Snow bird needs help on DarBonne

[Big Fish816]

Hey, I am from the Truman Lake area in Mo. I am going to be in the Farmerville area last of Feb. I am trying to decide if it would be worth pulling my boat to DarBonne? Never fished there before, Will there be a decent on the crappie?? Will they still be in a winter pattern?
Any advice will be appreciated.
Thanks for your input.

Joe

[free bird]

Joe, it should be good. Just so hard to say for sure. Darbonne gets run off from a lot of area. It will swell and muddy a little easier than some lakes. You just never know what the temps are gona be here in north la. Either the boats will be stacked up on Darbonne or there won't hardly be a soul out there. It can be good (real good) or not. If you will post again pretty close to the time you leave you would probably get a lot more accurate info. Feel free to call if I can help.

[Fish on Line]

Mr Big Fish !!! How long is your stay??? and I am assuming there is family time, Business or both? The reason is we have some Crappie Guides that know the lake much better than I do. I am sure The local Tackle shops Know who they are and they have the boat already here. The mass migration into the channel by Shad make it easy for the crappie. Early in the morning some Crappie can be just under the surface, good for minnows with slip corks. Then a couple of hours later the fish caught are 20 to 35 feet deep. Like Freebird said the weather can be the biggest Factor. There is over 100 SQ miles of runnoff feeding it and big rains can put two feet of water in it quick

[Big Fish816]

Joe, it should be good. Just so hard to say for sure. Darbonne gets run off from a lot of area. It will swell and muddy a little easier than some lakes. You just never know what the temps are gona be here in north la. Either the boats will be stacked up on Darbonne or there won't hardly be a soul out there. It can be good (real good) or not. If you will post again pretty close to the time you leave you would probably get a lot more accurate info. Feel free to call if I can help.

Thank you for your help, I will give you a call before I leave KC .
Is there a plane B ? if DarBonne gets to muddy, is there any other lakes near by that might not get as much runoff?

[Big Fish816]

Mr Big Fish !!! How long is your stay??? and I am assuming there is family time, Business or both? The reason is we have some Crappie Guides that know the lake much better than I do. I am sure The local Tackle shops Know who they are and they have the boat already here. The mass migration into the channel by Shad make it easy for the crappie. Early in the morning some Crappie can be just under the surface, good for minnows with slip corks. Then a couple of hours later the fish caught are 20 to 35 feet deep. Like Freebird said the weather can be the biggest Factor. There is over 100 SQ miles of runnoff feeding it and big rains can put two feet of water in it quick

Thank you for your input, a guide would be the smart way to go, but I am from MO.
Please tell me more about the shad migration, does it happen all over the lake at the same time or does it move from one part of the lake and then to the other ?

I will have 3 or 4 days to fish, I would rather pay a local .com guy to show me a few tricks than a guide. I should not be that way but I have been screwed by a guide both time I hired them. One of the local guides on Truman is great, his clients always get there money worth but I never hired one like him.

If there is no boats in the parking lot at DarBonne where will they be?

Thanks again
Joe

[free bird]

Thank you for your help, I will give you a call before I leave KC .
Is there a plane B ? if DarBonne gets to muddy, is there any other lakes near by that might not get as much runoff?

Joe, plan B might be Claiborne lake, Poverty Point, Ouachita River, or a host of other bodies of water in the area. If you had called a week and a half ago and asked about Darbonne, I'd of said leave your boat home. Having said that, Darbonne can be a very good lake to fish. We will just have to see what the end of Feb brings.

[Fish on Line]

The bigger Lakes have Cabins at the State Parks , Furnished, with pots and pans at Reasonable rates D'Arbonne has 8 places to put a boat in. This lake is now 50 years old. The old River channel are well marked but submurged stump lined. The markers do not always follow the channels AKA boat lanes across shallow sand bar flats cleared of stumps. The average depth is 8 feet acording to the Lake Authority. There a Fat happy fish with plenty of food everywhere. Good populations of Bass and Catfish!!!! Shad only have to move a few feet to get in shallower water. With calm winds Every where you look there are schools moving. The bigger fish seem tobe caught deep, but can also be at the surface chasing shad.

[bluethunder]

Depending on how bad a winter we have which determines how fast the water warms up, by that time the fish could be out of the channel and moving out to the flats. IMO these fish move down the channel from hwy 2. I remember in 2009 2010 we were way down past Stowe creek catching fish in the channel on March 9th. I would say keep this post updated and watch the forum for darbonne action the closer it gets to your leave date. Jmo.