Crowds

[Bill Babler]

Anytime I have the opportunity to talk Becky into going fishing, I take it.

Got a call from SKMO saying the crappie were on the banks in the Kings River and that the white were chasing late in the day. Must have been a conference call as I have never seen the like of fisherman.

Roared into the ramp at viola at about 3pm and couldn't believe my eyes. The lot was over flowing and rigs were parked up the entrance road. I counted over 90 outfits. Went ahead and lanched the fish catcher with the thought that i may have spent my time better painting the porch.

Headed up the river past the Sweetwater ranp and Becky commented, what are all those trucks up in the woods? Told her they were fisherman that had parked after lanching at the ramp. Between 40 and 50 rigs their. I have never in the last 20 years seen over 5 cars at that lot.

I have a little spawning bank up the Kings I like to fish and headed that way. I have never seen another fisherman on that spot, basiclly because it looks like it would never hold a fish. Completely flat gravel. 31 boats were on the bank. I had 66 boats in view from the ski bouys thru Deer Bluff, training the banks, it didn't matter weather they were on flat gravel or complete bluff.

Stopped between two docks to fish and had two other fisherman pull into the same cut, both were within 10 ft. of my boat. There is a small deep cove with a nice spawning flat up above Royal Point, that I like, there were 16 boats in the cove and everyone could have casted into the next boat.

Spoke to about 15 fisherman on these spots and none had more than 4 fish, and most had been out all day. Just flat to much prussure.

I will not go back to the Kings River again this year. This was my last outing for crappie.

Spoke to Buster and he said Long Creek and Cricket were absolutely swamped with crappie fisherman and they would not hesitate to pull in front of you to hit any kind of bank. He said he had 25 nice keepers on his guide trip, but all the traffic made it about as unpleasant as it gets.

I have guided and fished Missouri and Arkansas now for almost my entire life and have never at anytime seen this ammount of boating traffic. I was on the Mo. State Water Patrol for 5 yrs. and can't remember traffic being like this even on holiday weekends. This is the middle of the week.

Good luck to you guys, I'm going back to Taney, and never complaining about the boats again.

[Phil Lilley]

This was my last outing for crappie.

That statement may come back to haunt you!

Did you get my monk-e-mail?

[damselfly]

I wonder if the low water conditions in other areas were the reason that you saw so many people @that location?

[Sam]

It's odd that Kings River was so crowded. We fished Long Creek yesterday (4/12) and didn't see the kind of fishing pressure you describe.

We put in at Gage's at 9 a.m., and were the fifth rig parked in that lot. Going down the lake, we commented that we "had the lake to ourselves". Later on more people arrived, and most of the day we had several other boats in sight. Nobody crowded us, no problem.

When we went past the Cricket Creek marina, there were a bunch of trailers parked - 30 or 40 maybe, but that's normal for the spring crappie run. And when we took out at Gage's, there were about that many there also. I didn't think it was very crowded. Except up in Long and Cricket Creeks above the marina, we had several hundred yards of bank to ourselves most of the time.

So far as the fishing, it was slow but good. In the shallow trees up Long and Cricket Creeks lots of smaller crappie are being caught. Some are keepers, some aren't - and we saw a lot of short fish being thrown back.

Going for quality, not quantity, we went back to the deep water and ended up with 18 crappie and 3 white bass. The crappie were all at least 12" and averaged 14" with a 15 1/2" one the biggest. I like those SLABS!

Our white bass were big also. I caught a 4 1/2 pounder on a crappie rod, what a fight that was. Anyway, the lake wasn't so crowded as to hurt the quality of our trip at all.

Question: I usually don't keep big white bass because they're so strong and fishy tasting, but I kept these. When I used to fish the ocean, I noticed that the strong, oily fish like mackeral, bonito, barracuda, etc. were real good when smoked. I've always wanted to try smoking white bass (yeah, I know - it's hard to keep 'em lit. lol), and I think I'll try it in our closed barbecue with these. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[Martin]

Sam, even with the "new" cooking method, I'd cut all the red meat off those whites. Unless your taste buds are way different then mine, I think you'll come out better if you remove the red meat.

What time is dinner...??

[Phil Lilley]

Cut the red meat out- best advice.

I was told if you boil white bass strips in shrimp boil it's excellent! I haven't tried it yet but will if I catch any whites.

Soak it in a salt solution- may take some of the strong taste out but I really never have a problem with white bass tasting strong regardless.

[Sam]

What time is dinner...??

Marty - "Dinner" is whenever you should show up with some 'shrooms.

Crappie filets and morels. Wow.

[Micheal Kyle]

It is the same way on the James and Flat creek arms aswell. I have put the stripper rods away for a week or two so that I can enjoy the carppie fishing. The crowds are bad and you are right the people will just go right in front of you so that they can fish the bank. They don't understand stay away from the fish catch more fish idea. Good luck.

[Bill Babler]

Have no idea why it was so crowded up the Kings except word is out that the fish may be on the bank. SKMO, arrived at about 4pm at the viola ramp and simply turned around as it was a mad house.

Spoke to a couple of guides that were working the Missouri side of Long Creek and they said all the coves were absolutely chocked with boats. Sam you must have just been at the right spot at the right time.

Spoke to Bill Anderson this morning. Bill was our lake biologist for a long time. He is now the cordinator of our warm water hatcheries.

Most of the crappie we are catching are coming from a couple of good back to back spawn years. A keeper is basicly a 4 to 5 year old fish. What I could determine in speaking to Bill is the number of shorts should well outnumber the keepers for a viable population, as at legal length, with the fishing prussure we have, the majority of these fish will be harvested.

Contrary to popular belief, wave after wave of crappie don't come into the bank, spawn and move away, as another set moves up. In a given period of time the spawn will occur. The majority of these keeper fish will be there at one time. When their gone, there gone. Yes there is some constant movement, but it is the same fish going and coming in search of the right conditions, not another group of fish.

Most of us can remember the low decade of the 90's. Don't forget it, as Bill said, with the harvest that has gone on the last couple of years and the extremely poor recruitment of last and for sure this year, we had better enjoy them while they last.

Can catch and release of these bedding females make a difference in our future harvest. Bill says not likely. The recuritment of crappie spawn is manley due to lake conditions. With depressed water levels, and warm clearing conditions, the new hatched crappie will have a rough go of it. If the microscopic organism's that the spawn consume are present and we get rain to promote cover for these young we may continue to have good seasons like 05, and 06. But look out 3 to 4 years from now, thats when we will see how good it really was in 2006.

On a bright note. Sam, put some Zatarain's Creole Seasoning and lemon on those cleaned no red meat white fllets and cut them in long strips, like cat fish nuggets. They will be tasty. If you don't want them, give a Hollor.

Good luck, great fishing and get them while they last.

[Martin]

Phil and Bill... That Zatarains seasoning sounds good. I'm going to try that.

Sam, the mushrooms are coming.....the mushrooms are coming....!!

(Wish it would rain again).