Taylorsville Report 5/9/06 and question
Fished from 4:30 till dark at T'ville yesterday. Caught 5 crappie. They were all the same size; (9 inches). All Males. Caught these at about 6 Ft. with minnows. I'm fishing in heavy cover; blowdowns, and thick stumps. I usually tight line my rigs, dropping all the way to the bottom, and slowly work my way up until I get a strike. This will usually indicate my fishing depth.
I can't seem to catch anything over 10 inches at this lake. What am I doing wrong? I have talked to several people that say "there are slabs in Taylorsville." I have yet to find one.
Haven't found any "Slabs" there ......
Quote:
Originally Posted by Waylonh
Fished from 4:30 till dark at T'ville yesterday. Caught 5 crappie. They were all the same size; (9 inches). All Males. Caught these at about 6 Ft. with minnows. I'm fishing in heavy cover; blowdowns, and thick stumps. I usually tight line my rigs, dropping all the way to the bottom, and slowly work my way up until I get a strike. This will usually indicate my fishing depth.
I can't seem to catch anything over 10 inches at this lake. What am I doing wrong? I have talked to several people that say "there are slabs in Taylorsville." I have yet to find one.
as my biggest fish have been in the 3/4lb range. For me, from Taylorsville, that's about as close to a "Slab" as I've seen :D
If you were fishing 6ft depths/heavy cover ..... and catching males --- the females were probably "behind" you ;) The water level fluctuations and weather have probably played havoc with the spawn, AGAIN, this year. The first week or two of May has usually been when the bulk of the spawn has taken place ....... but, sometimes the larger fish have already come & gone, by this time. (you're probably getting in on the spawning attempt of the smaller, recently matured fish)
I also seem to do better in the early part of the day (first light to midday) ... but, then I haven't Crappie fished at Taylorsville that much during the late evening hours. (water traffic has had too much time to mess things up)
Try casting and slow retrieving jigs over those deep blowdowns (and use weedless jigheads) ..... I've had much better luck with plastics, than with minnows, for numbers & size (even during the spawn) - best minnow fishing times, in my experience, is when the fish have dropped below the 15ft mark (Summer/postspawn) and in the Fall cool down period (late Oct, into Nov). But, in the Fall ...... I've found them to be 8-10ft deep, suspended in 20-30ft of water around submerged standing trees.
All of this is from past experiences ..... I've yet to make it to Taylorsville this year - so I don't have any recent knowledge of the situation/conditions of the lake, or the resident population of Crappie.
Taylorsville has a 9" size limit ...... and even though there have been some pretty large Crappie caught there - there hasn't been very many. A 9-11" fish, from there, is the norm ... and what most people keep as "eaters". I jokingly refer to 9" Crappie, taken from other waters, as "Taylorsville Slabs" :rolleyes:
The lake has its problems ..... flooding, boat traffic, and it's heavily fished. But, keep at it ..... you'll eventually figure them out. Just don't expect too many real "slabs" to end up in your creel. ............ luck2ya ..... cp :cool:
