Navigation Channel

My guess is black/chart minnow minder. I think grandkid will be the one to land it.

Caught 21 today in 16-20 fow! The hot bait was surprise surprise pump/chart slab slayer! EB

Got there at daylight. 18 degrees upstairs and 40 in the water. Trolling motor shaft froze so when I hit the pedal it pulled the cable wire out of the thingamajig. Whole day kind of followed that pattern. Saw lots of fish glued to the wood but they were mostly snobs waiting for EB to come back. Ended up catching 11 total ( yeah I actually count my dinks which I know is pitiful but.......) ate the four that did not embarrass me to keep. The highlight of the day was watching two river otters playing in the water. I didn't even know we had those around here so at first I thought they were that new strain of tailless beaver but they were way too narrow for that . Beavers osprey and now otters- if the crappie bit better I would spend the winter out of the wind on the nav.

Back to the nav yesterday. One more trip like this will make a pattern. When I put my boat on the ramp I realized that my locator was at home so back to the house for that. Then the battery was too low to start in the cold even tho my on board charger was on it for a week. Jumped it from the trolling motor battery. Next I pulled the cable out of the TM head for the trifecta. By the end of the day we had fished 12 BP and caught 5 crappie. Once again we saw a lot of fish on brush with shad balls nearby. Fished from 17-30 fow and threw everything in the boat at them. Best news from that outing is that Robby should have my TM cable replaced in time for me to get back out try to get it right tomorrow. If anyone has experience on the oxbows of the navigation channel in the winter please let me know if they always shut down when it gets cold or if I may find them again before spring. Thanks.

Sorry for the trouble Ciller, but glad you got out and tried!!!

Went out today put in at afton ran up the channel to a pump station water temp was 38 got about a dozen small ones on slab slayers in Cajun cricket and black and pink hit a couple other spots with no luck wind was to strong to hold tight to brush stayed out for 5 hours not a very good day!!

Paying our dues I hope Cruz. Are you fishing standing timber in the oxbows or submerged lay downs? I appreciate your weighing in on the nav. It is my favorite place to have a slow day.

Oh yeah. And is there structure associated with the pump station or is that just an area designation?

There is a lot of brush around the dock that's where I caught the dinks! Tried some standing timber seen a lot of fish on locator but couldn't get a bump but the wind didn't help at all!

Thanks Cruz. That's been our experience the last two trips. Lots of fish on the locator that just are not in the mood. We were really on em right up to Christmas day when my son the Crappie Fool caught 36 keepers in a row up to 15.5" all off one big lay down in 17.5 fow.