slabstacker

We were not after bass but we did see a boat early in the morning fishing top waters on the north east side of the lake by the road you come in over the lake on and they were catching a lot of fish, some nice ones to from what we could see. Not sure how long the top water action was on, the wind started blowing pretty hard from 8 am on.

I hit fellows last Saturday with a buddy, fishing was very good along deep weed edges. We caught a lot of crappies a 6lb channel and a 24" walleye. All were caught with spoons.

Those are good detailed pics along with the picture bassfisher had with the weeds in his hand. After seeing the diagram it is definitely that coontail weed that is everywhere. The crappies are stacked up in it thick. We caught them all weekend last weekend in that stuff and ran out this evening for a couple hours and hit them again. They are biting good around that stuff and its easy to find most of the coves have it in them. We caught them tonight on pink jigs about 3 or 4 feet under a float, they didn't want anything moving just wanted the jigs dead still.

I am pretty sure it is hydrilla. I think the MDC is in to it also, just this year they have plastered the boat ramp with signs about invasive species and even painted on the concrete to inspect the boat for them before leaving. The pics of hydrilla online look exactly like what is out there also. I am by no means an expert on this type of stuff but you seem like you know what is what and what the different under water plants are MOPanfisher. I am gonna try to get up there and fish this weekend if I don't have to work so if I can I will take a good close up of the stuff in the water and then I will grab a handful of it and pull it out and lay it on the boat and snap a few pics. I will get them uploaded and posted here so you can have a look at them and tell us what it is. I would definitely like to know what it is for sure, I also know of a few areas that have a different type of weed so I will snap a pic of those and see if you know what they are also. I have always been curious as to what the different plants are.

Went and hit fellows looking for some crappie on Memorial day. Fishing was good, fish were a lot deeper than they had been. Found the fish in 12 to 17 feet of water in and around weed beds. Bites were aggressive but the fish were scattered you really had to cover water working in and around weeds to get bites and when you got one there would be a flurry of bites for about 5 minutes then the school would move on you. Tried fishing wood thinking they would be more concentrated there but didn't have much luck. We had a 40+ fish day and of those only 3 came off brush piles the rest were in the weeds. There were a lot of quality 10" or better fish and as always when fishing weeds there were plenty of small crappie as well but that is a good thing to see, should be plenty of fish for the next few years. Lot of people out there that day and saw a lot of them catching fish, even saw a guy pull out a 40" muskey so that was pretty cool.

The grass you are seeing in south arm is hydrilla. It started getting thick in there a few years back and seems like it is going to take the back half of that cove over. There are places that are close to 20 feet of water and that stuff is growing from the bottom all the way to the surface. It is in several places on the lake. Good news is I have found it to be loaded with fish. I don't know about bass but the crappie are in it thick as are walleyes. You just have to find the edges of it that is were I have been doing well just letting a roadrunner with a minnow on it free fall down the deeper edges. I would imagine a top water would be good for bass that way you can cover water or do like bassfisher said and flip your way through it.

Ran to fellows mid day yesterday for a few hours. Caught around thirty crappie with 10 finding their way to the live well. Fish are really turned on right now. Most of what we caught was real shallow, 4 to 6 feet of water. We caught most everything on a 1/32 ounce jig about 2 or 3 feet under a float. Jigs were tipped with 1" gulp minnows in watermelon pearl and the smelt color. All the fish were caught out of weed beds, it was real windy so we just went into coves on the north side of the lake that were protected from the wind and scanned them until we found weed beds in 10' of water or less and then started casting around them. Most of the beds were pretty active, lots of minnows jumping out of the water around them so we new there was fish in them. You have to weed through a few small fish before finding one keeper size but they are all fun. Something about seeing a bobber go under brings the kid out of a person.

