waterpossum

Todays quiz. How many are black crappie?

Wish that was me. I received the pic from a friend in Kansas that has a guide service. I do fish for crappie in several SE Kansas lakes mainly because that's where the trophy fish are. The one in the picture was from a strip pit and the fish was released. It was over 3lbs. I have never broken that barrier, but been close twice. I

Nice fish. I think the plus side of 20 mph was the standard. Some of those gusts were brutal.

A friend came down from Iowa for a few days of fishing. After spinning our wheels in Kansas and Oklahoma Thursday and Friday we hit Stockton and the fury of the wind Saturday and Sunday. Both days we fished from 2 p.m till just after dark. The last hour from approximately 7:30 to 8:30 is the most productive. Saturdays catch in 57.5 degree water on the Big Sac arm was 13 crappie and 1 walleye. Sundays catch 7 crappie 1 walleye and 2 nice keeper bass on crappie jigs that weighed in the 3 lb range. Saturdays quality size was outstanding. The male female ratio was about the same. The females look to be 10 days to two weeks before ready to spawn. We also caught some huge female white bass and were just yards away from them on a flat busting shad on the surface. We instead concentrated on the crappie in 8-12'. I used a 1/32 red,white,chartreuse tube jig and partner was throwing a 1/16 oz roadrunner. We took out both nights about 9 p.m. The lot at Mutton N. was empty Saturday night and there was two vehicles at Ruark last night ( one vehicle was a bow fisherman we saw across from Chicken Rock). I will post a picture that a friend sent of a Kansas crappie.

Doing a little land clearing up by Ruark yesterday. They are especially fond of mushroom hunters.

Nice catch. That lake looks smooth behind you in the pic. Don't envy anybody that was out yesterday. I was dock fishing at Grand and it was amazing to see all the bass boats out in the gale pre fishing for a tournament today.

There is a fishing dock at Ruark on the east side. Cedar Ridge has a fishing dock and Masters used to have one. The lake is about 1' above normal. That might make the flat side (east) difficult because of the buck brush, unless you fished along the old road that juts out. The bluff (west) side is a little more difficult to walk but you wouldn't have the brush problems. Depending the age of your family members and how hassle free you want the day the docks might be best. If you do decide to fish CC with live bait get a slip bobber kit (bobber, bead and bobber stopper) so you can cast but still fish at various depths.

There was a lot of suspended fish over deep water especially in the dam area. I went to the channel side of point 2 Friday cruising around. There was a lot of fish over the 80' channel suspended at various depths down to 50'. Water clarity in the mid lake area has been so bad for a couple of months I haven't tried spooning or jigging for these fish. Slab slinger probably has the best approach, especially with the warming water. A little warm rain in the forecast would also help.

I think the white bass report will be coming soon. I understand CC was packed with boats this weekend.

Put in with a friend from Iowa at Mutton Creek Friday at noon. Water visibility about 2' water temp 46. Tried jerk baits in Goocher for an hour without any luck. I don't have much confidence in stick baits in low visibility water. Found a cove north of Mutton on the east side that was about 48 degrees. Tried a wiggle wart without any luck. Took out and went to State Park and the water temp was about the same 47-48 degrees with a little bit better visibility. Finally caught a small bass and 3 keeper crappie off a brush pile in 25' of water. Went to the dam area about 5:30 along with a lot of other boats to try the walleye. Caught three keepers 16-17" range, but we lost four that just pulled loose. The bite is short and sweet lasting for about an hour. We found out the hard way that they shut off after dark. We should have taken the hint when all the other boats left after dark. Saturday we had five bass (two keepers 2.5 and 3.2 lbs) one on a jig the other on a small chartreuse crank bait in the back of Birch Branch on a flat gravel bank that was showing 50 degree water. We targeted crappie sporadically for the two days without success. Saturday eve at the dam was a repeat performance of three keepers except while we were biding time at the dam area setting off a point in 36' of water my friend looking at the back graph mentioned he was seeing a few fish at 12'. First drop at that depth he caught a big sow white bass. We saw there was going to be 20-25 mph winds today and checked out of Southwinds and came home. The lake temp mid day was around the 48 degree mark in most places, but I would think that howling warm wind would get it to 50 lake wide in the next couple of days. Two old men throwing jerk baits for two days was all our bodies could handle.

Stick baits in the dam area close to dark or after dark. Rivers should be turning on any time now. Most will be caught close to dark. If we have one of those low light nasty days they will bite all day.

Thanks for the report. I'm sure better times are coming soon. The lake fishes hard with this much increased acreage. On one occasion last year I went with a friend and I guess we would have had the same report, but he managed to catch one bass on a stick bait. He had cast and put his rod down to get a sandwich and drink. After a long pause he picked his rod up and you might know there was a fish on the line.

I drove around Ruark east campground yesterday. The south loop was open (it was closed for a while because the water was over the road, but has receded enough now. There were several picnic benches still in the water and the water level was just below the table top and I could see the base of the table under water 3' down.

The lake is dropping about 3" a day. I have been working on my land for the last month just south of Ruark on H highway. I regularly drive down to check on the water level and clarity. Today the water clarity was real good. A good number of birds were working the shad around the bridges. This could be a good weekend to give it a go. 9' above power pool.

From what I could tell by looking north from the bridge at Y that crosses the lake at Ruark going to Mutton Creek it was all colored. There might be some isolated areas of clearer water, but I would think that would be where the feeder arms enter the lake i.e. Sons, Turnback, Big Sac, maybe Birch or Price, but expect the water to be backed up a long ways up the arms.

You can pay launch fee by boat or chest waders

Here are a couple of pictures of the ramp at Ruark and the fishing dock on the Ruark East park

Drove up to do a little work on my land on H highway yesterday. Made a short little tour of the area around Mutton creek and the twin bridges area. The lake of course is chocolate colored, but there was not a lot of floating debris out in the lake. The courtesy docks at Ruark and Mutton had been pulled upon land. The morning level today shows 883.69. As far as fishing, it looks pretty intimidating to say the least. In the long run this inflow of fresh nutrients into the lake plus the lack of fishing pressure hopefully will just help this great fishery.

As of 6:30 pm. today 882.19 which is 15' above normal pool. That is a lot of water. I don't know the highest level ever recorded, but this has to rate as one of the highest, with more rise to come.

Thanks to Mitch and all others for the input.

I guess with a little research after posting this I may have helped answer my own question regarding fluorocarbon. As I understand there are different qualities of fluorocarbon and a common pitfall is buying line that is just coated with fluorocarbon which is very vulnerable to excessively diminished strength when tying or nicked.

I have had bad expierence with fluorocarbon in the past and just don't have much confidence in it's durability. my first encounter was on Grand Lake a few years ago after breaking off a couple of fish on a stick bait. I realized at the time if you have any wear in your guides it will fray this type of line terribly. I have been too stubborn to change as I guess the quality has improved over the years, but my fishing partner LAST year chunked his rod to the bottom of the boat after breaking on hook sets with this stuff. I use low vis 8 or 10 pound mono with my stick baits. What is the over whelming argument for this line. Someone convince me???

From what I gather there is a good spoon bite for bass on Table Rock fishing shad schools over deep water. This is typically the time of year if your good at using electronics fishing for crappie over deep water can be real good. I just wish I had that skill. Or should I say the skill and patience.

I don't know for sure the water clarity at the ramp , but both arms, the Big Sac and Turnback are running clear. The lake level is about four ft above normal pool so there will be plenty of water going into the winter months.