BlueGrass Fish & Wildlife Area Otter Pit Fishing Report - Crappie

Fished Otter Pit today from 3 pm until dusk. Air was cool today and there was a slight breeze but not too bad. Little ripples on the water. Winds were out of the North today around 5 to 10 mph. Had to put on a sweat shirt and long pants today to stay warm.

Water temperature at the surface ran around 72 deg F plus or minus a few deg.

I fished deep starting out and caught a couple crappie within the first 5 minutes. Later I moved to shallower water. Fished water that was 6 ft deep with brush on it where the water nearby was about 15 ft deep. I found a small underwater hump that's surrounded by slightly deeper water. This area is not too far from my deep water spot. Moved up and down this area going from one brush to another and picked up about 12 White Crappie.

Most of the crappie were feeding pretty good as evidenced by the size of their stomachs when I cleaned them. Found some small minnows inside their stomachs.

Fish today with Rosey Red Minnows in the 2" size range. Added a chartreuse crappie nibble to the #2 hook along with a minnow hooked though the the bottom of the lips to the top of the lips. Sometimes I hooked them though the eyes but they don't appear as natural to me that way. They do stay on the hook longer when hooked though the eyes. One trick that I may start using again is to take a small piece of chartreuse plastic bait and put it on the hook after I put the minnow on the hook. Just cut off a small bit of a plastic worm or grub about the size of a crappie nibble and that will work. Chartreuse is the best color that I have found. That color shows up best in the turbid waters or in deeper water. Hey that's why they paint fire engines Chartreuse not Red. Chartreuse can be seen better at night.

I have a good mess of fillets tonight when I finished.

One more thing. I am using a American Angler battery powered electric fillet knife. After using it for a few times and charging it up several times as per the directions it's working much better. I had to put the right blade on this thing to make it work right. I found that the 8" long fillet blade with the yellow plastic and the oblong hole in the handle work best with this knife. I easily filleted 12 crappie tonight. It was nice not to have to get the portable battery out to run my other 12 volt DC fillet knife. No cords to mess with makes cleaning fish a lot more fun. This battery operated NiMH didn't work very well at first. At first it would not hold a charge and would run out of power on the first fish. But after I used it and recharged it about 4 or 5 time the batteries started working much better. Also the blade that came with it was not good. It was too thin and didn't seem to cut well. Once the unit started smoking while I was cleaning a fish. It got overheated somehow and I had to stop using it. But I put a new set of blades on it and now it works much better. I think that maybe the older blades were warped or bent or something and were not sliding past each other right.

Most of my crappie were caught in less than 7ft of water in heavy submerged brush that was right beneath the surface. ie it went from the bottom to just under the surface of the water.

If there was a fish in the brush it didn't take but 30 seconds before I felt the thump. I fished with a long 10ft graphite pole that is very sensitive and has good reach. I fished tight line with a bass pro shop Finesse sinker on the bottom and a #2 gold wire hook tied above the sinker with a loop knot. This allows the minnow to swim around the line a bit but it still gives me the good feel. At time the fish would bite so easy that I didn't know they were there until I lifted the pole and set the hook. If the hook got caught I would just drop the pole down and let the sinker pull the hook free. I got hooked on the brush a lot but got the hook loose every time today. Normally I loose about two or three hooks and have to tie on a new hook.

Tomorrow will be another good day to fish. Then the rain comes for the next few days.

Fall is here and it's time to fish before it gets too cold to be comfortable.

The coffee was good today.

Thanks for the report. It is nice to see someone that isn't scared to give away a few tips. I will be heading out to do some crappie fishing soon. Just had a little baby girl so time is limited. I once took my wife and hooked her up with a 3.5 pound crappie. It looks real nice next to the 9.5lb bass on the wall. Thanks nick

Your welcome mate:
Crappie are prolific breeders and any fish caught will soon be replace by the next years batch.

The Three major pits on Bluegrass are Otter, Loon and Bluegrass Pit itself. All three are hydro logically connected to Blue Grass Creek and Pigeon Creek which runs to the Ohio River. So every time it floods fish can swim upstream into these pits to replenish the supply. They are like oxbows in a way.


If you can find brush in a strip pit then you can usually target crappie. I see people fishing the brush in Otter almost every spring.

But crappie will return to the shallows in the fall as well. Just not quite as shallow. In the spring they will be found in 1ft to 2ft of muddy water but in the fall they may hold in 4 to 7ft of water. I read were the crappie and bass are following the Shad into the shallows and that's true. I saw lots of shad balls in the shallows along the surface. And you can see the shad being hit by fish of some kind.

Last night I lost a minnow and saw it swimming around in circles on the surface not 15 ft from my boat. I continued to fish and then noticed a huge fish grab the minnow and take it under. All I saw was the big fish's mouth opening and engulfing the minnow.

I wish I could encourage more guys to give reports about their fishing trips. You don't have to give exact spots or gps coordinates but you can give general information that may help someone learn to catch a few more fish. There are plenty of fish in the lakes for everyone when it comes to pan fish.