Help Me Out!!!!

[markg]

Counting the dayws down to come crappie fishing in a couple weeks. Haven't seen much happening here. Anyone been fishing the Long/Cricket Creek area? Should I look elsewhere on the lake? I'm getting nervous that maybe I picked the wrong week.

[Dutch]

I don't know where else to look. I talked to a guy who lives around Cape Fair a couple of days ago. He said that it just wasn't happening this year for some reason, maybe cause they caught 2 bazillion last year and year before last in that area.

[Sam]

I hate to say, but I think we've got 3 or 4 years of poor crappie fishing to look forward to. Well, maybe not poor - but not as good as the past couple of years have been.

I think the good crappie fishing we've had in the last couple of years were because we were catching the "classes" of crappie that hatched out in the last high-water springs. High water in the spring makes an enormous difference because the baby crappie have land weeds and brush to hide in when they're real little.

Now we've had about three low-water springs in a row, and the young crappie couldn't have had much shelter from predators. When the water is down, you can see that the lake bottom, except for brushpiles, looks like a desert with no cover whatsoever.

So, we'll see what happens - but I'm not expecting real good crappie fishing again until 3 or 4 years past a high-water spring.

[markg]

One week to go!!!!! I'll be down next week to crappie fish. Can any one help me out? Where they at?????

[SplitShot]

I went out today on the James and fished for some white's (caught a few males), but when I came in there were two boats that had a couple of nice stringers of crappies. 15 on one and 17 on the other. I didn't pound them for details, but they both had minnow buckets so I assume they were using minnows. Last weekend my brother and I caught some in the James area dragging a minnow in the channel, but with this warm week they should start moving in. Sorry I can't give you a report on the Long Creek end of the lake. If you get skunked up that way a couple of days it might be worth the drive over to Cape Fair. If all else fails you should be able to catch some white bass- not very tasty but fun! Good Luck!

[Sam]

I have a friend who caught a few crappie from Bridgeport up to Ashercane yesterday on the James River arm. You may be a little early for peak crappie fishing, as I didn't start getting limits until April 1 last year - and then we stayed on 'em for about 6 weeks.

Those Tablerock bass reports Bill Babler is posting are interesting, though. Good bass fishing is a great way to fill out a crappie trip, and vice versa.

[markg]

Thanks Guys, last couple of years we hit it pretty good but was coming earlier this year. Appreciate the info. Try to find the warm water in Long or start driving to James Arm. Hopefully the warm trend will change things.