Kaw lake archives

7 lb hybrid can bury a hook in your knee pretty good. The fish thrashing part really hurt.
Gamagatsu hooks are so hard cutters wouldn't cut off the point after pushing it through. The barb did smash down though.

Attachment 270244

Attachment 270245

Ouch!


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

With that big a hybrid attached, that was a painful rodeo!

MY understanding is the millet deal is a policy issue, and nothing more. They will still plant the millet, they just won't lower the lake to do so.

That's great news that they won't be dropping the lake!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by crapAlicous

That's great news that they won't be dropping the lake!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

---

I agree somewhat.
The spring floods screw the crappie/bass/catfish spawn. Mid summer when the spawn is done, the lake level becomes steady.
You can catch fish, but there is no young of the year. The last two years have resulted in no spawn because of high lake levels.
The lake fish population does not increase because the spawn got messed up.
That being said, the planting of the millet has brought in people from all over the country to hunt ducks.
The local economy had benefited greatly.
So, with that being said, I still don't understand why the COE has decided after all these years of cooperating with the ODW to plant the millet, that they has gone stupid. ?

Yes, but duck hunters come to Kaw for a couple months of the year, but crappie fishermen come year round.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

:scratchhead:scratchheadDH, you think if the lake jumps up in the spring during crappie spawn, the spawn doesn't happen or the eggs just get washed away and never hatch.
Idk much about the spawn of crappie and how delicate it is.

I just figured the fish in Kaw just spawn in a little deeper water since the beds are under more water towards the end of spawn then they were when the beds are built. (If that makes any sense? Makes sense rolling around in my melon.)

Anywho, I've been catching lots of 4-8" crappie.

I always kinda thought that a flooded spring spawn would give the crappie more protection and increase overall numbers.

Thanks

I always kinda thought that a flooded spring spawn would give the crappie more protection and increase overall numbers.

Thanks[/QUOTE]
I thought the same thing- that with all the flooded cover the fry and fingerlings would survive better, with less predation and a greater food supply. But at the same time I always figured that Dennis H knows more about crappie than I do so now I'm perplexed. Is high water in the spring bad for fishermen and good for crappie or vice versa?

As I understand, crappie can tolerate water fluctuations more than bass, and some other specie, but when the water level comes up almost a foot a day during prime spawn season, peaks for a couple of days, and then drops almost a foot a day, and water temps fluctuate, Its not conducive to a good spawn. I'm sure some did, but not near the numbers that a steady lake level would have produced during the drought years when lake levels remained level in the spring.
The bass really responded to the drought years. Prior, a 2-3 stringer of bass would win a tourney, with a 3-4 pounder being big bass.
A year or two after the drought, limits of bass were being brought to the scales, with 5-6 pounders for big fish.
The last two years, with near record high levels and discharges, didn't do that population any good.
All just speculation on my part by personal observations at the boat ramp, and reported catches.
Sure is good walleye, catfish, sand bass and hybrid fishing below the dam now though! :twocents