, Wilson and Pickwick, is the availability of fishing tailraces for anything that will bite a live s

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