Crappie

[Greasy B]

Success is where you find it and you found it. Thanks for the report.

[badger88]

I was on 35 yesterday and went out to get skunked by muskie.

My plan worked out fantastic!!! ;) just remember, there are no fish at Busch.

What were you throwing?

[Geoff]

A 7-8" long fire tiger-ish fly.

[mjk86]

we saw a guy throwing jerkbaits at the dam on saturday said he caught a few short bass and a muskie about 18inches. Surprised we didnt see you there. Seems like most people saw how difficult launching a boat would be and went home.

[Geoff]

Yeah I didn't get to spend too much time out there plus it was super windy and I was alittle under dressed.

I had one follow my fly that was somewhere in the 30-36" range. it was a good sized fish. No eats though. I started on the dam but didn't yield much, plus I kept hitting the brush on my backcasts and a 4/0 hook grabs really easy.

[WHARFRAT]

Is that where you guys fish for muskie? The few that I have personally seen caught have been in the shallow end. And these were by people fishing for bass. I even had one destroy a crappie that I was bringing in a couple of years ago. I've never seen any caught in the spring. All have been caught late Sept / early Oct.

[mjk86]

Never tried for muskie....the only muskie i saw in person was caught around mid lake in the main channel, that was in april or may. One of the crappie that we caught saturday had a large wound looking like a gig mark....probably from a muskie. When there is water in the shallow end the mud bottom warms up fairly quickly. Bigger bass (and probably muskie) concentrate at the end of the flat where it dumps into the creek channel. I never bass fish the lower end of the lake, but I catch as many dink bass as I do crappie down there on minnows.....like lake 33, there are some GIANT bass in that lake. On 35 I have caught lots of 3-4lb fish, the one in the picture is a lake 35 bass, id guess 5 maybe 6#. A friend caught a 25inch giant every bit of 7# on the deep side of the first island. I would assume that 3-6inch crappie make up a large % of their diet. Never bass fished 33....but according to the MDC, 66% of bass are 15inches, and a good percentage are 18inches. Every year someone pulls a 7 pound fish out of 33.

[Geoff]

I have a buddy who has seen them crusing the dam in the summer time when it is really warm, that's why I went down to that area. My next area on concentration will be in the top end where the channels are all draining into it. I also need to tie some carp looking flies since they are a secondary forage to them outside the crappie.

I would really like to touch one by the end of the year, So Im going to try and put the time in on it. If anyone wants to join in, lets make this happen.

[Justin92297]

I have always wanted to catch a muskie from that lake. Is bass techniques really the way to go for them?

[badger88]

The only luck I have had for em has been on the dam end of the lake. I haven't spent much time on the south end but I would guess that it's too shallow and warm for any decent sized muskies.