I was there Tuesday. Lake is muddy. Fishing is slow. Only 6 keepers.
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I was there Tuesday. Lake is muddy. Fishing is slow. Only 6 keepers.
I was there yesterday. It is so muddy. 3" of visibility at the dam. Go to gibson.
Had a pretty good day on the lake today. At least it was a lot better than it has been. We caught 20 keeper crappie and 36 sandbass today. Lost another 3 really good crappie that were right up to the boat (I gotta get a net for the big ones). Had quite a few throwbacks too. Fished brush piles in 12 to 14 FOW. Caught an equal amount on jigs and minnows. Vertical jiggin an casting both worked well and fished minnows from 6 to 10ft. Most of the crappie were suspended over the top of the brush piles. Caught fish pretty much all day, the cloud cover made it a real nice day to fish. The water clarity wasn't great, but I think it'll get better since they quite pulling water. I know it sure felt good to feel the good hard thumps again.
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That is good to see. You guys fishing north or south end of lake? East or west? I caught a few off the stumps up north (13). The few i caught were very big though.
Great to see fish being pulled out of the lake after the news I've heard of it recently. That one bass in the bottom row middle as well as the crappie in the top row right look like a hogs!
BossHog we fished the lower east side of the lake.
Fished solo today and did pretty good considering the high winds we had. It was tough to keep the boat where I wanted it and it sure made jig fishin more difficult. Caught 18 crappie over 10" and caught another 15 throwbacks. Kept 2 decent catfish just for a change of pace in the skillet. Caught another 20 sandbass too and threw them all back. I've already kept my fair share this year, tryin to knock the population down a little so they don't take over the lake. Caught some really good crappie today with several at 14 inches. Jigs did better than minnows today, caught most of the crappie casting a 1/16oz jig with a Bobby Garland baby shad. Had good luck vertical jiggin too, but they really liked it moving, so casting was more productive than vertical jiggin. I did a little better today, I only lost one really good crappie. I lipped all the bigger fish, instead of swinging them in the boat. Kinda scary watchin them splash around while I tried to fumble around and get a hold of them.
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Thanks for the great pictures and encouraging report. Those two monsters look really fat. Are they full of this years eggs or did they just clean out your minnow bucket? What happens to those eggs when the spawn is as interrupted as it was this year?
Only one fish had eggs and it was one of the big ones. I'd just be guessing, but I'd say they found a way to spawn in the high water. I haven't cleaned very many in the last couple of trips that had any eggs in them. A couple of fish were full of shad. I think they're feeding pretty good now that the lake has stabilized. I bet the bite will get really good once the water clarity improves.
The 10' rise and fall of the lake and the repeat of same seems to have changed every brushpile in the Talala Creek area. One huge tree that has been sitting below the Vada point parking area for years has been lifted up and moved to the west a good 200' and dropped off. Most brush piles I've been fishing over the years have either been moved or greatly reduced in size. It's so bad I think I'm just going to delete every waypoint in the Talala Creek area and start from sratch.
The water clarity is finally starting to get back to normal, but I've seen signs of blue/green algae as well. I've fished the area three times within the last two weeks and have milked a couple of keepers out of the last two trips and caught about 20 dinks each trip. Most fish came from the same area and have been caught on jigs in the 4' to 7' range, near brush, near the bank.
If anyone on this board is interested in building some new piles in the Talala Creek area, send me a p.m. and we'll get together for a couple of days.
The current status of Talala Creek is pretty bad. The yo-yo effect of the water line has taken its toll on the brush, and the amount of fish.