Crappie are biting pretty well. I fish from a boat so I cant tell you how bank fishing is. I have gone up several times in the past two weeks and done very well. Water is up quiet a bit from all the rain and the crappie have been scattered, some have been on deep brush in 18 or 20 feet of water and some have been real shallow around brush in 5 feet or less. I caught several Saturday on a fixed float with a minnow 2 to 3 feet under it right against the bank around wood. If you have trouble finding brush that is holding fish you can always go into a cove and find weed beds, most of them have weeds and the weeds pretty well always have crappie in them with gills and bass mixed in. Just find the deeper edge of the weeds and pitch weedless jigs or a slip cork set 7 to 10 feet deep and you should be able to pick up enough for a nice dinner for you and a few buddies. Fishing is real good up there right now so get out and take advantage of it before the blistering heat sets in!

Anyone been fishing fellows lately, I have been to busy with work to fish lately but may have a chance this weekend. Anyone know what the water temps are and if the crappie are starting to move in to spawn yet?

Tangora Marine in Nixa has always done right by me, he has been doing it for well over 20 years. He is pretty fast and fair. Phone number is 417-725-4405

Went to fellows yesterday afternoon to get my new boat into the water and run it for a little while. Stopped and checked a handful of spots for crappie. I caught a few on a couple off the normal deep brush piles, brush was in 30 to 35 feet of water caught the fish 20 to 25 feet down over the brush with bright colored jigs. Water temp was 40 to 42 degrees. It was a nice afternoon and with the weather being warm this weekend I will be back up to actually spend time fishing instead of playing around with my boat. Also just a heads up if you are launching a boat the courtesy dock at the ramp is completely underwater, the entrance to it is probably 15 feet into the water and the dock itself then extends probably 50 feet past the entrance so be careful not to idle over the actual dock because you will hit it with your motor!

Went up this morning to try the crappie again. Lot of people out there, I would imagine there were so many cause the cooler weather. Went and tried my normal spots and had a real tuff time getting a bite. Only came out with a handful of crappie and a couple of channel cats. Hope everyone else did better than I did!

Yea it got hot real fast out there this morning, I don't know when ill be able to get back out but if its hot like this still I wont be out much past 9. The majority of the fish we caught were before that anyways.

Been a month or so since I was able to get out and fish so me an my father in law loaded up and went this morning. Fishing was very good we caught 21 crappies and even mixed in some eyes and some catfish. Caught them all on brush piles in 10 to 12 feet of water. Caught some dropping minnow down off the side of the boat to them and some on a slip cork. Didn't get a nibble after 10 so its definitely an early morning deal which is fine because once that sun gets up it warms real fast. Water temp was 86 degrees, didn't ever get into the coves that have a lot of weed beds in them, I usually do good on them when it is hot like this so I may go give those a shot next go around.

I caught them in the cove off the south side of the buoy line and then the large cove at the south east side of the lake

Fishing was awesome at fellows this morning, me and my buddy each caught limits of crappie and had some whitebass and bluegills mixed in. I don't think you can pick a wrong brush pile right now, each pile we fished we caught crappie. The piles were from 8' of water to 20' they were on all of them. Water temp was 80 degrees and we were fishing about as basic a rig as possible, just a hook with a minnow and a couple split shots just letting it sink down to the piles and the whitebass were all caught trolling inline spinners. Most the people we stopped and talked to in the parking lot on the way out had pretty good days on the crappie also. Good time to be out and the weather was fantastic, hope everyone else is having some success this weekend!

I usually start targeting the brush in mid to late may and into june, I don't fish much this time of the year because I am turkey hunting. I always have trouble finding them between the spawn and then. Best way I have found to catch them before the really stack up on the brush is trolling crankbaits because they are scattered out but they are feeding and will hit the crank if it comes by.

