slab slinger

With staging fish dont give up on them. Its a little more challenging to develop a pattern on them bht when you do keep it to yourself and you'll be gettin limits of slabs when everyone fishing the banks will be saying they we're. Here yesterday i don't know what happened. Alot of people won't even fish the stagers because you have to actually know how to fish to get them. Try it if you want a back up plan during the spawn when the banks crowded. I'll be strictly targeting them in the next 2 weeks when the swarms or crowds roll in. Good Luck to all and go get em!

Great report. Sounds like an awsome trip with the bonus eyes. Your right about the stagers if you can get them figured out its a more consistant pattern. The spawners on the bank will tight lip, pull off, go back, and many other things that make them harder to stay on. The staging females will be a reliable pattern throughout the spawn. I love flippin the banks but when the crowds roll in i switch to staging fish that know one has pressured.

Nice mess of fish and the shrooms were a sweet bonus. Ive hit a few morels around the lake this yr but think its still early. I found several tiny ones the other day i left them to grow gonna go get them tomorrow if someone hasn't beat me to them. Hittin the crappie in morning will post tom night.

Flysmallie...haha yes i do look grumpy huh. My dad takes the pics on my phone, hes dang near blind without his glasses he never tells me to get ready just starts pushing buttons till he gets a pic. I was happy and had a blast.

Thanks Hammer Time. Almost had the lake to ourselves today just 1 other boat in the cove with us. Sure was a wet one but the fish didn't mind. Haha!

Got to the lake at 1130am and got our limist at 230pm. Started out slow for the first hour or so, till we figured out they had pulled out a little more than we figured. Finally got a pattern pieced together and worked up 2 limits pretty quick. Fish were 60%-40% males to females. Eggs looked ready at any time. Fished jig and float combo chart glow tube white chart slider was the 2 jigs of choice today on 16th oz heads. Fish wernt as agressive as they have been. Light bite today but fish were really holding on didnt miss many. Water was murky and 58 degs. Found fish in 8 to 12 fow. Got rained on most of the trip but we had a blast several doubles and alot of action. Good luck and go get'em.

If you want to get crazy on hybrid equipment theres a red headed younger fella that builds rods just for what you are wanting. He was working at the bait shop on the road in. He builds custom inshore blank rods from 7' to 9' And verious actions. Ive seen him send a spook farther than the catfish guys using 6oz sinkers. Hes the hybrid guro below the dam. If hes not at the bait shop then he'll be fishing the tail water up by the fence at daylight. Baits...The oldtimers sware by anything bone with a red head. I like the Bommer BADDONK-A-DONK. In same color and just bone. Spooks are deadly also. The guy i mentioned earlier sholed me a bait he mods and its awsome. He cuts down a super spook and somehow glues it back together and adds BBs in it for weight. Wouldnt tell me the process but was glad to sell me one. I used his BB trick on the bommers by drilling a hole and adding them works great. Hes also deadly with a big spoon later in the mornings when they go deep. Hybrids are all about the current seams. If you can read the swirls and currents and find the seams your on them. Good luck. Top water bites best at daylight.

Tchicken...Thems some nice slabs and wow what a walleye. Use to fish the tail water alot but got sick of the crowds and disrespectful fishermen during the spring runs. Sure do miss the battles at dawn with those big hybrids though. Good report and nice fish bud!!!

Great report SRJ...your right on it blowing up in the upper river arm coves. Wont be much longer and even the inexperienced Aholes like the one you ran into will get limits. Haha. Nice mess and keep the reports comming in. Headed up in the AM I'll post my trip tomorrow.

Bream...Sorry bout you BAD luck. Gotta laugh outta reading your post though. On the crappie you were in a good location but dont know how to help ya unless i was there. I have been doing well fishing spawning coves look for pea gravel banks in backs of coves or a rock/gravel bank close to a channel swing those are text book spawning locations this time of year. I would start out fishing minnows under float 1.5 to 2.5 feet deep Guaranteed youll get them if they are there. If you dont want to mess with live bait or just like jigs like i do then use your fav crappie jig the same depths. Cast to bank and play around with depth and retreave till you find what they want. Alot of poeple overthink fishing the spawn its not hard to find the fish and develop a pattern that will pay over and over year after year. Just keep it simple and have fun. PM me if you need more advice on crappie. Would be glad to help ya any questions welcome.

