straw hat

As I just posted on another thread our crappie fishing is down as well. We fish out of CC. Hardly ever catch more than a couple keepers and just got tired of dragging the boat around for so little. A ton of very small (3-5") black crappie but that is about it. Called it quits about 2 weeks ago. Very disappointing.

The wife and I have fished there a lot until about 2 weeks ago. Terrible fishing with only a couple of crappie a day. Only half the boats compared to normal this time of year and have not talked to any fisherman who have had any real success. Water looked like when you wash your clothes, sort of a milky gray color. The water temp on our last trip was 70 but I am sure it is a little cooler now. Just my humble opinion.

I can remember easily when you never say more than 25 boats at the major launches, even on the weekends. There was no overflow parking at any launch and no you don't get to guess my age. lol

Interesting as we stopped fishing the brush piles over 10' because we caught no crappie of any kind and never marked any fish either. Maybe those brush piles are the wrong kind of trees. lol

Interesting Sam. Have fished for crappie heavy the last 4 weeks. Averaging 30 to 40 a day but usually only 2 to 4 keepers each trip. They run around 10 ft deep. Of the approximately 140 crappie in those four days all were black crappie except 3!! No white crappie. All caught on brush piles. Go figure.

Oh yea, I just remembered...There is a website called "Korea OnDemand". Mostly it contains Korean TV shows and Movies BUT it has a section on sports and there is a lot of Koran fishing shows there. You might find them interesting. There is a toggle on the home page for Videos in Korean and Videos in English. The good this is you can still watch the Korean ones, you don't need to understand the language to know what they are doing. lol

When I was stationed in Korea during the war I fished Korean waters a lot. They all do slip bobber fishing but it is not like anything you have probably ever seen here. The Korean fisherman were very willing to share info and taught me what I know about this technique. I have included a link to a video showing Korean fishing (including the bobbers) as well as a carp fishing link that is almost exclusively about the use of these bobbers for carp. These bobbers are used by almost everyone in the orient and Europe for carp fishing (which is a big deal there). I think you will find this info very interesting. My brother-in-law has learned to make his own and ships me some for birthday's and Christmas (Lucky me!). To buy them they run $5 to $7 each. Yeah, expensive. Thank God for my brother-in-law!! https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrEZ6rzmghfZlIAARYPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByMDgyYjJiBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=korean+fishing+floats&fr=yhs-att-att_001&hspart=att&hsimp=yhs-att_001#action=view&id=4&vid=3def76fdab2b16720abafa4a79d90b8f https://www.carpanglersgroup.com/forum/index.php?/topic/48279-asian-fishing-gear-techniques-~-your-go-to-guide-and-discussion/

Oh, I enjoy that post. My wife uses 10 lb test and I use 14 lb test in case we hook a big bass or catfish. We have already caught 7 flatheads this year while crappie fishing, and my PB largemouth, 6 1/2 lbs, was caught on my slip bobber rig.

My favorite commercial bobber is the thill. The longer and skinnier the better. The skinnier the less water resistance when pulled under water and the less the fish feels.

The pre-knot string stoppers are the best of the two. I actually tie my own string knots to the line, I buy cotton string, cut a small piece (4 or 5 "), wrap it around my line 5 times and then place two square knots in it. Tighten each square knot firmly but not too much. When finished trim the excess line. If you do get the knot too tight and it will not move then just soak it in the lake for about 20 seconds and it will usually slide after that. I bought a large spool of that cotton line from a fabric shop about 15 years ago for $7 and I still have plenty left. Cheap bobber stops. I don't remember what thickness line I bought but later today will check out the spool and see if it is labelled. Will let you know.

My wife and I have fished slip bobbers for over 30 years and we love it. Your trip sounds similar to ours on Friday and Sunday, 22 keeper crappie on Friday, 17 on Sunday. Slow but steady. All 10' deep. No pattern, some while drifting minnows, some while in deep water some in shallow and some along steep banks. Water temp 82F and clarity 4 ft. We also caught 4 channels and a nice flathead cat. Several bass of 13 to 16", all 10' deep.

Thanks for the added details. We dished several but never located any balls of shad. That can make a great day.I am glad you had a great day.

Well I must admit, apparently you two are a lot better fisherman than my wife and I. I posted about our Saturday trip a couple of days ago. We scanned everythinmg in site and could not find any fish. We even drifted minnows thinking they might be suspended. We never saw ant fish on our graphs in the open water. They must have been waiting for you two. Great job.

I haven't heard anything about night fishing for crappie yet but if the lake drops some more then it should kick in.

The wife and I put in at CC this morning and spent the first 4 hours after crappie. Not a bite and very few on the fish finder. After that we changed to catfish. We knew that they had been picking up a few spawners on the rock riprap at CC so we went shallow off the flooded buck brush and only found 1 small channel. we then moved to a steep rock bank and worked it. Nothing. Very strange. We went to another rock bank and the wife fished it shallow for spawning channels and I fished 15 to 20 feet deep for flatheads. I had caught a few in that area before. I managed to come up with 4 flatheads but pretty small. Water temperature 77 to 79F. Water was very green up toward Turnback but only slightly stained a mile or two north of bridge. They must be pulling water out of the lake fast because a fairly strong current. Still a few big logs on the surface and a lot of leaves from the storm 2 days ago. This is 3 trips in a row without even one crappie. This is usually a good time of year for us. Oh well, that is fishing.

The wife and I have both caught 4 or 5 walleye in the 26 to 27" range over the years. All caught on large minnows.

We used minnows but they just didn't seem hungry. lol,

Went to CC yesterday with the boat. Basically sucked. water temp was 66 to 67. Very muddy around launch but only dingy two miles north of the launch. Lot of floating debris and logs around launch area so if you go that way be careful. Marked very few crappie 10 to 17' deep in standing timber) but could not get even one bite. Lots of 1 to 2 pound cats around the flooded buck brush in the shallows. At least 2 weeks from spawning. They will move into the rocky backs and riprap soon. Good fishing to all.

I heard there is a slight chance of some severe storms so be careful. Good luck sir.

They should be approaching the back of coves and feeder streams about now.

You are right in focusing on the main feeder branches. I would fish the deeper bank where the main channel runs up to within 1/2 mile or so of the incoming flow. The cats will still be moving up stream at this point but definitely somewhere along the channels within a mile of the incoming water. You may have to move around a little bit. They should be just where the steep bank begins to level off at the edge of the channel. I hope you have a great trip and be sure to post your results. I would like to know how you do.

Very good for cats. Both channels and flatheads.

Glad you have recovered. Good to have you back.

You might check this out. Those guys on this site know everything. lol

According to my notes the coffer dam is about 600 ft in front of the mouth of the chute that feeds the dam. So to clarify... There is a straight chute from the main lake to the dam. If you draw a straight line across the mouth of the chute the coffer dam is parallel to that line and about 600 ft out. My notes indicate that the top of the coffer dam was about 30' deep at normal lake level. Some friend use to catch walleye off the top of that dam during summer and winter both. I hope this helps,