A Trip to the promised land!!!!

[Alaskageek]

Things just fell into place this week and a guys spring trip out of this hell hole of a city is happening. (9 months of city is way way way to long for this Alaska man!!! Me and a buddy of mine are heading over to our usual spot at Wheatland Park to stay for a week for fishing, drinking, morel hunting, drinking, turkey scouting (no hunting this year, can't afford the tags), and maybe some drinking!!!   LOL!  We'll be heading over on the 27th and staying a week.  Have been watching the Pomme and Truman forums and see some good trips for crappie, white bass and hybrids have been happening.  Sounds like there will be alot of you all heading out over the next week, checking on the status of lake levels and the crappie spawn.  Would very much like any and all reports you can give me on crappie, white bass, hybrids and catfish.  I'm hoping MoPanFisher and Ranger520VX, the resident experts,  are willing to once again point me in the right directions, as you have never led me wrong.  We'll have my fishing boat, with hopefully a working trolling motor this year, but still running a fish locator that is older than I am, which then makes me a little more confident running Pomme than Truman........ Lots of stumps and submerged standing timber in Truman so seems like you've got to really know where the channels are, which is not something the ancient locator I have does. I much more comfortable running Pomme as I've been out on it more, and want to start learning Truman.   Have only been out on Truman as the captain around the Fairfield area twice, and once with a friend as the captain in the Clear Creek area, which looked very intimating as far as boat running goes.  

White Bass:

My girl loves eating those white bass, so hoping to find some this trip.  I've done really good on Pomme in July, but have never fished them on Truman or in the spring.  I understand they should be up in rivers/creeks this time of year, correct?  Look for them breaking water while feeding, just like in July??

Crappie:

Sounds like the spawn should be firing up any day now, right?  They seem to be holding in a pre-spawn pattern, hanging at the edges of coves and spawning area's, suspending in 10-20ft or water?  Use jigs and minnows

Catfish:

Still have never really found a good spot for catfish.  I've picked a few up here and there, mostly on jugs left overnight.  I've tried anchoring up and throwing out on flats, i've tired deep channels, main lake, back of coves with creeks in them (all on Pomme), but just have never really found them like I have the crappie and white bass.  I've tried chicken liver, cut bait, hot dogs, sponge baits.

Hybrids:

Have never actually targeted them, or even ever caught one, but there's a first time for everything, right???  Any info here would be awesome!!!!

You can count on me checking things here daily as the minutes slowly grind by until I'm on the road to the promised land!!

Wish you all good luck on the water/in the woods!!!!

[navery]

The whites and hybrids will be mixed in together. They are in the creek channels, but this may be tough since you don't have a graph that shows that. Be careful as there is a lot of standing timber the further you go back in the creeks. You probably won't see them breaking the surface this early, so you will just have cast until you find them. 3" Chartreuse and white sassy shad and rooster tails will catch them. Good luck and post your results! 

[Alaskageek]

Yeah... really need to find the $350 for a new Hummingbird Helix 5 GPS DI G2, with the lakemaster SD card.  Would make me much more confident running on Truman!!

 

[oneshot]

On 4/18/2019 at 11:48 AM, navery said:

The whites and hybrids will be mixed in together. They are in the creek channels, but this may be tough since you don't have a graph that shows that. Be careful as there is a lot of standing timber the further you go back in the creeks. You probably won't see them breaking the surface this early, so you will just have cast until you find them. 3" Chartreuse and white sassy shad and rooster tails will catch them. Good luck and post your results! 

 

Yes one time I had my 18 footer on its side because I hit a tree I didn't see. My wife wasn't happy with that.

oneshot 

[Alaskageek]

On 4/18/2019 at 10:48 AM, navery said:

The whites and hybrids will be mixed in together. They are in the creek channels, but this may be tough since you don't have a graph that shows that. Be careful as there is a lot of standing timber the further you go back in the creeks. You probably won't see them breaking the surface this early, so you will just have cast until you find them. 3" Chartreuse and white sassy shad and rooster tails will catch them. Good luck and post your results! 

Hey navery.... when you say "in the creek channels", do you mean something like this?  That is the Hwy 83 bridge, just east of the Fairfield launch.  Is the creek channel the deep trough that snakes through, that I've traced in yellow?  

[navery]

Yes, but I would go a lot further up(bottom right of your picture) to find them. 

[Alaskageek]

3 hours ago, navery said:

Yes, but I would go a lot further up(bottom right of your picture) to find them. 

Sure am planning on trying to get up into the river and to Sapps landing if possible, sounds like thats the direction you're talking about.  🙂

[MOPanfisher]

You won't need to go that far up, and it would be white knuckle run from Fairfield.  Just upstream from the 82 bridge is a big cove that goes beast and south, we always called it bean cove.  It is usually good.

[Alaskageek]

13 hours ago, MOPanfisher said:

You won't need to go that far up, and it would be white knuckle run from Fairfield.  Just upstream from the 82 bridge is a big cove that goes beast and south, we always called it bean cove.  It is usually good.

Thanks for that info MoPan!!!  While I'm ok with white knuckle rides occasionally, don't need to go looking for one as enough just sorta happen.  Will check out bean cove from sure.  Also happens to be one of the Corps land spots I marked to scout for Turkey.  Have you ever heard any Tom's gobbling away up in there?

[MOPanfisher]

Yep, have called a few down to the water while fishing.