Thread: FISH ARE WHERE YOU FIND 'EM

most of us have been told/ have read that crappie move to spawn when the temp. reaches around 60 degrees. we catch them on their way in to the shallows and then in the pads when they move. i live on talquin. the first couple of weeks in feb. the temp. dropped to 55 to 58 degrees and many of the fish poised out from the creeks. the temp, jumped to 65-68 degrees quickly with some fast warming. i expected them to move rather quickly in with the temp. raise. they didn't and seemed even more scattered. today (tuesday feb. 21) i found some making the trip down the flats towards the pads. water temp. now 65-66 degrees. why didn't they move earlier? are they going to continue moving in now? it's been a quite warm ''winter'' here. is the moon phase a bigger factor? one of my favorite fishing sayings is ''fish are where you find them''. we have to hunt, look, discard the pattern we set out believing in and find a new one based on what we find/see. they are going to be where they want to be, not where we want them to be.

I've fished Talquin since 2001. Last week I was down for the entire week. What I've learned over the years fishing there I had to throw-out the window to find the big fish. I found them but it took me moving to places I never caught them in the past this time of year. Back down next week. The hunt will be on again!