I wasnt trying to offend you at all. Everyone has the right to keep any legal fish male or female. I was just trying to point out the fact that keeping females is a better option. We have all caught females in june that still have eggs in them that never spawned. There bodies will just ingest the eggs and move on. Theres nothing wrong with keeping a few males either there's thousands of crappie in each lake and keeping the population in check by keeping a few only makes the quality of the fishery even better. We all know how crappie will take over a pond and all of the fish will be dinks beacuse theres not enough food/habitat to sustain an overabundance of crappie. Didnt want you to take it the wrong way. Glad to hear that you did well on your trip. I struggle on that lake and have almost gave up on fishing there several times. Haha

Slabstacker...good report sounds like ya got inot em good, but if your trying to help substain The crappie population or worried about a successful spawn on your lake you need to keep the females and release the males. When you keep a male the eggs in his nest that he is guarding are not going to make it. Keeping females is better on reassuring a successful spawn because not all females are going to spawn and if they already spawned then well your not hurting a thing. Everyone's Intitled to keep what they want i just thing is better not to keep males so your not leving unguarded nests full of eggs.

Aggressor.... I dont wanna give up my sweet bank fishing hole but yes i was up there between Ceader Ridge and Aldrich on the north side of the lake. All the fish i caught were in in 4-8fow. I was fishing my go to swimmin minnow 2' under a bobber. All my fish were males but they were gettin black already from the shallow water. Biggest was 11.5 inches. Give it a week or two if the weather holds and itll be full swing. Great mess of fish you worked up. Nice report.

I was up there today and got intoa few off bank after youth turkey huntin. Only had a hour or 2 to try it. Got 10 real quick on chart swim minnow. Boat moved in right on top of me and compleatly blocked me from fishing. He got 5 or 6 and moved on. Wanted to cause a scene but didnt gotta share the lake, even with the A-Holes. Stood there for another hour or so doing all i could for another 5, didnt happen. They were all big males and had there spawn color on dark heads and gill plates. Wont be long but im ready NOW! Haha.

Just noticed i got the date wrong lastnight when posting. Haha it was 4/10/15. Late one after cleaning fish and rounding up turkey gear. Sorry just now caught it.

Pics kinda blury. Sorry

Fish from 4/10

Nice mess SRJ. I found the stagers ive been lookin for. Took your advice and went to cc today. Thanks Jim.

Found some nice slabs today. Fished CC area. Fish were suspended in spawning coves. 20fow 10fd. Started at 9am had 8 keeper slab females and a 27" EYE in the first 2 hrs. Had to work for the rest of my limit limit. Caught my 15th crappie at 5:20pm. Chatr glow tube 1/8th oz pink jig head tipped with a minnow was my best bait today. Water temp was 51 at 9am and 62 at 530pm. Say several bank beaters they said it was slow. Fish are staging and it wont be long. Water Vis was less than a foot with my jig. Ended up with 15 crappie 4 whites and the bonus big eye. Have some good pics of catch ill try and figure out how to post them tomorrow. Gotta get to bed youth huntin in morning. Good luck fellas.

Bitethis....Thats Orleans Bridge. Taylor Bridge is on S. 65th Road. From 123 turn left on 215 head east. Turn left on S. 60th Road follow to Y in road go lrft thats S. 65th. Taylor is a concrete bridge. Orleans Bridge is the steel bridge On S. 50th.

The trick to Night fishing is to draw the plankton into your set up not bugs. Plankton is what bait fish feed on. You will see the plankton in the water around your lights and shortly after the bait fish will show and feed on the plankton. The schools of bait will then attract the game fish. I like submersible lights in green the best. I'll use one up front and one in back with a floating light in middle. This cuts bugs down to hardly any witch makes fishing more enjoyable. I use Florence blue line with black light to see to tie hooks and general lighting. Its important to set up where fish are pole timber, points, piles, bluff, ect or it may take several hours to go through the cycle of attracting plankton, bait fish, game fish. I usually stay in the 15-25 FOW range. I mainly use live minnows but have also had success with black jigs and small jigging spoons. Good luck!

Its great to hear of some crappie finally moving in. Great jod on a limit of what sounds like quality fish. Keep reports comming in. Ill have one for ya friday on the same area of the lake. What was water temp at High Point?

I would stay home unless your catfishin! They should be bittin good with high muddy water and all the worms washin down.

Called my bud today he lives close to Wishart said over 3" in his rain guage this morning. I bet its muddy but not sure. May have to go up the lake a little to get away from muddy water. Dont know how it affected water temp. Woundering the same things wanting to go crappie fishin myself.