Crappie To Be Had, But Need To Work For Them.

[stuartsx5]

My brother is up from Texas for a fall fishing trip. We put in at Shawnee Bend Monday and fished for about 4 hours and wound up with 11 crappie and 2 whites between us. Caught most of the crappie in one spot. Only had one crappie under 12 and he was 10 1/2. Not much quantity but good quality. Put in at Roach Tuesday after the rain and caught one small white and a million dink blue gill. My wife and I are planning a trip Tuesday thru Thursday next week up around Osage Beach for our birthday get away. We'll see how it is then.

[WHARFRAT]

Leaving tonight, going to be there a full week. Hope to catch some. Probably keep a few.

Nice catch Stuart. Were they still in the docks? I've just been using jigs and shooting them in the dark confines of the docks and doing pretty decent, especially on sunny days. Seems like when the sun goes down and/or cloudy you'll find them scattered around the outside of the docks near wood.

Great eating size you got there. When the crappie are around the 11-12" mark, it don't take as many for a meal for the wife and I. We like to cook em fresh out of the lake. I'm not a white bass fan, I'd save those for the dogs (or in-laws)

Good luck next week and Happy Birthday. Let us know how you did!

[Old plug]

Seems things are better up the the Niangua Arm. White bass have been tough in the Gravois as far as size goes. I can catch 10 to 20 any evening in less than a hour most evenings on a slab spoon if i try at all but most are about 6" long. Crappie are spotty right now around my place. The other day i went back in cedar creek about 2/3 the way to where it narrows the lake was just covered with shad from from a short ways off the docks. I used a rapala flat shad and caught small Kentucky bass till i was sick of it. On about the 10 cast into the fishing I hit a dock corner and broke the lip off but the little lures is just as good a top water without it. It has a flash that really looks natural. I fished from 2pm to 5:30 pm catching fish the whole time. Only caught one keeper Large mouth and 3 Kentucky bass a foot or better. I went back yesterday for a short period with a suspending Rogue hoping to scare up something larger but still caught small Kentucky bass. They are really making their present felt in the middle area if the Gravois. Last spring I caught a lot of them in what used to be a good LMB spawning area most if those ran 14 and 15 inches long. That's OK but it is not the suze i am accustom to in that cove.

On a more positive note i have seen a rapid decline in the number of zebra mussels on rocks snag on spoons.

[stuartsx5]

They were all caught around docks, Wharfrat. Most of em came from one dock, must of been a bed there. My boat is new to me and I didn't realize until on the water that the locator didn't work so I don't have any idea how deep of water I was in. Caught all of them on a Kalins Fire Tiger on a 1/16 ounce jig head. Thanks for the birthday wish, my wife and I share the same birthday and we will be 45 Thursday. I will post next weekend on our results from the trip. Good luck on your trip, where will you be fishing? We are hoping to find a place around Horseshoe Bend so we can fish the Shawnee Bend area or maybe around the Grand Glaize bridge. Maybe we will run across ya on the water.

[WHARFRAT]

I'm at the 13mm of the Big Niangua, close to the hwy 54 bridge. Sitting here at 6:45 this morning drinking a little coffee, got the long Jons on, getting ready to have at it. Going to be a chilly ride this morning, going up close to bridal cave and fish some brush. Hopefully they'll be easy to find.

Unless I'm just exploring, I don't go much farther up the lake than where the little niangua comes in.

Good luck!!!!!

[stuartsx5]

I usualy fish up from there at Roach but have started exploring other areas. Like the Shawnee Bend area and PB 2 but Roach will always be my go to place as the water gets cooler in November and December. Good luck and stay warm.

[WHARFRAT]

Extremely tough today. Caught 4 overs and 2 unders. Deep, shallow. They seem scattered. No pattern. Going to go get lunch, then maybe pull some cranks, try to salvage this day. One of the overs was just a bit over 12 1/2".

[stuartsx5]

Well, that is certainly a nice one. Hope the afternoon proves to be better. I've never fished with cranks, only jigs and minnows. If the cranks work I may have to get some.

[Old plug]

Its a wonder you did not get blown half way back to STL.

[WHARFRAT]

The crappie stunk today, Miss Julie went out with me this afternoon, she boated 2 overs to my zilch. Then while pulling cranks, my PR for walleye. 27 3/4". My cheap scale said 7 1/2 lbs. don't know how accurate that is, but still, almost 3" bigger than my all time walleye, caught when I was a teen.

By the way, she went back to be caught another day.