Gonna look that feller up in Palatka today. Thanks.
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Gonna look that feller up in Palatka today. Thanks.
Getting a good rain at my house as I write this. Was on the tail end of some white-cap winds from yesterday. Should bring some colder temps from what the weather people say. This all should give me some time to accumulate a few neccessary tools for this trade, i.e. poles, jigs, maps, crank baits, spinners, etc., etc. Been mostly an inshore trout, reds, and flounder type of fisherman. But seems I can recall those crappie tasting maybe a little better than spotted weakfish. So I'm adding them to my list of target species this year. My boat has the name "Outnumbered" on the sides. You see it out there give me a shout.
Nick
Nick,
My primary residence is in Jax. so I also do a lot of inshore fishing also. Before gas prices went stupid last year I also did a lot of offshore fishing. But my first love has always been freshwater.
I will be down there this weekend but don't know if I'll be on the water. I already have a freezer full of fish. If I see you out on the lake I'll give you a shout.
Clyde
Be sure to say hello if you happen on me and Don tomorrow... we will be in a 22' Sea Chaser named "Red Alert".
Tom
Wind, wind and more wind. Oh, and it was cold. :)
We caught 22, kept 10, left early. We both have a little fresh fish tonight.
The 10 we kept were all over 12" and the largest was just 2 ounces shy of 2 pounds.
The guys on the ramp after us this morning were from Warner Robins GA. Long drive to come to Crescent and have that much wind. I hope they did well. Their truck was still there when we left.
We caught fish in Dead Lake and a few just north of Bear Island... but it was too rough up there to stay long so we called it a day early.
Tom
Thanks for a good report Tom. Somebody has to venture out and put their best foot forward, I guess. Did these all come from artificial, or natural, or a combo?
Nick
Stuck my head out of the covers Sat. morning and could hear my wifes wind chimes sounding off. Rolled over and went back to bed, too much wind & cold for me.
Ya'll missed a great day today, fish were fired up till the front started pushing thru around 12:30. Wind started kicking up and I headed to the hill. Ended up with 27 keepers in the 1lb. to 1 1/2 lb. range, a few pushing 2 lbs. Almost all the females were full of eggs. Water temp was around 59 degrees. I think the Next full moon may push them into the lilly pads.
Clyde
Where are the pads? I have been there a few times and don't remember seeing any pads. Map shows them being in area surrounding entrance to canal to Dead Lake. They probably had been killed off since map was prepared. Sure would be nice to jig the pads when the spawn is on. Would not need to bring any minnows.
Joe
Quote:
Originally Posted by Outnumbered
We just push jigs. We have not used minnows in months.
Tom
Hey guys,
Made the trip to Crescent from GA. Last week got there Thurs. afternoon, caught 8 trolling jigs just south of Carl's Point or (I think that was the name), in a cove. Friday, got up early and JUMPED waves all the way to the south in Hall Creek. Caught a limit of nice fish pitching the banks with cork/jig combo. Seemed any color would work but black body or grey body with Chart. feather tail was the best. I saw that Sea Chaser go by Tom. We were in a silver weldcraft with Tahatsu outboard. Anyhow Saturday went up to Dunns on North end and caught 2 then caught 6 more North of Bear Island on the drop offs, left there and caught 2 real nice ones shooting under some docks in 1ft of water. All in all we had a great trip, except the wind, man it can get rough.
Hope to be back next year!!
Lee
Quote:
Originally Posted by SouthernSlabber
Sorry you had such weather... the fish are willing, just staying on them is a PITA. A north wind on Crescent can get the water moving pretty good.
We are going again Wednesday.
Tom
How did you do today? We're planning on going back on Saturday!
Shane
Today was the "The Day Of The 12" Fish". As I have said before, we only keep 12" fish and larger. Today, almost all the keepers were just about exactly 12" to 12 1/2". (And we measure them on the spot, no guessing) No really big fish in the lot. We usually end up with at least a couple pushing the 2 pound mark. Not today.
