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A cracker-jack cracker-catcher




Chuck Campbell hoists a big shellcracker.Larry Woody/dicksonpost.com

Chuck Campbell hoists a big shellcracker.Larry Woody/dicksonpost.com

His name is Chuck, but a fishing buddy nicknamed him “Shellcracker.”

Guess what species of fish Chuck “Shellcracker” Campbell is famous for catching?

Yep, shellcrackers. Big ones, and lots of them.

“They are one of my favorite fish,” Chuck says. “They’re fun to catch and great to eat. They’re hard to beat.”

Shellcrackers are members of the sunfish family, and their technical name is “redear sunfish.”

They are kissing cousins to bluegills, but chunkier, like bluegills who have been working out at the gym. The Tennessee state record bluegill weighed three pounds, the record shellcracker 3.6.

Their “redear” name come from the distinctive red or bright-orange slash on their gill plates – their red ears.

Their more colloquial moniker, “shellcrackers,” derives from them using their hard mouths to crack the shells of aquatic snails on which they feed. In parts of the South they are often simply called crackers.

Chuck is a cracker-jack cracker-catcher.

“I’ve always enjoyed fishing for shellcrackers, and like anything else, the more you do it, the better you get at it,” says Chuck, a retired Mt. Juliet pharmacist.

“I don’t consider myself an ‘expert,’” he adds. “I spend a lot of time fishing for shellcrackers, and over the years I’ve learned where to find them and the best ways to catch them.”

In other words, he’s an expert.

Shellcrackers follow the spring spawning patterns of bluegill. They move into the shallows in May, their exact arrival depending on temperature and water conditions. In Tennessee, mid-May through early June is prime cracker time.

“It’s a fairly short window,” Chuck says. “They don’t stay around long. I’ve fished a spot one day and caught a bunch, and gone back the next day and they’d all be gone.”

Shellcrackers, like bluegill, bed in the same general areas spring after spring, attracted to what they consider ideal depth, structure, and mud bottoms as opposed to clean, rocky bottoms.

Shellcrackers prefer weeds and wood for cover. A wind-sheltered cove three to six feet deep with standing wood, submerged stumps and weedy banks is cracker heaven.

That’s the kind of pocket on Old Hickory Lake Chuck and I puttered into one bright May morning. He cut the trolling motor, explaining: “When shellcrackers are in shallow water, any noise or vibration will spook them.”

We drifted toward a thumb-sized stickup jutting out of the water a few feet off the bank.

“I caught a dozen off that snag a few days ago,” Chuck said.

We were using worms with a split shot pinched below a ping pong ball-sized float. I cast on one side of the stickup and Chuck cast on the other side. The floats plinked down, and before the ripples subsided, both bobbers twitched and went under.

I brought in a big, dark-colored male and Chuck landed a lighter-colored female bulging with eggs. We kept mine, released his. We usually release the spawning females.

We figure we can find plenty more, with Shellcracker Chuck leading the way.

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