CJ WATER TEMPS AND FISHING THREAD!

[Lowellhturner]

The cover is indeed doing exactly what it was mainly put in for, helping to hatch yellow perch eggs...

[CrappieDreamer]

Has anyone tried long lining or trolling for crappie recently? I was at Brookville lake yesterday and caught a number of 11-12" this way. Kind of discovered it by accident when we were using trolling motor to reposition the boat. We were catching fish in water 6-12 ft, scattered through the column. Water temp was 60-62 through the afternoon and evening. A lot of the action was near sunset. We even hooked up on a few gators. We caught a few drinks, but there was a surprisingly high ratio of large to small.
Great afternoon of fishing, but didn't try looking for 'shrooms. Locals said it was still a bit early there

[INTIMIDATOR]

Has anyone tried long lining or trolling for crappie recently? I was at Brookville lake yesterday and caught a number of 11-12" this way. Kind of discovered it by accident when we were using trolling motor to reposition the boat. We were catching fish in water 6-12 ft, scattered through the column. Water temp was 60-62 through the afternoon and evening. A lot of the action was near sunset. We even hooked up on a few gators. We caught a few drinks, but there was a surprisingly high ratio of large to small.
Great afternoon of fishing, but didn't try looking for 'shrooms. Locals said it was still a bit early there

Water temp has been too low at CJ for Crappie...SLOOOOWWW vertical jigging has worked (Think Ice Fishing).
Water is warming and when they become active they will bite with any "moving bait" presentation, they all will work when it hits the proper temps.
Gators at CJ will take a couple weeks or more to heal from the spawns....they beat the heck out of each other when they try to make babies!

[INTIMIDATOR]

Just so everyone knows the importance of the CJ perch population at CJ, I'll explain alittle more!

Perch are maybe a "break even" species at CJ...they can barely sustain their population...this is due to 3 main reasons.
1. CJ, due to the lack of natural cover and vegetation was a less than ideal spawning lake for them. Perch need clear and fertile water, with sandy or gravel bottoms, and moderate vegetation, especially for spawning....they also need a slight current for the eggs.
Eggs are layed by the female in jelly like ribbons that are attached to vegetation, trees, cover, etc, and the current extends the ribbons and allows them to stretch out like a flag in a breeze...this keeps the eggs oxygenated and developing. The female leaves after the eggs are layed and 2 males fertilize the eggs and leave.
The jelly like strands containing the eggs has a nasty chemical that protects the eggs and makes them undesirable for ANYTHING to eat.

2. Even though perch can lay up to 90,000 eggs, Walleye eat up to 58% of yearling perch and another 47% of the remaining 1 year old perch....this is even HIGHER in shallow BASS LAKES...LM BASS eat even more Perch due to sharing the same habitat....plus as I said before PERCH ARE TERRIBLE SWIMMERS!

3. CJ fishermen take buckets of small perch....there is no way they can get enough meat off of a small perch to make it's death worthwhile....I'm sorry but that 4-6 inch perch would do the Gators ALOT more good that someone continually removing them from the ecosystem.
The bad thing about Perch is that small ones school during the day n the bottom, and scatter at night...big Perch stay more solitary except for the spawn. So if people start catching small perch they normally riddle the entire school. Like a Walleye, their eyesight is fantastic, and about the only thing that can save them from being eaten...they are just so slow and terrible swimmers, they become a easy meal if they are spotted...think of a goby!
Perch start to stress at water temps of 79 degrees, anything else that adds to that stress will kill them, poor water quality, lack of oxygen, poor handling after the catch, etc!

This is why it is so important for CJ fishermen to add Christmas trees and other wood in the shallows, a healthy Gator population relies on the lowly Perch!

[Yepper2468]

Hello again.. One bird down last week and going to try again this weekend. Watching the reports on CJ has made me decide to hunt a couple more days. Seems the weather pattern is starting to change for the better! Plan on being out there one early morning after work next week. Now if I could find some more Morels and catch me a few Craps.... I'm getting hungry! Good luck out there!

[cjpolecat]

Restraint opens Monday, May 3rd. bait opens AS SOON AS MINNOWS ARERIVE.. I ain't getting up early again,
What was suppose to happen at 40 degree of water temp ? It came and went..
CJP

OE MOre cast

[ssouthard]

Found a few

[CrappieDreamer]

Brent... I don't think you can get those at any Kroger!

[impdog]

Did they unlock the bathrooms?

[cjpolecat]

Just so everyone knows the importance of the CJ perch population at CJ, I'll explain alittle more!

Perch are maybe a "break even" species at CJ...they can barely sustain their population...this is due to 3 main reasons.
1. CJ, due to the lack of natural cover and vegetation was a less than ideal spawning lake for them. Perch need clear and fertile water, with sandy or gravel bottoms, and moderate vegetation, especially for spawning....they also need a slight current for the eggs.
Eggs are layed by the female in jelly like ribbons that are attached to vegetation, trees, cover, etc, and the current extends the ribbons and allows them to stretch out like a flag in a breeze...this keeps the eggs oxygenated and developing. The female leaves after the eggs are layed and 2 males fertilize the eggs and leave.
The jelly like strands containing the eggs has a nasty chemical that protects the eggs and makes them undesirable for ANYTHING to eat.

2. Even though perch can lay up to 90,000 eggs, Walleye eat up to 58% of yearling perch and another 47% of the remaining 1 year old perch....this is even HIGHER in shallow BASS LAKES...LM BASS eat even more Perch due to sharing the same habitat....plus as I said before PERCH ARE TERRIBLE SWIMMERS!

3. CJ fishermen take buckets of small perch....there is no way they can get enough meat off of a small perch to make it's death worthwhile....I'm sorry but that 4-6 inch perch would do the Gators ALOT more good that someone continually removing them from the ecosystem.
The bad thing about Perch is that small ones school during the day n the bottom, and scatter at night...big Perch stay more solitary except for the spawn. So if people start catching small perch they normally riddle the entire school. Like a Walleye, their eyesight is fantastic, and about the only thing that can save them from being eaten...they are just so slow and terrible swimmers, they become a easy meal if they are spotted...think of a goby!
Perch start to stress at water temps of 79 degrees, anything else that adds to that stress will kill them, poor water quality, lack of oxygen, poor handling after the catch, etc!

This is why it is so important for CJ fishermen to add Christmas trees and other wood in the shallows, a healthy Gator population relies on the lowly Perch!

This true, I caught a Perch that had life jacket on , just like a kawlowski

CJP
Just plain retired