Indian Summer Fishing in November BG F&W Otter Pit crappie Report for 11/27/06

[Moose1am]

Fished otter pit this evening for about two hours. Didn't get going until later around 3 pm. Air temps was in the mid to high sixties. It's hard to believe that it's that warm today but boy was it nice. Tomorrow it's getting up to 70 deg F. Water temp at the surface is 48 deg and in the shallows it's a deg warmer.

I fished some structure within casting distance of the launch ramp. Caught one crappie after another but only had two or three worth keeping. There must have been a school of small crappie working this brush pile. Got a phone call and before I could answer my phone I had two more fish. Fish were about 22 ft deep and right on the bottom.

Went to another spot toward the other end of the pit. The spot I had marked and thought I knew the layout of was not the same. I guess it's a more complicated structure than I thought. My Garmin GPS eTrex Vista was not putting me on the exact location for some reason. I was looking for a brush pile or maybe it's just a stick up. Anyway it's hard to find unless the transducer gets right over the top of it. If I am 5 ft off I can't see the brush on my depth finder. But once I found this tree the fish started to bit. I ended up with 8 nice 10" crappie and took them home to fillet. They are cleaned now and soaking in salt water and ice cubes in my refrigerator. I'll freeze them tomorrow.

Wind was dead calm after I launched the boat.

I may have to go fishing again this week before it rains and the cold front brings that arctic air back to the area. Making hay while the sun shines.

I did catch a few nice fish in only 6 to 7 ft of water but they were very close to 16ft deep water. The big fish were on the top of the ledge but no on the flat. Maybe it's because the water was a little bit warmer up near the surface. I think that last week or so cooled the entire water column down to below 50 deg and that these last few warm days have rewarmed the surface waters a few deg.

It's not too late to cash in on this late November fishing. All the fish's stomach's were full of shad.

Regards,

Moose1am

[Moose1am]

Just thought I would add a few more points. I was using minnows with a #2 sized gold eagle claw hook. Drop shot was at the bottom of the line and the hook was tied on to the main line with a loop knot. I leave about a 2" long loop in the loop knot. This way when I slow troll at 0.5mph the minnow looks more natural. I hook the minnow though the lips from the bottom to the top. This allows the minnow to appear to be swimming in a natural position. Sometimes I use a chartreuse crappie nibble added to this but I didn't have to use them yesterday. The minnow by itself got the bite going.

I use to use a 1/16 oz lead head (minnow head) jig with a bass pro shop Squirmin Squirt White Lightning plastic tube body and that worked well. Sometimes I had to add a Berkley Power Bait Crappie Nibble to the jig though to make the fish bite.

Next year I am going to set up my boat with a rod holder from Tite Loc and start spider rig fishing. I think in IN you can fish with a total of three rods per person. I'll need to get some longer and heavier rods for the rod holder setup. I want to keep the baits out away from the trolling motor as far as I can. Bigger crappie spook easier than the smaller ones. They are older and may have been caught a few times and are more cautious.

Also the flat area near the drops have lots of underwater vegetation growing in the 4 ft depths. I think the crappie like this submergent vegation and use it year round. The cold water has caused the vegetation to brown up. I see a lot of dirt that has collected on top of the leaves making the leaves appear brown in color. I noticed this all last summer as well as this NOV. These pits are not that old and still have a lot of sediment that gets stirred up. They are not as clear as some strip pits that I have seen in this area. But those were older pits that were only clear during the hot months of August and after a dry spell. Even the old T pit up in Chandler would get cloudy after a good rain. But at times that pits water was clear as a bell. Visiblity at times was over 75 ft in the surface layers.

Regards,

Moose1am

[thompmd]

Don't know about the crappie since I have not tried but the largemouth are still biting in northcentral Indiana. Had 9 keepers Friday and 3 Sunday. I am trying to get out tonight/tomorrow before the change.

We are catching them on 5" twintail yamamotos on 3/16oz jighead. The fish are not on the banks as they were either in or on the deep side of wood offshore anywhere from 5-15' deep. They are biting funny due to the cold water but can still be caught. The fish we caught Friday actually did not have as much color as normal and the water temps were 39-40deg. The majority of the fish were either on the bottom or suspended up a couple of feet in brushpiles. The best bite has been in the midafternoon and it did not make any difference if the sun was on the bank or not.