Crappie Fisherman

Hunt around the dam area, haven't had much luck lately. Probably try around the mouth of Indian Point tomorrow.

Whereabouts on the lake are you? Hunting points? Coves?

Crappie are biting very well up the James right now. Good way to kill some days till it freezes up north!

Sounds like a good hunt, whereabouts you hunting on Table Rock? Been killing a few here and there but seems like most are still up north. Need some freezing temps and snow up north!

Can't use trot lines in the management zone.

Still closed

Wait about 2 more weeks and just start trolling along the flats with your trolling motor on low. Split shot rig with a cricket on the bottom. Watch your depthfinder because where there's one there's usually more. Any structure in the right depth range on the gravel will school them up. If you find structure with gills, throw out a marker buoy and cast the cricket at them.

They will still spawn in the 15-20 foot range, at least they did in 2008. I did hear of some reports of big ones coming out of the bushes in '08, but the majority were on the gravel flats. Still early yet, the water temp needs to get in the 70's 15-20 feet deep before the spawn is on good.

White slider.

Better email her back and ask again, and talk to Stone county agent Dan Akin for the final word. You also don't have to stop snagging after taking 2 paddlefish in Table Rock. Rules don't mention Table Rock, just Ozarks and Truman.

According to the wildlife code of Missouri, you can't catch and release legal sized paddlefish: 3 CSR 10-6.410 Fishing Methods (7) Fish legally taken by snagging, snaring, grabbing, atlatl, gig, bow, crossbow, or underwater spearfishing shall be retained by the taker and included in the prescribed daily limit.

The cleanup has been rescheduled for March 13th. 8:00 am at the lower parking lot on upper Wire Road Conservation Area. Everyone is welcome to come and help out.

Speaking of keeping Crane Creek clean, there will be a litter pick-up on March 13th. Everyone will be meeting at 8:00 am at the lower parking lot on upper Wire Road Conservation Area. Please come and help out, everyone is welcome.

How big were the crappie you were catching? Did you catch a lot of sublegal fish too?

Table Rock is full of flathead, especially in the clearer sections of the lake like Indian Point and the dam area. Try fishing around some brushpiles that MDC has put out. There's a lot of Christmas trees in the Indian Point area that the flathead love. They're also pretty fond of the stumps up there. http://newmdcgis.mdc.mo.gov/tablerock/

There's about 1,500 in the lake MDC has put out. Surely there's some that hold fish somewhere.

If you like fishing brushpiles, you might want to check out the MDC map at: http://newmdcgis.mdc.mo.gov/tablerock

I finally found them around Indian Point today. They aren't where they've been the last two years. I found them in cuts on gravel flats, about 10-13 feet of water. They were mixed in with the longear, but if you're willing to sacrifice a few crickets between big 8 inch gills, you can catch them. Water temp was around 81, so it should continue for the next few weeks.

That's a huge green sunfish. You should consider applying for a Master Angler Award from MDC: http://mdc4.mdc.mo.gov/Documents/71.pdf

Try gravel flats and points in about 10-20 feet of water. They aren't spawning really good just yet, but you might pick up a few. Other suggestions would be to sift through the small ones on the brushpiles. Caught a few nice ones doing that last week.

That happened last year in Beaver too. Likely due to a hard winter. Fish that small have a hard time with bad winters. I also wonder if thw white bass aren't chasing and killing a few. You know how agressive those whites can be.

How warm was the water where you were catching the crappie?

K Dock is frozen about 20 yards in front of the ramp. Beaver and Forsyth are open.

How deep were you fishing? And, where do you find brushpiles around K-dock?! I usually fish down towards the AR line, but am tired of boating that far. Thanks for the report, I'm dying to get out there and catch some more. I caught 10 a couple weeks ago that were all nice blacks, 13 feet of water IN the brushpiles. Darn work getting in the way of my fishing.

Well, we went out today and fished the gravel points and flats around the dam area. Somehow in all of the boat traffic and pleasure boaters waking us we found the bluegill in 12-15 feet of water on the bottom. We were using night crawlers. I think we caught around 30 or so, ranging from 7-8 1/2 inches. Some were close to 9. Really good fighters on ultralight though. I think it's just starting, should get better from here! Caught a couple of nice smallmouth on tubes and shaky head worms too. Chunk rock banks were the best for the smallmouth. Probably try to get out a bit earlier tomorrow to beat the boat traffic. It looks as if everyone who missed their vacation from the high water last year has come down now! If you don't have at least a 20 foot boat or fiberglass bass boat, I wouldn't get out there!!