We caught 52 and kept 17. We had a bunch of 11+ inch fish that would not quite make the 12" cutoff... We did best at the south end of the lake near and in the Dead Lake/Crescent cut. We *usually* get bigger fish north of Bear Island, but we spent 3 hours up there and only caught about three fish. One was the largest of the day, but it was very slow.
Don kept 10 and I kept 7. I cleaned mine tonight and of the 7, three had roe VERY well developed.
Tom
PS: Guys, at the ramp, PLEASE be courteous and do not block the ramp attending to "boat crap" while people are waiting to put in or take out. Remove tiedowns and load your stuff on the road away from the ramp instead of blocking it before you launch. When you get back, put the boat on the trailer and PULL AWAY from the ramp. Tonight, some real wizard pulled into the very middle of the two-boat ramp entry area and proceeded to CLEAN HIS BOAT out, tie it down, mess with his rods... etc. People standing on the dock when he finally pulled away were just shaking their heads and one guy just laughed and said "unbelieveable, ain't it?"
You would think stuff like this need not be said. You would think fishermen would be more respectful and considerate... but it appears there is an a s shole born every minute, and they all end up launching or retrieving their boats just ahead of me. :(
Did you go today? We went Saturday and caught 15 keepers before the winds came.
Shane
We did not get a chance to go this week. Don ended up having a lot of stuff to do around the house. My wife and I ended up babysitting our youngest granddaughter (15 months old) ... so we had our hands full today. :)
If the rain gives us a chance next week, we plan to hit them again then.
Tom
Well, we went today and quit early.
We caught 82 fish before 2pm. But not a SINGLE ONE larger than 12". None. Nada, Zip. Very disappointing day.
We tried our favorite spots and the larger fish were gone.
We ended up dock shooting and caught 5 and a bass.
When we came back to the Dead Lake Ramp, there was a fire truck and ambulance there. Seems a guy was having heart problems and they hauled him off.
Tom
PS: Ramp manners were MUCH better today. Everyone was courteous and launching and recovering the boats was a real pleasure.
PPS: I still can't believe we caught 82 fish and no keepers. :(
Sounds like the bite was good but the size was small. We hope to be there next week a couple of days
Hey Tom,
Got a question about the ramp at Dead Lake. I see a ramp on my internet map called St. Johns Park. I can't tell if it is public or private. Can you enlighten me about that? Other than the ramp, you had quite a lot of pulls not to have got your dinner. Can you tell me if they were on the shore areas? Got my new motor hung today and I'm looking to go if the wifey is up to it in the a.m.
Nice slabs!!! Great catch..
Tom, check your private message !!!
Clyde
Quote:
Originally Posted by Outnumbered
The Dead Lake ramp is at the very end of CR 2006 West in Flagler County. It is public and in very good shape.
Google Maps shows it very clearly.
Tom
Fished Dead Lake and Haw Creek this morning. Eatin' leftovers tonight. Fished the banks in Haw and drug jigs in the Lake. Got a handfull of small fish each place - the largest was 10 inches. They all went back to grow up. Talked to several folks. One boat draggin 16 poles on Dead Lake caught 40 fish on one pass, but said there were only 4 keepers from the bunch. Didn't say how big the keepers were. Didn't see anybody needing to use a net.
Im planning on going to Crescent tomorrow for the first time. Not for sure if Iwill put in at the City ramp or dead lake ramp yet though. I'll be in a green z71 w/ Mississippi plates or a silverish/tanish G3 w/ Georgia registration, if you see me besure to introduce yourself. I wanted to fish the Fl crappie association tourny there today but I didnt arrive back in Lake City until 12:30 this morning so getting up and driving down was out of the question. Where is the best place to buy minnows?
They got em at the Dead Lake ramp. I think you may have to stop off someplace else for minnows if you launch at the Crescent City ramp.
To everyone who posted about the throw back, I feel your pain !!!
I bet I burnt 12 gallons of fuel Saturday running all over Cresent lake looking for Quality fish. And I wasn't fishing in the tournament.
