Thread: Jonesboro

It's less than 5 minutes from the house and some of the best big bass fishing around..... That may be where the crappies are going? 6-10lb bass are not rare at frierson!

We did our annual electrofishing sample at Lake Frierson on Thursday (4/25). We were just sampling largemouth bass but on occasion we run across other sport fish like crappie and in the case of Lake Frierson, Saugeye. We sample Lake Frierson during the day due to the turbidity of the water and all the shoreline brush. On the second run of the morning, we sampled two nice crappie. The biggest was 16.5 inches and the other was in the 13 inch range. I missed another one in the 15 inch range and one in the 13 inch range. These all came from the dam in the rocks. They were spawning in the rocks. During the next couple of runs we collected several more in the 13 inch range and miss several more ranging from 13 to 15 inches. We only saw a couple of fish less than 10 inches.

In an earlier post in this thread, I include data from the 2007 sampling. You can see during that sampling that the population consisted mostly of small, slow growing fish and no fish were collected over 10 inches. We are starting the effects of the saugeye on this population. We are seeing a transition from lots of small, slow growing fish to fewer larger crappie.

I just wanted to pass this information along to the anglers in this area. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying you are going to be able to go catch limits of really large crappie, right now. But I am saying that the opportunity is there to catch some really nice crappie if you can figure them out there. I know Frierson can be really difficult due to the turbid water.


First run of the morning


Fish from a later run

May have to give Frierson a try. Thanks for the info Mojo.

Love it!

We fish Hogue most of the lakes mentioned above. Catch some nice ones but many small ones. My grandfather went yesterday. He kept 6 crappie all 10 inches and up. 2 were over 15 he said. He also kept 9 large bream. All fish were caught slowly trolling the middle areas of the lake just bouncing jigs off the bottom or just above the bottom.

I never do worth a crap at The other lakes mentioned. But I know a couple folks who do well at Poinsette but they are fisherman. I just waste time.

Originally Posted by htr2133

We fish Hogue most of the lakes mentioned above. Catch some nice ones but many small ones. My grandfather went yesterday. He kept 6 crappie all 10 inches and up. 2 were over 15 he said. He also kept 9 large bream. All fish were caught slowly trolling the middle areas of the lake just bouncing jigs off the bottom or just above the bottom.

I never do worth a crap at The other lakes mentioned. But I know a couple folks who do well at Poinsette but they are fisherman. I just waste time.

I was there yesterday. Didn't get there til noon. the fish didn't start biting good till around 5 for me. Missed a lot more than I caught. Seems like they bite better when the wind is blowing. Talked to a few older men out there. One may have been your grandpa. I usually fish Hogue because its the only place i have any luck around here.

Lake Hogue is my favorite area lake, mainly because I can almost always catch something there! We've been there every Saturday for the last several weeks. The bite has been slow but seems to pick up in the afternoon. All the fish that we have caught have been in 4-5 fow tight-lining jigs off the bottom. Last week they were hitting a black and chartreuse rage tail. We've caught as many big bream as we have crappie.

I've been on Hogue nearly every weekend for the past month or so too. The past few trips I started getting there around noon and staying til dark. Because, like Tony said it seems like the bite is better later in the day. I have caught several good bream also. Yesterday they seemed to like blue/ white Jokers better than the other colors i had. Sure wish I had a better percentage on bites and caught fish.