Crappie are biting !

Hey all ,
Got to fish Sunday afternoon and today and caught a 6 yesterday and 5 today . Biggest was 14" and nice & fat . Most were very thick and seem to be scattered or in small schools in 1-4 feet of water . The water temp in the lake Im fishing was at 69dg . All caught on minnows with Dr. Juice panfish scent applied . The best bite was the half hour before sunset with lots of surface action Sunday but not as much today . The bass are also very active , caught over a dozen small ones on topwater baits and minnows .

Oh , BTW
I was in Gander Mnt before my fishing trip and checked on minnows - a dozen med. minnows runs $2.50 ! Smiths bait shop charges $1.50 and I always get heathly ones there . I know Moose has his own minnow tank and gets them by the pound at the Worm ranch but most of us arent set up for that :}
Anyway , I dont see GM selling a lot of minnows at that price . I also got a new reel from ebay today - a Quantum Energy PT baitcaster . Its the one with the wild looking titanium finish . Spooled up some line and am very impressed - it casts farther than any other reel Ive tried latley and is very smooth . I got to try the new Shimano Curado 200 DHSV the other day & its very nice but the PT smoked it on casting distance .
Tight lines

$2.50/dozen is high. They must have to pay for that refrigerator equipment that is over each of those minnow tanks that run 24/7. I know that they keep their water cold. I won't buy many minnows from them at those prices.

For those of you who don't know where the Wholesale Worm Ranch is located it's on Old Boonville Highway just South of the Lynch Road intersection and Just North of the Telephone Road intersection. If you are going north on Old Boonville Highway it's on your right hand side of the road.

Good to hear that the crappie are bitting. I have not fished for a few weeks. My last time out I caught some nice crappie and had a lot of fun. It was one of my best trips to Bluegrass F&W area since I started fishing there.

I was hoping that Gander Mountain would carry some of the Tite Loc rod holders but they didn't carry these. Nor did they carry any driftmaster rod holders. I guess most people don't spider rig up here ... yet.

I picked up a bottle of the Dr. Juice and man I could not believe how big that bottle was. The bottles that I use are tiny. The size of a nasal spray bottle on the order of 0.75 fluid ounces for the big bottles in 1986.

The new spray bottle are huge by comparison. They are like 6 to 7 oz in size. That's a huge increase in Dr. Juice fluid.

Now with Dr. Juice first came out I only used one drop or two drops on the baits. I put it on and let it dry on the bait for a few seconds. But being an oil it stays on the bait for a while even when the bait is in the water. The oil sticks to the plastic baits and won't come off in the water for a while.

This new bottle would last me for the rest of my life! using it a drop or two at a time.

I would recommend putting this stuff into a small nose drop bottle where you can squeeze it out a drop at a time on your baits.

I wonder if the new stuff is more diluted than when it first came out?

I got one sunday morning that was 16" and another one that was 10" out of the same hole(creek channel) and then nothing else. I went back to bass fishing. The water needs to cool off a bunch more before I go back to just crappie fishing. I had 72 degrees water temp sunday afternoon. They seem to be scattered and suspended all over the place right now. I haven't tried my deep holes out on the main lake in weeks. They'll be on them when the water temp gets 55 and lower and be there all winter long just like I will. Atleast this cooler weather has gotten rid of the jet and water skiers and alot of boat traffic..


Larry




[QUOTE=bassmanic1;306397]Hey all ,
Got to fish Sunday afternoon and today and caught a 6 yesterday and 5 today . Biggest was 14" and nice & fat . Most were very thick and seem to be scattered or in small schools in 1-4 feet of water . The water temp in the lake Im fishing was at 69dg . All caught on minnows with Dr. Juice panfish scent applied . The best bite was the half hour before sunset with lots of surface action Sunday but not as much today . The bass are also very active , caught over a dozen small ones on topwater baits and minnows .[/QUOTE]

Good to hear from you Larry. I was wondering how the fishing was up at Patoka Lake.

I almost forget about water skiers after fishing on these electric and no wake lakes down here. Glad the Water Lice are off the waters.

We have been having this un-naturally warm weather way too much.

Man since we have this rain I would look for the creeks with two or more creeks running into the ends of the bay. All that fresh water running into those bays should stir things up and get the fish going.

You know the bay we last fished should be good if we get a lot more rain.

One day I still want to fish that spot up by Dumplin' Creek and see if the big-en come in there during the fall.

And the submergent vegetation is also a very good place to catch large crappie.

I caught 10 nice crappie where most were over 11" long and the biggest was 12.5". But I had three or four that were 12" long. Man those are nice fillets. When the rest of the fish only average 8" long those 12" long fish are nice to catch. No they are not the biggest fish in the world but they are nice for this small 90 acre pit.

Water levels are so far down that my boat tires and axle dropped off the end of the ramp the last time I launched my boat. Since then they fixed the ramp by putting some gravel at the end but it only takes a few big motors powering up the trailer to wash out that gravel at the end of the ramp again.

The only problem with allowing gasoline motors on these small lakes is that they wash out the dirt at the end of the ramps when the water levels is so low. Hopefully we will get a lot of rain and fill the pits back up.



[quote=PL;306479]I got one Sunday morning that was 16" and another one that was 10" out of the same hole(creek channel) and then nothing else. I went back to bass fishing. The water needs to cool off a bunch more before I go back to just crappie fishing. I had 72 degrees water temp Sunday afternoon. They seem to be scattered and suspended all over the place right now. I haven't tried my deep holes out on the main lake in weeks. They'll be on them when the water temp gets 55 and lower and be there all winter long just like I will. At least this cooler weather has gotten rid of the jet and water skiers and a lot of boat traffic..


Larry[/quote]