Stanley Draper

Okay folks, now that Draper has opened boating back up, where shall we fish? I've got a canoe rigged up with oarlocks and I've been catching a few slabs here and there trolling around by the marina but I don't have any electronics. I think we're going to need some "old timers" to chime in on this one since the lake has been closed to boating for so long. I'm certain there are big crappies in there, I just don't know where they hide. I went out last night for the blue moon, didn't catch and crappie but the white bass were hitting top water and I wrangled in a few blues off the dock at point 19. (Didn't take the canoe out in the dark) So how 'bout it y'all, any reports from Draper?

I don't even know where Draper is, but, if there is any standing timber anywhere, it might be your best bet on locating fish without a graph. Just work from tree to tree dipping each one you see.

I haven't been out to Draper in 20 years so I don't know.

Been doing real well out at drapper for the last few weeks around the docks fishing 7ft with minnows the lake is really getting good now the docks have some water under them. I caught several crappie between 10 and 14 inches. The freezer is filling up fast!

Going to have to add Draper to the list now seeing it is close to the house. Thanks.

Ditto on adding Draper. Its only half as far away from the house as Thunderbird, and the bonus is apparently the crappie are biting.:fish

can you launch a boat now? I haven't been by there in over a year and they were still working on the ramp and looked like putting some boat slips together at the end of the ramp at that time

Far as I know you can.

I drove over there a few days ago just to look it over. There was a guy fishing out in the middle in what appeared to be a big bassboat. I think I'm going to let it come up another 5-6 ft before I put my boat on it.

I drove over to check out Draper after leaving Tbird yesterday. It looked to me like it has more water now than i can remember it ever having. Lots of grass and stick ups around the shore line that wasnt there before. Looks good, I wonder how the fishing will be with the extra cover etc.

I've got a question after stopping by the store at Draper yesterday. I went in to see if they had a map of the area available for duck hunting as I haven't hunted there in probably 15 yrs. The first thing I noticed as I walked in the door was what had to be at least a half a semi load of Yetti Coolers of various sizes! My question is, do people going to the lake carry that kind of money to spend on a cooler??

Draper is a city lake you can ski on. A lot of those guys need good coolers for their beer.

What the deal with a lot of that stuff he has in the store never sells to walk ins. The guy that leases that from the city runs a big business on the internet,I cant remember what the websites name is .The kid working in the store told me about it. They sale about anything related to the outdoors . I was there when they had a shipment come in and it was unreal how many boxes were in the south end of that big room and I asked the kid and that's what he told me.

Maybe petition to get a tournament scheduled there. Get about 15-20 boats on the water at one time and we would learn a lot very quickly. I'd participate, and I have an empty seat for anyone who doesn't have a boat.

The eastern guys would never come here, plus, being a city lake, there might be problems getting it approved.

Can Draper handle 15-20 boats? Might over flow it! Lol

Ha!! Is it really that small? The only time I've ever been by Draper was riding around it once on my motorcycle about 4 years ago. I proceeded to crash and mess myself up a bit, and never went back!

If I remember right, Google Earth has a cool feature where you can look at images from past years. I'll pull up Draper and look for images when it is at its lowest and look for structure that would have otherwise been submerged. I might also be able to get rough GPS coordinates of the areas, too.

.I fished the dock todayon the south side of the lake didn't catch anything I also tried the water intake area still nothing but the water is coming in and the lake have more water than I I have seen in years

I thought the same thing sparky. I'm not sure I've EVER seen that much water in Draper. Pappascruggs, thanks for the info on the merchandise.

I was just jivin you can fit way more boats in there than what I said. It is just a tiny lake compared to others.