Crappie Reports?

[packersooner]

We were thinking of heading up there on Tuesday. Saw Brad's excellent report from about a week ago. Anyone know if conditions have changed? It looks like the water should be coming up due to the rain this weekend.

Jason

[shockley32]

Jason,

I fished the same pattern on Friday and Saturday - had two limits within a couple of hours each day. It will be interesting to see what happens with the influx of water, change of temp, as well as pulling water at the dam. I would think the deeper fish would be more stable than shallower ones. If I get the chance I will sneak away a couple of hours this afternoon and let you know.

We were using jigs casting and swimming back. Just get on top of a brush pile and count down the jig to the top of the brush. Jigs with a tail (tripple ripple, grub, etc) worked best - glow chart, blue/chart, blue.

Good luck and let us know how you do.

Brad

[packersooner]

Thanks for the advice Brad! I'll check the board before I head out in the morning in case you were able to sneak out. As of right now, we are thinking of launching at Lightfoot. We did well late this winter fishing brush piles right along the bluff to the south of the ramp.

I let you know how we do...

Jason

[MOPanfisher]

Hey those are MY piles. Lightfoot should be a good place to start, muddy water shouldn't be there. Doubt if I get to try fishing until later in week, mowing, church committee meetings etc. etc. etc. I firmy believe that all non-critical meetings and work should be postponed until after April!!

[packersooner]

Hey those are MY piles. Lightfoot should be a good place to start, muddy water shouldn't be there. Doubt if I get to try fishing until later in week, mowing, church committee meetings etc. etc. etc. I firmy believe that all non-critical meetings and work should be postponed until after April!!

No doubt there is a lot of brush in that general area. A lot of it was put there by MDC (signs on shore, indicated on map, etc.), but there are indeed a fair amount of "private" piles. I'll do my best to stay on the marked ones

I am with ya on the month of April topic. One of my busiest times of year at work. I'm lucky to get out 3 or 4 times the whole month. I have lived in MO for 7 years now and have not timed the crappie spawn (females in shallow) right once! Work just gets in the way

Jason

[MOPanfisher]

There is a lot of brush piles around Lightfoot area, all are fair game. (Even if I did help put them in) Some are marked some aren't wish I had a GPS instead of a poor memory so I could mark them. Oh well that what makes it fun.

The up/down nature of the lakes sometimes makes it tough to get it right, especially when you go when you can not when you should.

[shockley32]

Made it out this afternoon and the crappie are still hungry. Three of us had our limits in about 3.5 hours. Same pattern as the last week or so only the water is a little deeper now. Pay close attention to your line, had several that twitched the line which I never felt, just jerk and set the hook!

Good luck - those brush piles should be good tomorrow.

Brad

[packersooner]

Made it out this afternoon and the crappie are still hungry. Three of us had our limits in about 3.5 hours. Same pattern as the last week or so only the water is a little deeper now. Pay close attention to your line, had several that twitched the line which I never felt, just jerk and set the hook!

Good luck - those brush piles should be good tomorrow.

Brad

Thanks for the report Brad! We ended up with 19 keepers today. We must have caught at least 40 sub legals. We tried everywhere from the coves around Lightfoot to Fugat cove. Anywhere from the shore to 35 fow. Pretty much all of them seemed to be on some sort of brush. We caught about half of them vertically jigging and the other half casting twisters/road runners over brush piles. Green. blue, and hot pink seemed to work best. Water temps ranged from 62 to 67. All in all, your reports seemed pretty much spot on. I guess we didn't find the magic brush piles where you have been limiting out

Jason

[shockley32]

Congrats - Sounds like a great trip. You can catch several on some piles while others will only have a handful. I do know it's been a blast the last few weeks!!!

Brad