Bridgeport Crappie Kicked Our Butt ~ April 25

[Phil Lilley]

Got to the ramp at 6;30 this morning. Looked like a great morning to be out. Jimmy, my son in law, drove up from Rogers, AR last night to fishing this morning. Hoping to put him on the crappies. Not to be.

Water temp dropped a little from Wednesday but not but a few degrees- and it was morning. Still 62 degrees. Slight breeze, blue skies.

We caught a few shorts at all the spots. Bass too. But just couldn't get them to get going like the other few times out.

Ended doing the best on a while jig under a float 5 feet deep fishing laydowns on bluffs. One keeper, probably 14 shorts and 7 small bass. Oh and a dozen morels -- Duane took us up on a cedar glade and actually Jimmy found most of them.

Duane (Ducky Doty) is still over there. He should have the evening report later today.

[duckydoty]

Spent all day out there and finally figured out something that produced 5 keeper crappie, 3 shorts, 2 short walleye, one 16 inch spot, several short spots one nice white bass and 2 dinks in the last hour and a half of fishing. Before that, I spent all day throwing the jigs both straight lining and under a float only to catch 1 keeper crappie and 3 shorts along with a couple really small spots. I ended up resorting to trolling the purple fire tiger flicker shad in size 5 and 7. Picked all the fish up where the main lake channel transitions from bluff to flat and hitting the main lake points. All the good fish were caught from just below point 14 to just below point 15. I even doubled up one time. I sure was happy to be able to be out there today, even when the fishing was slow. I think we need to check that mushroom spot in a couple more days. Those were all some really fresh ones!

[duckydoty]

Oh, and the spawn is not over yet. All the crappie I caught were females that looked like they were going to explode with eggs. Turned them all loose.