Fun cold day crappie fishing

[jwilson48]

We had the lake to ourselves today.  As I said in other posts I'm trying to learn this lake and it is tough.  We fished from 11-5 and caught most in the last couple hours.  Put in at mutton creek.  Caught a lot of small ones but when you caught a keeper it was a nice one.  Only had a couple under 11 inches.  9 fish is all that would fit in a Ziploc bag packed full.  Much better than pomme where a lot of the time 15 fish fit in a bag. 

 

Ice in the rod eyes was a major problem today but the water temp was still 40 degrees and no ice at the ramp.  Best bite seemed to be with some movement, cast and retrieve, drop to the bottom and reel up, slow troll, etc. Had a few hit it on the fall. Caught suspended fish, fish in brush, and fish on ledges. Covered a lot of water with side imaging and its very true 90%of the fish is in 10% of the water right now. 

 

I have a love hate relationship with this lake.  Love the challenge and the beauty of the lake.  Hate getting my butt kicked by the fish.  Best bite was chartreuse, white was good, blue/ pink was good. Also caught 1 white bass that was as big as I've seen for a few years but turned it loose. Had a couple big mystery fish on today and lost em before we got to see what they were. Had a great day fishing with my dad.  Been too long since we fish against each other spring - fall. 

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[Basfis]

WOW! Congrats on your success and I admire your commitment. 

[Johnsfolly]

Great job on catching a mess of crappie under tough conditions! Nice to see the fish as well describing what worked for you. 

[Steve McBasser]

Great job guys......

[dan hufferd]

Very good, thanks for the report !

[dan hufferd]

13 hours ago, jwilson48 said:

We had the lake to ourselves today.  As I said in other posts I'm trying to learn this lake and it is tough.  We fished from 11-5 and caught most in the last couple hours.  Put in at mutton creek.  Caught a lot of small ones but when you caught a keeper it was a nice one.  Only had a couple under 11 inches.  9 fish is all that would fit in a Ziploc bag packed full.  Much better than pomme where a lot of the time 15 fish fit in a bag. 

 

Ice in the rod eyes was a major problem today but the water temp was still 40 degrees and no ice at the ramp.  Best bite seemed to be with some movement, cast and retrieve, drop to the bottom and reel up, slow troll, etc. Had a few hit it on the fall. Caught suspended fish, fish in brush, and fish on ledges. Covered a lot of water with side imaging and its very true 90%of the fish is in 10% of the water right now. 

 

I have a love hate relationship with this lake.  Love the challenge and the beauty of the lake.  Hate getting my butt kicked by the fish.  Best bite was chartreuse, white was good, blue/ pink was good. Also caught 1 white bass that was as big as I've seen for a few years but turned it loose. Had a couple big mystery fish on today and lost em before we got to see what they were. Had a great day fishing with my dad.  Been too long since we fish against each other spring - fall. 

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How deep? Very cool, side imaging is a good thing? 

[jwilson48]

10 hours ago, dan hufferd said:

How deep? Very cool, side imaging is a good thing? 

We did catch some as shallow as 15 fow, but most were 30-40 fow. Caught some right off the bottom in the deep water all the way up to 15 ft down. Yes I feel like side imaging is the cat's meow. The later in the afternoon we started seeing fish come out of the brush and suspend above it presumably feeding. That was also when the bite was the best (go figure). Some of the schools we got over would have 40+ fish in them and only a few would bite mid day. Not sure if it was our presentation or they just weren't hungry. Any other questions, just ask. If anyone has any advice I'm all ears. Winter crappie at Stockton is far different than what I'm used to. 

[dan hufferd]

6 minutes ago, jwilson48 said:

We did catch some as shallow as 15 fow, but most were 30-40 fow. Caught some right off the bottom in the deep water all the way up to 15 ft down. Yes I feel like side imaging is the cat's meow. The later in the afternoon we started seeing fish come out of the brush and suspend above it presumably feeding. That was also when the bite was the best (go figure). Some of the schools we got over would have 40+ fish in them and only a few would bite mid day. Not sure if it was our presentation or they just weren't hungry. Any other questions, just ask. If anyone has any advice I'm all ears. Winter crappie at Stockton is far different than what I'm used to. 

Thank you very much. It is really cool how you figured them out.

You are great at describing you progress too.

Thanks

[Dkman]

Nice job, Great report!

[JTH]

Great info and much appreciated. With deer season winding down I  have been itching to get after some winter crappie and walleye.