Keystone

The Crappie Ciller and the Woodworker cruised Keystone today. Dinkmaster George did NOT live up to his name. He only had 1 0r 2 dinks--the rest were 10"+ keepers! We ended with 10 in the live well. Mostly in 14 to 22 fow with slab bandits, lime & chart or something like that and "a perfect jig"that George had. Fished from Washington Irving up to Cowskin; water temp started around 44 and came up to 51 at one point. Launched at Washington Irving--kinda difficult launch an load but with our awesome maritime skills, all went well. Great day and great companionship!

good job Merle and George.

Glad you all got on the water.

Merle, George, Guess you know now its hard to be sitting 70 miles SE of you and try telling you where the junk is. Hope you found atleast a few places that held fish. Like I said we were unable to fish the channel side of the Arkansas Arm due to wind conditions but was sure there was alot of junk on those banks too. I should of said we started like a mile south from the mouth and worked the bank from there for about 2 to 3 miles. The farther south you went the deeper the water got on an average. Anyways I wasn't thinking to straight at the time you called and am glad you 2 had a gr8 day of fishing with some success.....Ranger

Not my proudest moment calling you in sick bay to counsel us but you were way gracious as always. Took us most of the day to find brush but when we finally did it produced good fish in the one pound range. Merle, formerly a minner lover really took to jigs and crushed me on the last hole. A little more gusto setting the hook and I'd have been up later cleaning fish so another plus for the Woodworker. At one point I was missing hits at 12' while Merle put on a bobber and caught 3 in a row at 4'. At the time we were over a pile that was placed just 3 days before. Isolated structure. Thanks for the lessons on that EB and Ranger!

Hit Keystone yesterday, went thru 1/4 pound of small minnows on a thousand dinks, strippers and sandies. Fished mostly under the bridge on salt creek but also went up salt creek and fished cove channels, ended the day on the oil rig. Under the bridge the fish were everywhere all depths and biting. If you wanted sandies, fish shallower than 12' deep, strippers were at 40'+ deep and the crappies were everywhere but mostly around 20'. It was a fish zoo out there. The only redeemable thing about the day was learning a lot about the using the finder to catch fish that you could see. I messed around with the settings and using the SI, down imaging and switchfire to locate, target and catch different schools of fish and singles. It was a lot of good practice because everything was biting. It wasnt just under the bridge tho, everywhere I tried I caught a bunch of dinks and no big ones at all. Where have the big crappie gone???? When I say dinks I mean 4-5 inches, have you been keeping all the bigger ones Merle?

Fishers, you are too funny !! No, it's not me keeping the big ones--probably that varmithunter guy from Sapulpa. Maybe the big ones are up the Arkansas arm? I have never caught any slabs by the oil derrick; has anyone else?

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Originally Posted by Woodworker42

Fishers, you are too funny !! No, it's not me keeping the big ones--probably that varmithunter guy from Sapulpa. Maybe the big ones are up the Arkansas arm? I have never caught any slabs by the oil derrick; has anyone else?

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I have in the summer. BTW just got back from the mid south fishing show. I caught Todd Huckabees seminar, he made a comment about big fish being solitary creatures. He said like people, crappie get cranky when they get older. Well I certainly have not caught any big crappie this year near the schools I have found. Every big fish I have caught has been away from the schools.

Fishers,

I was out there this weekend as well and fished under the Salt Creek bridge. I witnessed the same thing. Huge balls of shad and fish on the monitors. Eventually I had to turn off my fish alarm. It got too annoying to listen to. I probably caught every fish on the Oklahoma Fish Chart. LOL. Out of 50 dinks, I only had 5 keepers (crappie). I have a gray SeaArk with a Suzuki motor.

@Crappie Hog, were you using shiners, crank or what? I have fished under the bridge in the summer but not during the winter. Were you drifting or anchored?