I remember that. . . Best fishing I had was the second week of may
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I remember that. . . Best fishing I had was the second week of may
Hey y'all new to the site and lake. It's my second year fishing the spawn on Eufaula. This year is much tougher than last year. Fished crowder yesterday hard for a couple hours spider rigging real slow most of the time my baits were 6' deep. Caught a few males nothing too big. Went around the corner up the creek and started killing it. Get up in those creek arms folks that's where they all are. TONS of shad up there too. Just my .02, crowder is not that productive this year for some reason. Also up north by checotah is pretty good too. Tight lines y'all.
Welcome to the board Daddy
Andy
As of tonight at midnight Eufaula will have their flood gates on, around the clock until further notice. What are your opinions of how this will effect the crappie spawn?
Good report CrapDaddyXXXL will you be up there tomorrow? I need someone to point me in the direction where the crappie are biting I have made 3 trips down to Crowder and still don't have one limit of fish.
Another inch and a half to two inches predicted through the weekend. . . Those gates are going to be open for awhile.
cant wait...lol....like the bite hasnt been tough enough
Andy
Hey EddieVD, gonna be tough with the weather coming in. Try to find a wind protected creek arm on the north side of the lake and fish shallow if there is a period of sunshine in between the storms. Try dark colors and try using minners or a jig with a blade. If the storms produce a lot of wind the fish will likely be scattered, and even without wind the waters gonna be chocolate milk.
Crapdaddyxxxl I fished today in 8 fow and caught alot of fish with about half that where too small. Ended up with 11 and 4 or 5 15 and a half in fish. Good day for me!
As Ranger said - you just gotta adapt. I recall that when I lived at Longtown the best fishing I had in the Spring was when the lake was really high or really low. It's called the big muddy for a reason. I'll be there next week.
Fished blocker bridge today caught 10 keepers we was using black and pink tube jigs my boy caught some with minnows before he got hot and jumped in the water water wasn't up as much as I thought several of the fish where spewing eggs but they was definitely not on the bank yet
Fished at the dock this past weekend. Only a couple of little ones -- nothing to put in the basket. A few weeks ago, I posted a pic of my buddy with the 1.5 beauty that he caught. I had to take a pic this time of the sort of things we were catching this weekend.
Attachment 200103
Saw several guys on the bank near our dock not having much luck either.
So we gave up and dropped the pontoon boat on Saturday and went for a nice boat ride over to Sissy Beach (not much beach with the water level up). Nice afternoon in the sun and standing ankle-deep in water -- Summer will be here soon.
Either way a nice weekend at the lake. . . Can't wait to start spending every weekend there!
Fished Crowder area and Blocker Bridge Friday and Saturday. Water surface temp was 72. Caught catfish, sand bass, carp and a lot of small crappie. Keep 22 nice slabs and all or most had eggs in them. Fished with minnows at 6'-8' in 12' of water about 25' of the shoreline......dave
Glad you got on some fish DB you deserved them!
Proud of ya Dave! WTG.
Eufaula Lake
Dam is closed. Can I get my hopes up now? lol
-stacy
Not much fishing talk going on here lately.. we caught a few from our dock Tuesday on watermellon seed jigs but not much.. wonder how it will be at the first of the month.. fingers crossed.. I think it will turn out ok.
Spent Wed. and Thursday on big E.fished blocker-crowder-rock creek -gaines caught two fish. IT SUCKED !!!
Can't believe their isn't any reports after the pretty weekend!?
Saturday was Motorcycle Ridin day.Quote:
Originally Posted by flipnjigz
Fished Long Town Creek and a number of other god looking banks with buck brush and structure... caught bass, bluegill and catfish AND 4 SMALL crappie.
Fished deeper around 6' - 10' in 18 fow and caught a couple more dinks, as well as a couple of nice sandbass, catfish and drum.
No spawn yet from what I've been able to find, or I missed it again this year :-)
Fished Gentry last weekend and nobody I talked to was finding fish, only 1 or 2 after talking to a number of folks.
Including myself ! Fish I saw caught were in 8 fow, about 5 ft deep on minnows.
This has been a tough year for some of us, but we will keep on trying and will eventually find some type of concentration of fish.
Keeping the failth!
Fished Blocker bridge rip rap early Sunday morning and didnt get a bite so tried up around Arrowhead with no luck.
Went back to Rock creek and trolled in 5fow bouncing a jig off the bottem and ended up with 14 nice keepers and
threw back several smaller fish. The wind was pretty bad but it did help keep cool. Keep posting reports to keep us informed.
Good to see a report Beater. I been stressin about these fish for the last 3 weeks. Can't find em. Been from Porum to Bug Tussle and couldn't find the spawn so far this year either. With the fluctuation in water we have had the only consistency I've had or heard of is none. Unless during the water fluctuation they pulled out on the original lake level and spawned(which can happen) we should have a flood of fish to the bank soon with the lake starting to stabilize. I'm gonna keep my head up and hope for the best.
