4/23 Crappie Report

[ric lee]

Put in at Bolivar Landing 9:30 Saturday.  Fished the bank till 2 with only 3 crappie in the boat.  Was totally dumbfounded.  Water temp was 63 at launch at 68 when we left at 6.  If it ain't working do something different so we went into a cove and fished timber in around 13-15 fow.  Apparently they were staging ready to spawn.  Combined we left with 20 crappie with several nice slabs.  All but a couple were females full of eggs.  All in all a great day to be on the water. 

[VJMAC]

Same thing happened to us sat. Been catching on the banks in same area for a week or so. We beat the banks for about 3 hours with no bites. Just happened to idle by some timber heading back in a cove and graph was loaded with fish. Stopped and dropped a jig and pulled out a 14"er. Wife and i got our limits in about 90 mins. 18 ft of water and most fish were suspended in 5-10ft. Never moved the boat !!

[packersooner]

Nice job y'all!

[MOPanfisher]

That is the way its been lately, don't know what happened to the shallow bite. Seems there are a few still but most are coming from the 6-10 range.  Maybe that first wave of early spawners made their run and the next wave isn't quite ready yet.  Of the ones I have cleaned most have had good relatively firm egg sacs you could remove intact, only one ran all over the place when the knife went through, she was definitely ready.  I haven't gotten to fish as much as I would like, but way more than last year.  The yard cat still comes over when I am cleaning fish but can't keep up eating the egg sacs which is all I give the old critter.

[ric lee]

Amazing how patterns change so quickly.  It will be interesting to see what happens after the storms that passed through the area. 

[VJMAC]

Heading that way soon. Let ya all know how it goes. Mon night caught some on banks in area were i'd been catching suspended fish. yesterday same area and on banks bitin like crazy before the storms blew in. 

[VJMAC]

Only managed 10 keepers ystrday evening. Just barely biting. Kept pulling the tube bodies down the hook. Throwing 1.5" black/chart tube in beginning. Switched to small 3/4" chart tube and finally started hooking some fish right before dark. Probably would have got a limit had i made the change sooner.