Any New Crappie Reports for Holt Lake

Anyone been fishing on Holt Lake? We havn't had alot of luck this year:(

I grew up in the Holt area and have fished Holt Lake for spotted bass for many years. However, I never fished Holt Lake for crappie. I have never had any luck with crappie on Holt, nor have I ever talked with anyone who has.

Until recently, I've done all of my crappie fishing South of Tuscaloosa, on Demopolis Lake and Gainsville Lake. I'm thrilled to say that my crappie luck changed in a dramatic fashion in the early part of April this year.

Because of the threat of rain, I had to cancel my crappie fishing trip to Demopolis Lake. That day, I really wanted to crappie fish, so I made the short drive to Holt Lake. I left my baitcasters at home, so that I wouldn't be tempted to start bass fishing. I dedicated my entire day to finding the crappie on Holt Lake. All day, I fished creek after creek with not a single crappie. Finally, at around 3:00pm, I caught my first ever Holt lake crappie. That one fish put me on a pattern that has allowed me to have the best crappie fishing season ever. During the month of April, I've fished Holt extremly hard. I have yet to have a day that I haven't caught at least twelve crappies. So far, I have yet to catch a crappie on Holt under 10". I've had several days during April in which I've had at least five crappies in my livewell weighing well over a pound. I've caught several over two pounds.

Like many local crappie anglers, I was under the impression that the lake on the lower Tenn-Tom waterway offered the best crappie fishing. I will agree that the lower Tenn-Tom waterway lakes probably have greater numbers of crappie, but Holt Lake, and certainly Bankhead Lake have sizes that can compete with any lake in Alabama.

Holt Lake and Bankhead lake are very clear and deep. I've found that these crappies spawn deep, and seem to be more cautious than the crappies on the lower Tenn-Tom lakes. As the month of April has progressed, it's become harder to find fish. I fished a couple of days ago, and only caught five crappies. However, all five were better than 10", with very broad shoulders.

Judgeing by the sharp decline in my numbers, I feel that the Holt Lake crappie spawn in winding down. I'm only finding fish shallow during the first few hours of daylight. Once the sun gets high in the sky, the fish seem to vanish. I'm actively trying to learn how to troll, so that I can target these crappies in deep water.

Seeing someone ask about Holt lake prompted me join this discussion forum. Its gonna take me a little while to figure out how to post pictures. When I do, I'm gonna post the pictures of a few crappies Ive caught at Holt. I've already showed my co-worker some pictures of my catch and he hasn't been any good since This co-worker lives and fishes on Neely Henry Lake. Until recently, he's always bragged about how big the Neely Henry crappies are. I've put a stop to his bragging