Do I head North or South tomorrow?

North, by myself means only 20 crappie and given I actually find some that's not hard to accomplish by yourself as most of you know. Now South could mean a 30 crappie limit? Hey Nimrod you up to fishing Blue Mnt tomorrow?? That way you wouldn't be showing me any of your home water spots. My vessel needs ran anyways, those older Mercs don't like to setup too long without running them you know. If not I may go to White Oak, heck there's 2 lakes there and only one is being drained, not that I've fished the other one much though.

Thanks but got plans already.

I wouldn't drive to White Oak when you got Oucahita, Degray, Greeson, and Hamilton right here in your back yard. You did say you live in Hot Springs, right? Heck, Nimrod ain't that far of a drive itself. I did find a few on Ouachita today but they were really deep.

From what I've seen I could fish 2 more winters on these lakes and still not catch a handful of crappie....I grew up on lakes like that and finally realized in order to have fun and get in the crappie in good numbers you've gotta be on good crappie waters. Once you've caught em this time of the year and know how to catch em, right depths, right colors, ect. It's not hard to spend a couple days on a lake and know what kinda crappie lake it is. I'm sure I'll have those that disagree with me here but that's fine. Growing up I realized its a shame that some lakes you might fish all your life and never really find any amount of crappie on that lake.

I understand what you are saying but there are plenty of crappie in those waters. I have had some awesome catches on Ouachita and caught some huge crappie out there. The problem with it is that it's so big you have to put in time finding the right spots. I have fished it for years but until the last couple of years I only crappie fished in the spring. This year my plan has been every time I go out on the water I spend a little time at the end of my fishing day idling around looking for new structure. This is going to pay off big time as the year evolves as I have found about 15 new brush piles in the last couple of months one of which I caught all of my fish out of today. I found another new one today. Didn't catch anything out of it today but I know I will in the future. There's not a lot of pressure on crappie out there most of the year. Most guys are out there chasing green carp throwing an umbrella with 12 lures hanging off it.Rofl

I agree with Slab Junkie. I fish Lake Ouachita andLake Hamilton 2 to 3 times a week and always catch fish. Perservance pays off and you have to have your line wet to catch fish. I would spend more time on these lakes learning the waters and less time driving

Try Greeson?

Don't know if this would help or not but I would try having a little more positive outlook. It seems to always help me or at least make my day a little better:)

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Originally Posted by Handicrappie

Don't know if this would help or not but I would try having a little more positive outlook. It seems to always help me or at least make my day a little better:)

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Great advise..right there!! If you begin your day fishing with the attitude that its a fishless expanse of water..it normally will be, half hearted searchs result in missed opportunitys!

if you think you are not going to catch any before you go, your probably not !!! confidence is a big factor in fishin!!!!!

Well, where did you go and how was it?

Went to White oak lake Slab and from the 1st look there were boats everywhere, I just knew I'd get in the crappie. I idled out there past them, not wanting to fish on top of anybody then began to drop jigs down around every decent looking posty stump I seen and if you've ever been down there You know there's a lot of them, it's a vast stump field with little to no depth change....all right now in 10-15' at the deepest. The more I fished the more I watched disappointed anglers leaving???? Only thing I noticed were a few small bream being caught. One guy at the ramp as I was leaving said the crappie ain't doing much but the bream are tearing it up??? I've never caught bream this time of the year myself. So I loaded up in hopes of maybe just catching 3 or 4 big ones out of Degray, but as usual nothing there. Boats gassed back up and covered, I leave for work tomorrow and won't be back til sometime in March. I'm going to load up and head back West when I get in where my dad and I know we can catch some fish, that's how things went. I do know a few locals around the Hot Springs area that crappie fish but none that fish this time of the year....they all say you gotta wait. I then proceed to tell them that crappie are a cold water fish and weather only makes a difference in depth you catch them....might I add in shallow waters, oxbows, rivers, ect. I've found them to be in a foot or less of water this time of the year also, but the point is they will bite good year around, unlike bass. For the most part bass are a warm water fish. I've yet to try Ouachita so can't speak for it too much but hamelton and Degray are another story.