Crappie on fellows are not to hard to target with a boat as long as you have electronics that you can effectively read. The most difficult time that I have catching them is right after they spawn, they seem to scatter and suspend for a few weeks after they spawn. Once they start toward their early summer haunts then it gets much easier to target them. Pretty much any brush pile from 10' down to 30' will have crappie on them and you can catch them on jigs or if the bite is tough run to the marina and get some minnows. They can be caught on the piles from pretty much may until some time in October pretty consistently. Also another good place to look is weed beds especially once it gets real hot out, the weeds will have higher oxygen content and the fish will school in or around them. Here is a link to a map the mdc put out last year for fish attractors they have place, pull it up and zoom it in to fellows and that will give you a good idea were to start look for piles. http://mdc.mo.gov/fishing/places-fish/fish-attractors-map Good luck!

None of the females I caught had spawn yet they were packed full of eggs still, I only kept 5 males from different areas on the lake just enough for me and my wife to have that night so I am sure the females will have plenty of options as far as a nest to lay in when it comes time.

I didnt fish the tournament yesterday I am not much for bass fishing but hopefully it went well for everyone. I got up there about 430 and fished until 7. I was on the south side of the lake the entire evening. I started in the cove off the boundary for the dam and caught a lot of fish there then move to a couple other coves on the south side, they all held fish. Brush was what I was targeting the females seemed to be staged above it and the males were between the females and the shoreline. The males have beds made at the same depth that the females are suspended so just go over the piles with your sonar and see were they are holding and that will help you start putting it together. They were hitting moving baits very well and I am sure that a slip bobber and a minnow will work also.

I was up yesterday evening just for a couple hours crappie fishing. I did really good caught well over 20 fish, the females are definitely staged up to spawn. I found several areas that were holding small schools of females, most were over the top of brushpiles that were in 12 to 17 feet of water and the fish were suspended at about 6 to 8 feet. I caught several females and they were all full of eggs so they went right back as soon as they were caught, the males were on beds close to the females and pretty easy to catch as well. They were all very aggressive and were hitting my jig pretty hard it was a lot of fun, even kept a handful of males for dinner last night. The fish I was on are going to spawn with in the next day or two I would guess and I am sure there are fish on other parts of the lake spawning or getting ready to spawn. All the fish I caught were on a red and char crappie slider or a Berkley gulp alive 3" minnow in the watermelon pearl color both rigged on 1/8 ounce weedless jig heads. This is the time to get out and get after them its pretty easy fishing from a boat or the bank, the beds I was catching males on were 5 or 6 foot deep and were made up of small gravel.

I was there yesterday evening for a bit, sun and the warm temps have brought the temp up a bit. It was running 53 to 55 degrees, I checked a couple deeper brush piles that I had been catching crappie on and they seemed to have moved off those spots, I am going to assume they have started to stage up outside spawning areas but didn't have time to run around and check, I didn't get up there until late. I bet the rain we got today and are going to get tomorrow will back them off a bit. I hope to get a chance to go Saturday so ill report water temps and what I find or catch if anything then. I would guess it will be a couple weeks before it really kicks off due to the up and down temps that we will have for a while here.

Yea I hear you crappiekayaker it seems like all the stars have to align on the perfect day to catch them spawning but it sounds like you have a few pinned down for now so I bet you wont have trouble finding them. Agressor pretty much hit the nail on the head, if you can find some grass in that depth with the water temp were it needs to be there will probably be some crappie there.

I went this afternoon thinking it would be go before the weather hit, couldn't get a bite. I could see some on my finder around brush, guess they were not hungry. As for the females with the eggs and the males changing color they will do that from here until the end of the month, they are not spawning yet just starting to make eggs and get ready. They do spawn deep at fellows though, the depth changes year to year that they will bed in. When the water hits 55 degrees the males will move up and start to fan out a bed and then when the water hits 58 to 60 degrees the females will move in and they will spawn. The females will leave out but the males will stay for a while and guard the nest. It should be easy to find them, just go to were you are catching them now to go straight for the bank and you will find them. You can figure out how deep they spawn by taking a white jig and dropping it in to the water, watch it until you cant see it any more, then lift your rod and see how may feet deep that was and that is around the depth they will spawn.