Not something I prefer on the end of a crappie rod!

[Lance34]

Hooked into a BIG gar!

 Sucker had to be as long as my leg and I'm 6ft.  I tangoed with it for a few minutes but, when it went under  and towards my other lines I wasn't having none of it on a 16 ft crappie rod so, I cut it loose.  

Another cooler thing that happened as well was I hooked into a bass and as I pulled it to the surface his BIG brother was with it.  Pretty cool to see.  

Ok got started rigging, pushing double rig minnows up river about 11:30.   WT was 67-68!  

Went to the same cove as last week.  There's another creek I want to go do, but was expecting wind to eventually pick up and trolling it is a pain in the wind.  
 
Pretty much the same results as last week.  Abundance amount of shorts and a decent mess of keepers.  

Basically what I'm doing is moving around looking for small bait clouds and then just holding on to the area until they quit biting and then move in search for another.  

Was also in all kinds of depths from 8-17 fow, catching them 6-10 feet deep.

One things for sure it's going to get good in about a year with all these 9 inchers swimming around.  

Pics below, take care and God bless.

 

 

[Fish Hound]

Lance, you seem to have the crappie on this lake figured out. For this time of year are live minnows the way to go? I have been  trolling crank baits and getting a few but not the quality and size you are catching. I may be too deep as hitting flats in the War Eagle cove area but in 18-25 fow and running baits around 12 to 16. I saw a bunch of those gar a couple weeks ago in the second little cove on the north side past War eagle camp. I was kind of hoping one would  get on as my trolling rigs were probably a lot heavier than what you were using.  

[Lance34]

9 hours ago, Fish Hound said:

Lance, you seem to have the crappie on this lake figured out. For this time of year are live minnows the way to go? I have been  trolling crank baits and getting a few but not the quality and size you are catching. I may be too deep as hitting flats in the War Eagle cove area but in 18-25 fow and running baits around 12 to 16. I saw a bunch of those gar a couple weeks ago in the second little cove on the north side past War eagle camp. I was kind of hoping one would  get on as my trolling rigs were probably a lot heavier than what you were using.  

For the method of fishing I'm doing right now, not holding a rod to feel the thumb I prefer to use minnows over jigs. I'm moving real slow at .2-.3mph, so a crappie has a lot of time to look at the bait.  Being that they feed by sight and when they suck the bait in and has no taste they'll spit it out.  I just have better hook up with a minnow when not having the rod in my hand.  I'll use tube jigs, road runner type jig heads, and teasers that I still tip with a minnow in certain water color conditions and to also have a bigger profile bait .

This time year I struggle the most.  The lake comes hard to fish for one and they tend to move around more makes them hard for me to dial in.  

I've quit cranking for the year.  Just tend to not do as well pulling cranks this time of year.  I go for moving out the river arms, move back into coves and fish like you would in the spring.  

[Fish Hound]

Thanks Lance, I may give that a try this weekend if I can get out. I did OK on jigs this spring in the Blue Springs area and up into Brush Creek so may try it in there. I know you fish this area so if you see a small white fiberglass Livingston runabout with trolling motor on front it's probably me.