K Dock Report

[Sam]

I went yesterday (Monday). My idea was to do some trolling and maybe chase surfacing white bass or to find those walleyes powerdive was onto a couple of weeks ago. I was unsuccessful at both.

As far as white bass, I caught one little tiny one smaller than your hand. There are big bunches of minnows on top all over the lake with nothing chasing them except gar. No surfacing white bass at all - I still hope that will start soon like it did last fall.

So I tried trolling for walleyes in several likely places and struck out there, too. I scoped a bunch of fish all along one rocky bank so I tried trolling a Bandit II (pearl) along there in 20 feet or so of water. Lots of fish on the scope, and right away I caught a 16" largemouth. Well, that was some encouragement since I hadn't been able to get anything else going all day - so I kept trolling up and down that bank looking at fish on the scope.

I had several soft bites that didn't get hooked, and on the scope I'd see what looked like some crappie piled up on bushes. Naaah - couldn't be (I'm a little slow sometimes). Finally I hooked a good fish on the Bandit II, and it was a 15" crappie! That changed everything - I switched over to slow-trolling a swimming minnow on a 1/8 oz. jighead and ended up limiting out on crappie, including a few that matched that first 15-incher.

It seems like I should have figured that deal out quicker.

[rps]

well done!

[rangerman]

What was water temp and clarity like up there? Good job on the crappies by the way! that is a good day:)

[Sam]

What was water temp and clarity like up there? Good job on the crappies by the way! that is a good day:)

Surface water temp was 78-79 everywhere I went. The water had a little color to it, not bad. Finding those crappie made it a good day all right, but it was almost a strike-out day. I talked to other people coming in at the ramp, and I guess I was lucky to catch anything at all.

Being flexible has saved many a trip for me. I had no intention of crappie fishing that day, but changing with the conditions and being willing to go after whatever's biting is better than targeting just one or two species, I think.