Lake McClure, 5/14/12

Well, since this is a Crappie forum I'll get the Crappie report for Horseshoe Bend out of the way early. I'll sum it up in one word, ZERO. I did see some on the sonar at 30' but they weren't interested in anything. I'm certain they are post-spawn right now. 2 weeks ago I was catching some in the shallows, however, since then, I only see them 20 to 30 feet deep. Hopefully by next week they will start on pre-summer patterns and start feeding again. I saw tons of fry in the submerged willows. I netted a few in 2 schools and one school was crappie, the other some sort of bass. I'm going to try some night fishing next week some time.

The Grass Carp are going *nuts* in the flooded grass. They are just everywhere and huge, but I didn't bring any corn or peanuts. I caught 27 spotted bass. Most were in 8' - 12' of water over rocky points and amongst submerged brush. I noticed, when pitching to shore, that they were practically non-existant where grass was on the shore at the waterline (meaning it's below as well), but just feet away, where the shore transitioned from grass to rock or mud, the spots were there. I caught them all on a drop-shot rig with a 4.5" Shaky Tail Berkeley Power Worm in Natural.

I attached a few screenshots from my new HB 597 CI HD DI. I'm a nerd, so ignore if you wish, but I love technology. The first attachment is a shot at the opening of a creek fed cove at 37.696398,-120.230722 (search maps.google.com). The second is a nice bait ball.

Happy fishing guys!

-Bill