Any Blood River tips?

Hi, very nice site here. Seems to be lots of knowledgeable folks. My son is a Marine and is coming home on his pre-deployment leave before going to the big sandbox. He wants to go Crappie fishing for a couple days while home. We're going to Blood River on KY Lake March 5, 6, and part of the 7th. I don't get to fish much but I mostly fish for Crappie when I do get to go. Only time the boat got in the water last year was for a 3 day trip to Weiss Lake. I've pretty much always fished Jonathan Creek and north and have never been to Blood River. Any tips on how and where to fish would be appreciated. I'm not really set up for spider rigging but I'm thinking about it.
One other thing-My birthday is the day we're going over there and I think I'm going to ask the wife for a handheld GPS for my b'day. I notice some of the new models, Lowrance iFinder H20C for one, use 16 satellites instead of 12. Are these much more accurate or should I save the money and get one that uses only 12? I hope to soon be able to get more fishing time in and would like a GPS. Thanks in advance, Hutch

I've always fished Blood River during the spawn. Fishing around the cane poles sticking up to mark the stake beds has produced alot if fish for me. However, the water is probaby down too low to do alot of good there. I know Jonathon creek has some good deep structure next to the channel out on the lake side of the bridge that produces good this time of year. You might get more out of some of the locals since I only go once or twice a year and it is usually in April.

Here's the March results of the 2003 Crappie Tagging Study at Blood River:
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March Results

The actual tracking of crappie began around the middle of March. Biologists would have preferred starting to track the fish around the first of March, but bad weather delayed the telemetry project for approximately three weeks.

During the middle and end of March, most of the transmitter crappie were spread out between Fannin’s Point and the mouth of Blood River. Virtually all of the crappie were located along the old river channel that meanders through Blood River. A few fish had already set up on the flats adjacent to the river channel, but the majority of crappie were utilizing the river channel during this time of the year.

Researchers learned that even this early in the season, a large concentration of black crappie had already moved shallow into Jack’s Branch, while most of the white crappie were located toward Sheepridge Point and the mouth of Blood River.

During this time, water temperatures ranged from the mid-50s to the low 60s. Air temperature ranged from the upper 60s during the day to the low 40s in the evenings. Lake elevations remained around winter pool (354.25 – 354.45). No transmitter fish were located in Crappie Hollow during March.
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And here's the link to the 2004 version - done on Sledd Creek. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the March period, and click on the "view this weeks map" links to see how the fish dispersed thru the creek -vs- the weather/water conditions.
http://www.kdfwr.state.ky.us/crappie...h=C101C397C398
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Hopefully this info will be of some help to you. And remember, just because you are planning to fish Blood River, is no sign you can't drive down the road a ways and put in at another spot. March is kinda early for a lot of shallow fish .... but, if the weather doesn't influence things too negatively, you should find the fish using the channels to migrate into the creeks. And they should still be schooled up somewhat, so when you find a channel turn or brushpile or stumpbed that has some fish on it ... there should be a good sized school there.
If they're relating close to the bottom ... minnows on a drop shot rig or even a KY Lake rig are hard to beat. If they are suspended in the water column, above the bottom structure, or on the move ... trolling jigs or Roadrunners might be a faster method to find them. If they should happen to be around the shallow cover ... casting weedless jigs to, or minnow/float dipping, amongst the cover should yield you some nice fish.


I don't know much about GPS units .... but, I do know that the more Sat's it coordinates with .. the more accurate triangulation it gives. Check on the main board for more info on GPS's and your planned trip.

And tell your Marine "Thanks" from all of us at Crappie.com ...... luck2ya both ..... cp :cool:

Sorry to be so long getting back. Thanks for the info. I'll tell my son thanks. I just hope he keeps his head down when he's over there.
I ended up getting a Lowrance iFinder H20C but I haven't figured out how to use it very well yet. I got the HotMaps Premium card for it also. I guess for now I'll just try to use it to mark any spots we find fish.
looks like it's gonna be a crappy Crappie weekend weather wise, but we'll see what we can find. Thanks for the replies, Hutch

Hutchman: Yes, ANOTHER cold front is supposed to move in, but maybe this warm weather the last couple of days has 'em active. Good luck to ya, and let us know how it goes.