Crappie Pappy's High Water Story Got Me Thinking...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crappie Pappy
Many years ago, my friends & I fished KY & Barkley .... usually around the 3rd weekend of April ... minnows/slip floats in the buckbrush, stumps, & logjams of the shallows. One year, when we arrived, the lake was flooded & murky to muddy. Many people were turning around in the parking lots & heading back home. Not wanting to waste our 5hr drive down, we decided to give it a try, anyway. Couldn't really get on any of our buckbrush spots, as they were submerged under the murky waters (though I did manage one good fish from one). One of my friends saw a couple of guys coming to the cleaning station, carrying a stringer load of Slabs. He talked to them, and found out that they were fishing the flooded live trees, along the banks, in about 2-4fow. We decided to stay, and give that a try. We caught quite a few Slabs ... putting the minnow/float right next to the flooded live trees, and placing it on all four "sides", before moving on to the next tree. If your minnow/float was more than a foot away from the tree ... no bites !! Seems the fish were nosed up to the trees, probably for a reference point, and wouldn't move away from them ... even to hit a bait. I even got back into a thicket of trees, along a bank in Barkley Lake (around the dam area) ... and while trying to back the boat out of a spot, and prop washing the tree in front of me ... had a Slab hit my minnow/float, right in the prop wash !!
Now, whether or not the Black Crappie would do the same, under similar conditions ... can't say. This particular experience happened back in the mid 1970's ... when White Crappie were kings & queens of those lakes. BUT ... if you're ever faced with those conditions ... don't turn around & go back home, at least not until you've tried this. You may be pleasantly surprised. We certainly were ...
... cp
Like the title said it got me thinking and I didn't want to hijack the other gentleman's thread.
This may be true in muddy or stained high water but let's put our heads together and opine as to what would be the case if the water was clear.
Smashdn, where in the world are you going to run into clear water that is up in the trees you may ask. Isn't most all water high enough to be in the trees closer in color to Yoohoo than gin? Well, probably yes. But last year on two occasions Barren was well out of its banks. Not just for a day or two but for weeks at a time. This allowed the water to clear significantly to the point of being clear for Barren standards.
So the question is what does a crappie do in clear water that is up in the trees? At first blush I would say right up in the trees and brush getting after minnows. But that wasn't the case last year. I never got a bite up in the bushes. Couldn't contact them out on the "old" shoreline either as is a common bit of advice.
So crappie.com braintrust, let's get after it.