Grenada Lake Trip 10/23-24/2020

[Phil Lilley]

Headed down to Grenada, Mississippi last week for some crappie fishing.  Duane made the trip last fall and said it was a blast.  He and Brother Dave, Dillion Harris and Mike Riffel met us down there.  I was with long time friend and Frank the Tank catcher, Paul Crews of Neosho, MO.

Paul and I fished with Jacob, a long time guide for https://www.grenadalakecharters.com/ out of Grenada.

We started early Friday morning, not traveling far to the boat ramp.  Jacob had everything ready including 18 and 20 foot rods and a tank full of gizzard shad minnows.

The lake looked very low.  Jacob explained that was normal.  They draw the lake down in the winter making room for spring rains.

We were surprised at the depth of almost all the water we boated to.  We fished in 11 to 15 feet of water -- I'd say on a flat but the whole lake was a flat.  We didn't fish structure at all although there was some stick ups in one area we fished.  The water was turbid but not super muddy.  Water temp was 71 degrees and the weather was partly cloudy and 88-90 degrees.  Slight breeze out of the south.

Jacob set out 4 spider rig poles on each side of the bow, one set for me and one for Paul.  The 20's went on the outside edges and the 18's lined the middle.  He tied a 2-ounce ball weight on the bottom, using 10-pound line.  He added 2 hooks up from the weight about 24-30 inches apart with hooks for the minnows.  He hooked them in the lower lip and dropped the lines down anywhere from5 to 9 feet deep, depending on the depth of water and where the fish were holding. 

We sat in double Millennium Fishing Chairs with a Garmin dual screens in front of us.  Yep- he had a Garmin Pantoptic Livescope.

I didn't watch the screen Friday -- I watched the rod tips.  Paul watched both and so did Jacob.  The action was pretty steady all day, catching I'd say about an average of 7 fish per hour.  We caught a lot of short crappie and ended the day with 18 keeper crappie ranging from 12 to 16 inches.  The length limit on Grenada is 12 inches.

Fishing had been slow up to Friday so we were grateful for the luck.  The other 2 boats in our party both limited with 30 each.  But they didn't catch many short fish.

Saturday was the exact opposite of Friday.  The temp had dropped into the lower 50's and the wind blew out of the north.  We drove around the lake to another ramp to fish a sheltered area, out of the north wind and white caps on the main lake.  They said every boat on the lake were in this sheltered area and I believe it.

Although the water temp plummeted to 67 degrees over night, we still managed to catch 15 keepers and not many short fish.  As the day wore on, the bite got better.  We should have started later in the morning and fished the afternoon/evening.

I think our party broke the 16.75-inch but didn't make the 17-inch mark.  I don't know how much these big slabs weighed but they say this is the home of the 3-pound crappie and I believe it.

The lake is absolutely full of minnows -- food base.  It has to be to sustain a crappie population like they have.

We'd love to go back and cast for them... the guides said these crappie won't hit anything with a minnow on it.  I'd love to test that theory with my jigs.  May be some day we will.

[Quillback]

That's pretty neat.  I have fished Sardis a couple of times which is just a bit north of Grenada.  Grenada is supposed to have some bigger fish as you noted, we never caught any 3 lbers in Sardis, but we did get decent numbers of keepers.

I fished with my uncle, he has a 17 ft aluminum john boat deal , we always trolled with Bandit 300's.  The times I have gone with him have been in the summer, July, and needless to say it is hot and humid, but the fish still bit.  As far as lake structure there really wasn't any to fish on Sardis either we trolled around out in the middle not far from the dam, lake is pretty consistently 20-30 feet deep without any cover to speak of but the crappie do just fine.

It's amazing how productive those lakes are, they just get hammered by catch and keep crappie fishermen but they keep producing.

[Devan S.]

Really want to go down there when the lakes are high and in the woods. Jig pole and waders up in the brush.