Anyone. From the Madison county area?

[johnabrams82]

I live in berea and mostly fish lake Reba for crappie. I usually do pretty well too. Anyone know of anywhere close.by that has larger crappie?

[CrappiePappy]

I live in berea and mostly fish lake Reba for crappie. I usually do pretty well too. Anyone know of anywhere close.by that has larger crappie?

John ... closest other lake I know of, would be Cedar Creek Lake. The Crappie there are beginning to get some size to them, now that they've removed the size limit from the lake. It is "possible" to catch them from shore, but more "probable" from a boat. Black Crappie only, with a few Blacknose in the mix. My best from Cedar is a 10"er .. but I've heard of some larger ones being caught from there.

Second to that would be Herrington Lake ... but a boat is almost mandatory, since the surrounding lands are all privately owned. Black & White Crappie are present. My best from there were close to the 2lb range.

Renfro Valley is another possibility ... and I remember a post about some member catching Crappie there. I've fished it, but not for Crappie.

... cp

[Powertroll]

I live in Irvine and fish Cave Run alot. I have caught some nice fish 12"-14" it might be a little further drive than you want. I am heading to Herrington lake to try it out before the Feb CKCA tourney and want to head to Cedar Creek lake have heard both aren't bad check out Cedar Creek Outfitters website hey have a fishing report online most the time. You also might want to look into Lake Gem at the Depot we catch buckets of crappie there, trolling motor only but so is Reba

[johnabrams82]

I have been meaning to

[johnabrams82]

I have been meaning to check out the lakes on the depot. What do you need to do to get access?
Also I went out to reba on Tuesday and caught a few decent crappie around the 9 inch mark. The strange thing is I caught them running a jig like I would in the spring. They were in about 5 feet of water near a dropoff. I also caught about a 2 lb bass the same spot. I thought the water was too cold for them to hit a faster moving jig?? What techniques do you guys recommend for this.time of year?

[CrappiePappy]

John, I used to catch Crappie at Taylorsville Lake during Dec & Jan ... fishing from the bank over a downed tree that stuck out into around 20' of water ... using 1/16oz jigheads with plastic tubes. The air temps were in the mid to high 30's when I got there (shortly after daylight) and would warm up to a nice toasty 40ish by midday Rofl

I "thought" I had to cast the jig out & let it get down to the branches at the 12-15' depths, to even think about getting a strike. I did catch many Crappie, that were about 8' deep over that tree, & out away from the bank a good cast's distance .... but, I also had occasion to catch them right against the trunk of that tree, in what could only have been 3-4' of water. In all instances, I was casting & slow retrieving/swimming the jig back to me ... just like I do at any other time of the year. AND .... ALL of the hits were the typical line bouncing "thump", that left no doubt that they were hits.

With this yo-yo weather temp pattern that we've had over the last month ... I doubt the water temps are where they would normally be at this time of year. It wouldn't surprise me that people are catching Crappie in 5ft of water, all the way down to 35ft of water, or deeper ... depending on the lake.

I can't recommend any particular technique for this time of year ... since I rarely fish this time of year, and because the fish can be about anywhere in the water column. So ... if I was going to fish for them, now ... I'd probably load the boat with enough equipment to cover any technique I know how to use Rofl

... cp

[johnabrams82]

Thanks everyone here is today's catch report

[Powertroll]

At the Depot I think all you need is a form of ID and a fishing license and you have to buy a Depot fishing permit I think the creel limi is 60 and I don't think there is a size limit.

[long duck]

stop at main gate on 421 they will help with info bout permits

[johnabrams82]

Thanks everyone I think I'll stop by and check into getting into lake Gem sometime this week if possible. I'll post up here what I had to do to get in.