Hi guys,
Any information on how to find crappie in the Gatewood reservior? Have never caught a crappie in my life, neither do my fishing buddies.
We have been trying to catch a crappie in the New River, the Claytor Lake and both turns out to be bad.
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Hi guys,
Any information on how to find crappie in the Gatewood reservior? Have never caught a crappie in my life, neither do my fishing buddies.
We have been trying to catch a crappie in the New River, the Claytor Lake and both turns out to be bad.
I have lived in this area all my life. There is crappie in Claytor and they are catchable. I fished Gatewood years ago and caught crappie there. We fished minnows under bobbers. It is a deep clear lake, we looked for laydowns and fished minnows around them. Gatewood is electric motor only and i think you have to rent their boats, I'm not sure if they have opened yet? We have been catching decent numbers at Claytor lately, on jigs. If DonG will chim in he has good information on this side of Virginia. I hope this helps.Quote:
Originally Posted by panangler
I went to Gatewood two weeks ago. Was my first time there. Didn't catch a fish. Water temp was 49 degrees.
You can rent their boats...$25/day (includes boat, trolling motor, and battery), or bring your own boat. I took my solo canoe and the wind blew me around pretty badly. Will probably rent their boat next time. No gas motors allowed.
You can also camp for $15 - $20 a night.
That trip I used my fish finder for the first time. It did mark some fish, but they didn't want anything I threw at them.
Fishing on a lake was a new experience for me. I am used to floating a river and fishing in 1' - 8' of water. Gatewood is deep in places. A lot of the fish I found were hanging out in 20' - 23' of water.
I will probably go back there in a few weeks.
I'd make the trip to rural retreat over gatewood... I'll be at rural retreat tomorrow :). Of course then again I've never fished gatewood
Let us know how it goes at RR. I also have never caught a crappie, and will probably be able to spend all day Sunday fishing. Rural Retreat is an option that I am looking at.
Thank you for your reply though. We have been Rural Retreat and caught several trout and a musky.
This is very very useful and I can see that you are very smart. I do believe you would do very well with lakefishing.
maybe we will try Claytor Lake too this weekend. What jigs are you using? 1/32, 1/24, 1/16 or even 1/8? Our fishfinder is not very good and we can only know if it's grass or rock bottom. We can't predict if there are crappie down the boat. Maybe we would try a new fishfinder but that's gonna be some more money.
I looked up what DonG posted and he mentioned several coves and pilers. We may give them a try next time.
Anyway, thank you guys so very much and I do appreciated it.
Rural Retreat wasn't to good fished it from the bank and caught 15 little crappie and 2 bluegill (all crappie were no more than 20 ft from bank)... The wind was wicked bad... On a side note we caught several trout at the trout pond... Here is an example of the little fellers caught today... Lol
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I lived in Christiansburg over 20 years and fished Gatewood for crappie in the spring. The Lake manager used to put Christmas trees out from the dock where you rent boats. Good spot to try. Mid April was always the best time to fish Gatewood for crappie. Check the first cove on the right after leaving the dock next to campground. Also Check the little coves on the left after leaving the dock past the parking area picnic area. The water gets real clear and I have actually seen the schools of crappie suspended and caught them site casting. There are some whopper largemouth in Gatewood and they like crappie to eat...hint hint. Gatewood is a hidden gem ...good luck. FB
Hi Slabmaster, thank you very much for your reply. I went to Gatewood yesterday. Spent a whole day there and caught only two very small crappie. I followed your instructions and got one from the first cove, the other from another large cove far from the dock. I missed at least five crappie. Ten hours and two crappie, very depressing. I have a very cheap fishfinder like around $100. I guess I need a better fishfinder and need to improve my skills.
Thank you. Do you usually fish crappie in the large pond or small pond? I went to Rural Retreat two weeks ago, spent four hours and caught zero crappie. I tried the large lake for crappie and small lake for trout, got two trout though.
Panangler, Sounds like you gave it a good effort at Gatewood. Concerning the fishfinder, I had a very inexpensive Eagle on my kayak and did well locating and catching crappie. At this late date the crappie are most likely off the banks and in deeper water. You may want to flat line troll with multiple rods to locate suspended fish. Lots of info on crappie.com on flatline trolling. Words of advise....vary your direction and do not troll in a straight line and vary your speed to locate the fish. Good Luck...FB
Just to let you know that you can also catch crappie in the trout pond at rural retreat. I would get you some 1/64 oz flies to throw under a float and twitch back to the bank. Best of luck let me know if I can help!