Remember guys if the fish feel them pulling water they will not come to the bank, they will stay out were it is safe. I also believe that crappie will spawn out in the middle on wood and never come to the "Bank". Im fishing some ways now that I would have never thought to catch them this time of year. Need to go a little more before I can prove my thoeries are true. EB
I'm with EB on this. Not all fish go to the bank to spawn period. Although Tenkiller is not Eufaula but I ahve seen crappie eggs spawned out on tree limbs about 5-6' deep with the tree sitting in 40-50 FOW. All they need is the right water conditions and a place to lay their eggs and they will be in business. A falling lake will slow down the spawn and they will make a run once it stabilizes. The key is with water temps right it may be one of those quick runs, but it will happen.
Fished off the bank around the boat ramp at onapa mid day thursday and friday morning. Had decent luck catching fish around brush on minnows about 4-5ft below a cork. Caught one fish on a jig in about a foot of water thursday and never found anymore on the bank. Smal sandies and spotted bass were in thick, dont know how many of those I caught. All the females i cleaned still had eggs.. I talked to a guy saturday evening at the ramp that had several in the live well, said he caught them anywhere from 1'-18' deep. He said the fish he had looked like they had already spawned.
I fished at our dock for awhile on Saturday with no luck except for a nice cat. I'm hoping these water levels will stabilize and we'll see the spawn happen. Very few have been caught by the docks this year when normally this time of year they are slaying them.
Everything is a little bit later this year for some reason, lots of contributing factors to consider. We are constantly on the phone talking about fish habits. They humble me on a daily basis. EB
I haven't been out much this past week thanks to work, weather, and my neighbor murdering 2 of my dogs, but things off Mill Creek banks haven't been any better.
Starting to catch a few (3-4) each night off my dock in longtown. I've been finding them at 6-8ft in 15 ftw. out of the 3 or 4 I'm catching I am getting about 1 keeper fish.. the ones I keep all have eggs and look healthy ready to spawn as far as I can tell (not an expert still a novice). I'm catching more on jigs than minnows.
Woo hoo another wall of water heading to the big E. Can this spring get any tougher?
I'm one of those who feel the moon phase has much more to do with the spawn other than water temp. If Crappie had to have a certain warmer temp, you'd never see any Crappie spawn up north or in Canada, thus no Crappie at all. Moon phase, amount of daylight and somewhat stable water levels. If it is rising, they will still spawn but be spread out. If the water is falling, they might hold off and eventually absorb the eggs, it depends on how close they were to spawning before they shut it off. The spawn period lasts a lot longer than folks believe because they look at it when the numbers are great. That's just when the majority hit it. I've caught spawning fish in late February before and late in May. Water temps might play some part but remember, Crappie are sunfish and for the most part are going to hang shallower in most lakes except the clear water lakes. A lot of their depth depends on the clarity of the water.
Key words. . . . Rising and falling of the water. Seen alot of that this year. Hopefully they are spawning off the banks and the rain has given them a spring where they are out of reach of anglers and can do their thing unmolested by fisherman. I don't mind having a bad year so the next three can be great!
Don't say that! LOL This is my first year back here in 7 years and one of the biggest things I was looking forward to was hooking some baskets of crappie. Haha!
I think you make a valid point Reaper although biologists tend to feel that water temp is the determining factor. I have caught several 2 lb Black Crappie in Canada where the water temperature probably never hit 60* F. I never had a way of checking the temps at the time but I can tell you that about 2 minutes of swimming in it was all I could tolerate in July!
Year-class strength is set by reproductive success and recruitment, the process by which fish are added to the catchable population. Spawning success in crappies is tied to habitat quality, as well as environmental conditions during the spawn and egg development, such as water level and weather.
Read more: Crappie Science - In-Fisherman
Came across this after and the only time it speaks about temperature is after the spawn refering to the fry survival. I suggest we ask Jeff himself. :biggrin
I could be wrong though as well, but do wonder if the water temps in Canada ever hit 55.
403 Forbidden
For years I too have gone by the temp, but to me the timing remains close to the same other than pressure changes that occur tend to weird the fish out.
I suppose I ought to recant. This article discusses the spawn from South to North.
I want to find fish fast. The areas we hunt are huge. The tactical key has nothing to do with rods, reels, lines, or lures. The key is on the console. Following temperature gradients leads you to the hottest prespawn bites fastest. Until water temperatures rise over 60°F, a 1°F temperature change can be pivotal. You need to watch the temp gauge and find the warmest water in northern bays or secluded basins that warm fastest. If the entire bay is 49°F, a spot the size of a dump truck that’s 51°F could hold seemingly every crappie in the area, likely the most dense concentration found all year.
Read more: http://www.in-fisherman.com/panfish/early-spring-crappie-tactics/#ixzz3YbSfgd
Very good info on the spawn I believe that we know very little about the spawn especially with each body of water. I read about a study done in a cove on a lake in Kentucky a few years back. A man kept count of how many crappie he caught in a years time with very little habitat in the cove, I think it was around 500 crappie. The next year he began to put brushpiles up and down the cove in deferent depths of water, he again kept count of how many crappie he caught that year, I think it was around 1500. So the one conclusion I have is that habitat helps your numbers and if your numbers are up your spawns will be sucessful. EB
I'll be back after them this weekend but think I'll start in deep cover and work on towards bank. I watched schools on the locator in 20' of water running in and out from 6-12' deep. But catching them was still tougher than expected this time of year. Time to bear down!