Green River 6/05

[Dutch552]

Had a late start to the morning but finished with a few nicer fish. Largest crappie taped out at 12" on the nose. The open water bite stopped after about two and a half hours and switched tactics. I landed my biggest walleye of the year thus far on deep structure on my very first pass. She went 23.5" long x 14.5" in girth, fattest one I have caught in a long time. I had one good hit in 54' of water but it came unbuttoned after just a few seconds-time to switch out some trebles.

[colayn]

Glad to know there are still walleye in the lake, I haven't caught one for 3 yrs. I don't fish for them but normally catch a few by accident.
I have still been catching fish in 5 to 7 fow, wonder how much longer that will last ? Catching a lot of females with brownish, cornmeal colored eggs. Looks like they are reabsorbing.
Hopefully enough got hatched to cover the year.

[Dutch552]

The crappie haven't moved fully to their summer staging areas in open water quite yet. The encouraging thing was how much bait I was marking consistently, so the fish should be fat this year. Water temp was 76 yesterday morning so she still needs a couple degrees before they move to the flats and other open water areas in full force. I don't fish shallow water much at all so I cannot comment on the status of that bite, but since largemouth are starting to move into the shallows to nest I feel the shallow bite is on the way out.

Adam

[crappiepastor]

I love to fish for walleye and have done a lot of it up north - especially in Canada - but never here. I would be very grateful if you could tell me a little more about the tactics and bait you use and probable locations to get started on Green for walleyes.

[CrappiePappy]

I love to fish for walleye and have done a lot of it up north - especially in Canada - but never here. I would be very grateful if you could tell me a little more about the tactics and bait you use and probable locations to get started on Green for walleyes.

Pastor ... I can't tell you how the "wally boys" do it, but I can tell you that I've caught them casting a chartreuse marabou Roadrunner 1/16oz along a pea gravel/sandy bank, during the Spring Crappie spawn period (which was always late April, back when I used to fish the area around the island between the state park campgrounds & Emerald Isle Marina). I would think that they would fall to the same tactics/baits as they do in Canada ... and a good map or mapcard/chartplotter depthfinder unit should help you find the most likely locations to try (according to depth, bottom composition, thermocline depth, water temp, and water clarity).

... cp

[colayn]

Adam,
Same here regarding the shad. Every creek I have been in has several large schools still hanging shallow in the back.. Good news for some hungry crappie !

Good fishing to ya,
PS, I hope to try the crappie on Nolin Friday for the first time this year. If you have anything at all your willing to share PM me.
Thanks
Paul

[Dutch552]

Paul,

I haven't been on Nolin this Spring. I'm just getting back to my normal fishing routine after getting ready to move to Alabama full-time so the boat has sat a lot more than I would like and have some bugs to work out of the outboard. I know the big hand-sized bluegills will be on fire on Nolin the five days before and after the next two full moons as the second and third wave of spawners come onto the beds. Anything fished under a cork or ultralight topwater lures will be absolute dynamite for the big black bull gills up in the creeks and above Wax marina in the river itself. If you can find grass growing in the back of creeks in the next few weeks you better have a popeye jig tipped with a wax worm rigged and ready because they'll be there. If you don't see beds but the spot looks like it should be holding gills, rig your slip float a couple feet deeper and back off the bank a bit because I have found the big ones staging on deeper beds later in the summer after the May full moon as the water temps warm up.

I probably won't be back on Green until next week, I need to put new plugs in the outboard and do a decarb with Seafoam from where I've trolled so much over the early winter and then let it sit.

crappiepastor: check your PM inbox, I'll give you some insight on the above.