KY Lake crankin'

[M R Dux]

I've been tied down to my taxidermy studio for a month since the birth of our latest litter of lab puppies. Between them and all the other chores in my life, I had just neglected my boat and tackle. Wednesday afternoon I saw a small break in the schedule and decided to break out the Bandits for the 1st time this year.

I got on the lake about 4 pm and was amazed (I should not have been) at the numbers of pleasure boats and assorted lake lice that were already infesting the lake. I got my gear in the water and started down one of my favorite channel ledges on the main lake. Almost instantly I caught my 1st, an 11 inch white male but since my crappie stash in the freezer is already down to dangerous levels, I threw it in the livewell full of ice water.

Over the next 2 hours, I said my prayers that if I should die at the hands of a cabin cruiser or pontoon boat full of blue-haired old ladies, I would go happy with fish in the boat. The fishing stayed good for a couple of hours then shut completely off. I ended up with 14 keepers, mostly 11-12' white crappie males, with several yellow bass and one 5 pound channel cat that nearly burned my thumb off when I was trying to reel him to the boat while moving at 1.8mph. I also donated a Bandit to some sort of large fish that decided he was either going to empty-spool me or break the line. I never turned him but it was fun for the several seconds that he was on my pole.

The next couple of days look great for cleaning out my garage. Holiday weekends on KY Lake are not my cup of iced-tea.

[blueball]

sounds like u did pretty good,took us 9 hrs last weekend to get 15,thanks for the report

[rnvinc]

Awww...com'on cuz...

Let's put a "cow catcher" on the front of that boat and go chase PWC's...

I think they're 10 points a piece thru the weekend...



Rickie

[wannabe fisherman]

that's all the points you get, gee I can get more than that for a little old lady in a cross walk

[bigdude]

mr dux,what is your favorite bandit color and depth?

[M R Dux]

mr dux,what is your favorite bandit color and depth?

I typically troll sharp drops, just off the drop in deeper water anywhere from 16-25 feet. I pull 300s and 200s mostly so I don't want my 300s digging the bottom with 10 pound line. If I need to go shallower, I'll reel in to where I'm only running 60 feet or so out rather than my normal 80-120 feet.

My favorite KY Lake colors are black bubblegum, hot pink, Old Light (chart with light brown back) and a custom matte color that has a purple back and ribs, green sides and orange belly. If I have another person in the boat with me, I'll run up to 10-12 rods and use a variety of colors to see what they want that day. If losing numbers of $5 baits hurts your soul, you don't want to be pulling cranks for crappie. You will lose several over the course of a season. Just don't tell your wife about it.

Since you are new here, welcome by the way, you need to go over to the Mississippi Forum and read the sticky at the top of the page titled " Pulling Cranks 101"
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/missi...nks-101-a.html

[bajacoop]

Going to be trying this tomorrow. Putting in at bloodriver and going to try and find some water that looks good.

[M R Dux]

Quackrstackr and I fished the Little Bear and Shawnee Bay areas on Sat. As a glutton for punishment, the lake lice crowd was about what was to be expected for a holiday weekend. We found fish in most of the same areas I did on Wednesday. The wind and boaters drove us off around 2 pm but we ended up with a dozen keepers plus 4 NICE green carp.

Sunday we went down to Blood River and fished some ledges we have done well on before. I will say this about Blood, don't drop a crankbait over the side down there if you are not willing to kiss it good-bye. My Navionics maps are very sketchy at best on Blood River. Namely, there are lots of shallow bars that are covered up with structure that DO NOT show up on the Navionics. Those bars cost me a hand full of Bandits PLUS one that was last seen decorating the face of one 5 pound largemouth that broke me off then taunted us by trying to throw the bait as we trolled into the distance.

My batteries took a nose-dive about 3 hours into Sunday's trip so we loaded up. I think 10 hours of charging after knocking them dead on Sat was not enough time for my on-board to fully charge them back up. We ended up with 10 keeper crappie (I think. qs counted them then I cleaned them but didn't count) and one green carp keeper. I know it is a horror to bass fishermen for somebody to catch and clean them but we do keep a few along the way. My wife loves to eat them ( I do too but shouldn't admit it. I'll just continue to blame her. LOL).

Sunday's conditions were light-years better than Saturday's. I think the lake lice slept in Sunday since Wildcat ramp was almost empty when we left at 10. The crappie we caught Sunday were also much better quality that those of Sat. We did hook then lose a ton of fish Sunday that were either crappie hitting short, whites and yellows, or some mystery fish that just wanted to mess around with us. Either way, it was a good weekend.

I will throw this in. We caught fish on a variety of colors but Mad Cow was HOT this weekend. Quackrstackr wore me out on those. After losing several, I think my stash is down to a couple. Those are going to be expensive to get from me.

[Grizzly2k1]

I'd like to try pullin cranks!

[cajun fryer]

You need the Gatling gun I have on my boat for all the jetski's