To make a long story short, I ran up to the spot I thought they would be in, at 7:20 a.m. only to find 4 other boats in it with bow & stern lights lit. I'm thinking Damn they must have spent the night here. When I say I work an area hard I mean it, and I threw the tackle box at them. Nothing ....Nadda...Zip !!!!
Haul butt to spot No#2 and before I can get all the lines in the water bang...fish on. Small throw back but still better that location #1. Worked that area about 2 hours before I figured out all I was doing was feeding my minnows to yearlings. Total about 30 throw backs and a empty fish basket to show for it.
Pick up and haul butt again to spot No# 3. Same thing as location No# 2 catching fish but no keepers.
It's about this time I remember Toms post about catching fish and going home empty.
As I catch another small speck I look in the minnow bucket and see I'm down to maybe 15 to 20 minnows. Its at that time I become desperate and throw caution to the wind. I think everything location that has been working in the past few months have turned up empty. So I run to a spot that use to be Hot 3 or 4 years ago, but of lately has died off.
Well I'm here to tell you "Their Back" !!!!
14 keepers on Saturday from about 2:00 to 3:30 pm, and 22 keepers Sunday from 7:30 till noon.
Clyde
Persistance paid off for you with a nice mess o' fish. Don't think the fog ever lifed at my house on Saturday. How was it at Crescent?
Little fog on the lake early Saturday morning, but it helped me sneak out of the boat ramp with out being seen. Of course as bad as my first 3 spots turned out I guess I should have let the other boat follow me !!!!
Clyde
Nice fish. Glad someone found some keepers!
Tom
Don and I did Crescent lake last week. I have been too busy to post about it, but there isn't much to post anyway. It was a full moon, we caught 23 and only 5 were keepers.
Full moons are not the best times to fish. We quit early again and got back to Jacksonville well before dark. nice day on the water though.
Tom
way to go JETF,you got me ready to dive back in,I had already given up on the specks but seeing that has recharged my batteries.
Well, we made it back to Crescent lake again today.
31 throwbacks and 9 keepers and we left early.
All the keepers came from around Bear Island. The cut between Dead Lake and Crescent was "dead" today.
Tom
We will be on Crescent tomorrow. Anyone else there stop by and say 'hello'. We will be in Don's 22' Sea Chaser "Red Alert".
Tom
Caught 13. Another disappointing day. We only stayed until about 10:45, things were just too slow. We fished the deeper water around bear Island. Didn't catch a thing unless we were in the 14 foot area.
Tom
I and my g/f are moving to fl. in feb. and we sooo look forward to hitting alot of the lakes like cresent. looks like a wonderful way to spend winter,thanks for posting the pictures.
Crescent Lake was dead dog dead today.
Fished all over and did not find the fish.
Joe
Anybody give Crescent a try this past week or so? How about the north end around Dunns Creek? This is closer for me, but don't know if it's a waste of time or not.
It has been a long time since we did any crappie fishing but went to Lochloosa last week and Crescent today.
Had a sos-so day last week with 40 caught, 9 keepers (over 12 inches).
Today on Crescent was better. Caught 73 and kept 19, again, all over 12 inches.
Photos show the boat this morning and Don and i this afternoon with the fish.
Out usual rig... tightlining jigs (no minnows) and covering ground.
Tom
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All the bad news we have heard being passed around about Crescent hasn't been the case with us.
Went again today for just over half a day on the water. Stayed mostly in Dead Lake and The Cut. Caught well over 50 (stopped counting) and kept 27. Of the 27, 11 were over 2 pounds with the largest being 2 pounds 13 ounces. None of the rest were below 12 inches and most were 13 or over.
All the fish on the left side of the table in the shot below are over 2 pounds. And I won the small fish award with about the tiniest Crappie I have ever caught. The tube lure was about 1 third of his length so gotta give him credit for trying. :)
Some really nice fillets went in the freezer tonight.
Tom
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somebody had some fun today. Nice mess
Looks like I need a Bigger Boat LOL