Struggling on ISTOKPOGA

Greeting Fellow Floridians, The wife convinced me we should spend Feb in sunny florida (Lake Placid) and that seemed like a fine idea at the time especially with what I thought would be a few crappie holes near by. Well after lugging the skiff 600 miles from the "crappie capital of the world" to Lake Placid Fl. and 3 very hard days fishing (lake Istokpoga) I have 1 Crappie.......... YUP ONE CRAPPIE!! total caught for entire florida fishing career!!!!! Now I don't profess to even be a rookie crappie catcher but dang, I'm about give up crappie fishing and maybe look at sum golf clubs or knittin needles or something.

Seriously any Ideas on Istokpoga? The lily pad fishing is new to me. I'm watching others and they don't seem to be doing much better than I am. I'm fishing out of Hendersons fish camp and tried minnows which has previously been against my upbringing but getting kinda desperate. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Don't know of any members that fish that area. You might get chummy with some bait shops. Wish I could help.

Good News and Bad News. My sister spends every winter at Hendersons-They just left early this year, about 2weeks ago----- cause they were so tired from catching and cleaning fish. Now for the good news----I think----They nite fish every nite the winds not blowing them off the lake. There's plenty around there that night fish--- Ask To find Crappie Dave at the bait store there---he is the night fishing King. Tell him Sandy's sister sent u. In the meantime if wearing a mosquito net hat to fish doesn't turn u on, just come on over to Lake Monroe and some of the members will turn u on to some fish there. I'm on the Harris chain and its not been that good here.

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Pm sent. We stayed there February of last year at Henderson's
Ginny

Ok, fellow CC members. Here is the very latest on Hendersons fish report. They are catching them in the weeds. Daytime too. Go to the bait shop and ask to find CASPER. Tell him Sandy's Sister sent you to find bout where to fish. Tell them I just talked to Sandy back in
Tenn. Let us know good luck

Anybody heard from these folks or are they stuck in the mud in Istapogo

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Have you folks drowned?

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Well I have thought about jumpin in, goin down 3 times and only coming up twice, lol....JK. Actually the Istokpogas crappie catching has not been what we were expecting or accustomed to. The technique is so much different from our trolling, shooting docks or spider rigging that we use on lake Weiss. We were able to get a "few" crappie here and were catching about as many as others fishing at same time.......just way slower than we are used to and quite honestly the lily pad catching is kinda boring....... dip minnow time and time again finally float goes under, 4 seconds later fish in boat, no long distance fight ,no challenge of getting one from 30 feet deep to the live well, but it is what it is and can't beat the weather.

We will be trying a few more times before end of Feb and hopefully will catch a bucket full but so far haven't dropped any into the fryin pan. I'm hearing nighttime is the right time........just not for me.


I extend a sincere thank you to all that shared advice/suggestions to help with my lily pad fishin education on this forum as well as @ Hendersons camp, hope you catchum and if you ever make it to NE Alabama's Lake Weiss give us a shout,

Crappienapper, you may also want to try taking the minnow outfit off and replacing it with just a single hair jig. If you don't care for the bobber fishing, you just might love the THUMP you'll feel when you slowly lower the jig down inside the pads. That is one of my all time favorite methods for taking a crappie.
Glad you're catching some either way!

Thanks Crappielover....I plan to be out there tomorrow morning for another round and will give the hair jig a try, I have dipped a bobby garland jig a couple times with no bite but will give the hair jig a shot as I do crave the thump. Do you find any colors more productive than others?

Thanks.

I'd start by asking someone at the fishcamp/baitshop.
Also, not sure about what that cold front just did to the fish. Don't know about the water clarity, but here are a few that I might start with...
Attachment 116287

While you're in town you should fish Lake's June and Placid (Childs). They are deep water lakes and produce a fair number of specs.