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The eastern central oxbows have had temps creep up to the low 70's.... Mound lake, horseshoe, etc... Here on mound lake, the crappie have turned off, since that cold front a couple of weeks ago. Now, we are catching bream up on the trees. temps got up to 75 yesterday & I only caught short fish. Only a few crappie are being caught by my neighbors, also. May need to move north to catch up on the spawn!
Randy, I went down to Tri County here at the dice yesterday and did not catch a fish in the shallows. I did catch 4 really nice ones 3 ft deep in 7 ft water on blk/chartruse. 3 females FULL of eggs (no blood yet) and one male jet black. Water temp was 75 in the shallows and 72 in 7' water. Not for sure what to make of this......very interesting....
From what I think...the crappie will hold off until they get the right temperature. Both lakes I was on this weekend had the same water temps, and the majority of the crappie were still deep or at least suspended over deep water. This cold front should put 'em back where they are supposed to be this time of year.
Randy was thinking about you today and your lack of post. Was wondering what happened to the fishing on Mound lake? Hope they turn back on for ya. You might try Little Maumelle this weekend for some jiggin action for a change of pace. I know LRJoe, Helms, and my crew did well last weekend. Trying to whittle out a little time to go this weekend.
I think the warmer than usual temps this last week warmed the water just a little more than usual for this time of year. Our water temp here on Nimrod got up to around 67 in the main lake area but I noticed today that it had dropped back down to 66.
We pretty much have the fish dialed in right now. Males holding in 5 to 6 feet water and females are out a little deeper at 9 to 12 feet. Males have some dark color but their tails aren't tore up yet from fanning the beds. Females are all full of eggs but they are still in between yellow and orange with little blood. The eggs are not loose yet either like when it's time to lay them.
We are not catching any fish in the real shallow water yet either.
I personally think that the timing of the spawn is triggered by the length of the daylight hours more than water temp alone. I believe that this would be nature's way of insuring a successful spawn. I think that this timing just happens to coincide with water temps around 65 degrees.
My buddy has already called me at work tonite and said that he will be back at the house in the morning to go out after them again!
Hey Randy, I don't know if it will work where you fish but here on Nimrod all our fish are relating very tight to the bottom. I'm wondering if this is not spawn related activity.
I have been setting out a double hook kentucky rig with 2 minnows 18" apart and 18" above the weight on the bottom and only the bottom minnow is getting hit.
You might want to give it a try where you fish. Stay in contact with the very bottom as you probe 5 foot on out to 10 or 12 feet deep. It's working for us, right now anyway.
Randy ,I don't think the spawn is started on Nimrod yet. Like David said they are deep . This rain or up coming full moon may trigger it. We are always a little behind other lakes here for some reason.:confused:
Thanks for the info everyone. Nimrod, Jim Shirley talked to a friend of his that said of Blue Mountain the spawn was done. His friend caught 40 fish, & most of his females were flat as a pancake. I'm gonna keep hittin' the water to search for them. I know that usually I have a couple of trees here at the house that always holds fish during the spawn, & they haven't held fish for more than 3 weeks. I fished horseshoe yesterday, and their fish still had some eggs, but the weird thing was their intestines were jet black, like they had been eating a bug hatch of some kind, like mayflies or something. I had to wash those fillets off. Sorry I didn't post any pics, they weren't hogs by any stretch of the imagination. I thought about Chris yesterday while fishing Horseshoe. The water is sort of dark... but clear. lots of cypress trees. We didn't have any minnows, but I had those fin's (bubble belly lookin grub) in pink. Those fish hit those pretty well. I had to change up several times to get on it. I went black/chart, blue/white, natural, even did swimbaits for a while. The fish were just real finicky. We finally ran into a group around noon, but they were mostly dinks. I wound up keeping 16, & threw back at least that many. I had the wife & sister-in-law with me, & they had a great time. I am always my wife's fishing guide. I told her yesterday I'm gonna take her to greeson & take a trip w/ jerry or darryl so I can take a break from guiding her!
I have been mift by this as well. I have been exploring new water (for me). But my usual tactics have not been producing. I have caught a few dozen fish in the last couple of weekends and all were males except for one. And she was the only good one I caught shallow. Maybe she was ready and the males were not. Happens at my house sometimes when there is a good movie on.
I plan on going to familiar waters this next week end so I can determine what is really going on.
DP
The females we caught sunday and monday are not ready yet. They had lots of eggs, but they were still pretty small and not developed completely.