Crappie fishing April 2015

[Johnsfolly]

I've been fishing the bank along the dam and the boat dock this April. Fishing has been best near dusk. The females were loaded with eggs early this week, but not so much last night. Seem to be spawning at this time. It was really windy yesterday and the the water was more colored than I have seen this spring. The chop had the fish close to the bank. We were getting bit within 8 feet from shore and less. A couple of fish just got lifted once they bit. No reeling required. We fished small jigs and minnows with about 12 to 20" of line between bait and float. Once the wind died down the lake got flat and fish were breaking the surface all along the dam. That's when we started to really get a deeper bite on longer casts and larger fish. There were several larger fish cruising within 4 feet of the bank. These were either large carp or possibly lake sturgeon. They were three to four feet in length. None of us got close to a bite from them. By the time it was too dark to see the float, caught over two dozen crappie, several bluegill and one crappie over 12" in length. None of use wanted to clean fish. So it was all catch and release.

[Johnsfolly]

I caught another 30 crappie this evening again using the float and jig combination. I did keep about a dozen for a fish fry,. Only a couple were larger than 8" in length. I also caught a small channel catfish using worms off the bottom. Seems like the crappie bite will continue for a while longer. Many of the females had undeveloped eggs that would seem to indicate that the spawning is not over.