Mcneely Lake

I'm trying to locate any remnant crappie populations in Mcneely Lake in Jefferson County. So far I haven't had any luck. I've tried trolling the main channel with small grubs and plastic minnows, but I haven't even gotten a bite. Can anyone give me any advice on finding crappie in this lake?

Mcneely has really seen a downturn in recent years. I've been fishing this lake since the late 80s. In the mid-90s fishing was really hot. I used to hit upon big schools of crappie while trolling, and would catch large rockbass and warmouths in the weed beds. There also used to be massive bluegill schools, along with the occassional 5lb+ largemouth bass. Channel catfish and bullheads were abundant.

I don't know whether it was the eradication of shad in the lake, or maybe over-fishing, but all I can catch now are small bluegill, medium sized longear sunfish, and 8-12 inch bass. The crappie, warmouths, and bullhead catfish have seemingly went extinct in this lake. I can honestly say I haven't caught a crappie from the lake in 10 years.

Went fishing Saturday morning in my boat. A front was moving through and the fish were biting. I really fished hard to see if I could find any crappie. In 3 hours I managed to catch ten bluegill, ranging in size from 4 to 7 inches. While trolling, I caught two fish at the same time. One largemouth bass came clear out of the water when he smashed my bait.

All I could manage to catch in three hours was ten medium sized bluegill and one 10-inch largemouth bass.

I haven't fished that lake for a couple of years. The last time I fished it, I used a red shad worm in the creel channel and threw a 1/4 oz white spinner bait around the shore cover and caught about 10 to 12 Bass with the biggest being about 2 1/2 lbs. Caught one crappie on the spinner bait as well that was around 12" long, back in the cove that goes to the left of the **** on the right side of the cove.