carolina-rig-01

Not sure how the fishing was for everyone else but it was ok for us. The best area of the lake for us was the Mutton Creek area and we caught several fish doing a lot of different things. The best pattern I found was flipping a spinnerbait around the shallow brush but I also got a few bites flipping creature baits as well. I got lucky and happened upon a school of surfacing fish yesterday morning in Googer Creek that kept us pretty busy for an hour or so yesterday morning and gave us a few keepers. Our schooling fish were caught on Gunfish and Sammy's and they were just randomly coming up for short periods of time so there were a lot of fish that came up out of casting distance. I spent a ton of time graphing deep brush piles and fishing them with jigs and 10" Powerworms and after finding and fishing probably 10-12 brush piles without a bite I finally found one brush pile on a point that had some fish on it and I caught a keeper or two out of it on the Powerworm. Yesterday we caught several fish and had 5 keepers and also lost a pretty good fish on a buzzbait. Yesterday evening we made the run back to Googer to see if the surfacing fish would show up again in the evening and they didn't let us down. Once again they kept us busy for an hour or two and we had a lot of fun chasing them around and we managed another keeper or two out of the evening action. All in all it was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun.

A few months back we made plans to spend this weekend on Stockton with my tournament partner and his wife. We should have known that would be the kiss of death for weather/water conditions haha. Anyways we are staying at Happy O's by Hawker Point and will be running around the lake Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday morning. If you see a red/silver Skeeter 21i with a pregnant girl riding shotgun stop by and say hi. If you see a silver/green Phoenix then that is my buddy and just cut him off and fish in front of him haha.

In my opinion GPS at the console is a must and GPS at the trolling motor is very close to a must but in reality you can get by without it if you're really in a bind and have to pick one or the other. The reason I consider the GPS at the console a must is really two fold. First of all it's an added safety aspect. Don't be that guy that runs too fast in dense fog or other bad conditions just because you can see the map on your GPS, but it does help you keep your whereabouts in conditions where it's easy to lose your bearings. Also if you save something like a deep brush pile or what have ya on your GPS at the console you can always go to it and then mark it with a marker buoy and then use your trolling motor to fish it. To me, that would be easier than trying to find it with your GPS up front and then marking it.......just seems like it would be a lot faster. Of course if two GPS units is possible then that is the way to go. Also the closer you can mount your GPS puck to the transducer for that unit the more accurate your unit will be. I have an 1198 at the console and a 997 and 788 up front. My GPS puck for my 1198 is mounted on the back of my boat almost directly above my transducer and the GPS puck for up front is mounted within a foot or so of being directly over the transducer. Get a good chip too, Navionics Platinum is really good and worth the extra money over the cheaper ones in my opinion. If you go the Humminbird route then take a good look at the Lakemaster chips too. I can't speak for them much yet because I just bought a few a couple weeks ago but from all the research I did online I think they will easily replace my Navionics chips. Look into a RAM mount or something similar as well, it makes it really nice to be able to re-position the units when the sunlight angle changes. Also with all the money we tie up in electronics it makes a lot of sense to be able to quickly take them off and lock them up when you come off the water. As for brands, obviously I am partial to Humminbird. There are a lot of horror stories about Lowrance and their customer service. I haven't ever been in a position to find out for myself but I can tell you that I had a great experiece from dealing with Humminbird on the one occasion I needed some customer service. Have a lot of fun in your search, the quality and features in electronics has improved by leaps and bounds in the last 5-10 years and you can get a lot of features in mid priced units, not long ago that wasn't the case. If side imaging is in the budget you will be blown away at how much stuff you will find that you have fished over for years and never knew it existed.

I didn't fish any bluffs, it was next on my list if the bite I was on dried up but I'm glad it didn't because the wind was pretty brutal on all the bluffs I was going to fish. I'm all for a little wind but they were on the verge of being unfishable.

What part of the lake where you in?

Man, 129 views and nobody had any advice. We had a pretty good day, we caught probably 25-30 fish and probably had around 10 or so keepers. We didn't have any big fish but we had several solid 2.5lbs to 3lbs fish. Most of the fish came on main lake points with big rock or just inside of the main lake points in less than 10 feet of water. We caught fish on crankbaits, jigs, Sweet Beavers, and jerkbaits.

Hey guys, dad and I are going up to run around the lake tomorrow looking for some bass. I'm not looking for any specific spots or anything like that but I was hoping I could get a little information from you guys before we head up. Anyone have any information on what types of areas or techniques we should focus on? If anyone sees a silver and red Skeeter 21i that is fishing in all the wrong areas that's probably us, stop by and say hi LOL.

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who came out to fish with us yesterday. A lot of people told me they really enjoyed the tournament, and we really enjoyed doing it for Doug. I think he was a little overwhelmed when he saw everything that was going on at the weigh in site and realized how many people put a lot of work into the tournament for him.

Thank you very much for the kind words. I hope you are right and I am praying there are a lot of entries between now and tournament day.

Yeah he swung by work the other day and paid up, you guys are good to go. I will see you guys sometime bright and early at Mutton Creek for your livewell check on the 18th. Thanks for supporting such an awesome guy who needs it in a bad way.

I am really surprised that there hasn't been more interest from the members of this site. If anyone has any questions or would like any more information please let me know. I am really hoping to sign some more boats up between now and the 18th.

Hi guys, it's been a while since I posted. I check in on the site quite a bit but usually have very little input to offer since I spend the majority of my time fishing on Grand. Anyways a very close friend of mine has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and we are having a benefit crappie tournament to help relieve some of the financial strain for him and his family. I will attach a flyer to this post but anyone with any questions is welcome to email me at fish4_5@yahoo.com. We have had some really impressive donations given to us to use as door prizes and raffles. In addition to the canoe raffle, there will also be a raffle for a half day guided fishing trip with Bob Bennett which is an awesome opportunity for someone to spend a half a day learning from one of them funniest and most entertaining guys you will ever fish with.DL Crappie Classic Flyer (3) final edition..pdf

i have seen first hand how professional J.E. is when it comes to fishing, believe me that he is the kind of guy you want your fish like one day. very generous and as ethical as they come!

went to eagle rock yesterday. the private ramp is closed but the corp ramp is open but there is no courtesy dock. water in that area was anywhere from gin clear to tea colored. water temps in the low to mid 50's.

thanks for the report. i probably would have spent a lot of time throwing a suspending jerkbait in the runoffs too, so don't feel bad.