Murray Report 11/2/14

Well, my least favorite time of the year for fishing is upon us. Or atleast my least favorite time of year for Crappie fishing on Lake Murray. I will never understand why the fishing slows down so much during the latter part of October through Mid-December, but it does from my experiences. Other lakes, such as Wateree heat up, while Murray get tough. Every once in a while fish can be found and caught, but I would not call it the norm. This past Sunday was no different. I had a free afternoon so I loaded up the tightline poles and dropped the boat in the water. The wind was a little stiff so I opted to head up river where I'd be protected. There was plenty of bait and I marked a few fish, but nothing spectacular. Of all the areas I graphed the one common theme was fish on the bottom. I assume this is a result of the recent drawdown Murray has experienced. As I was setting out my poles I noticed one of my lines kick to the side. Low and behold a fiesty chunk weighing about a pound was on the other end. I thought I was on to something. Two hours later I realized that it may have been a fluke LOL

I decided to change up tactics for the last couple hours. As I was winding in poles, the drag started singing on one of my poles. After a brief battle I was able to land a 23" striper. As aggressive as he was, he was no match for a 12' crappie pole!

Once all the excitement had settled I broke out a jig pole and started fishing every piece of cover I could find. NOTHING! Not even a nibble was had with the jig pole. Water temps were 58 degrees and the fish I caught was 12 foot down in 15 foot of water. I truly believe the fish are there, but have lock jaw at the moment. Maybe another week of constant water level will have them ready to feed by the weekend.

Both fish were released to swim another day.

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Thank for the post and pic, just keep trying, also try some shallower water in the next two or three weeks, you may be surprised what you catch.

Thanks for posting the report CK. The bite on Hartwell is the same way right now or at least yesterday it was. Seen a lot of fish on the DF but they just wouldn't bite. Fished from 10 until 2 with only three crappie and one bass caught. I looked from the back of the creek all the way out, there are fish but just wouldn't bite after the cold weekend.

Buster,

It's nice to know that the striper was up in the river. Thanks for the report.

Wow 58 deg F. Did not know it had cooled off that much already. That bodes well for the Striper bite in the creeks. We also usually find the perch pretty heavy in Nov on the sides of the Savannah River channel on Clarks Hill. Thanks for sharing the report and pics.

We all get spoiled when the bite is hot, once those fish hunker down for the fall and winter, it becomes hit or miss. The fish tend to hug the bottom and seem to feed at certain times of the day. If your in the right area, at the right time of day you could be in store for a fish blitz, if something is off time. You'll be fishing for scraps. Thanks for the pics and report Derrick, maybe next time it will all come together for you.