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I'm starting to think most of the slabs are fished out of Clinton.
I fished from Friday evening until noon Sunday catching only 5 barely 10" crappie out of over probably 200 shorts.
Every one I talked to on the lake was reporting the same results, NO SLABS.
Have the slabs been over harvested or just relocated to different parts of the lake?
I've also noticed the lack of shad schools.
What size do you consider to be a slab?:santa:santa
If the law continues to allow all the 7-10" crappie and the 11-15" walleye to be harvested there won't be any quality fish left. Personally saw guy cleaning walleye at the cleaning station last week cutting the head and tails off walleye and they fit in a ziplock sandwich bag. :banghead
by the buckets full at hd fishes and honest fisherman don't stand a chanceQuote:
Originally Posted by haugboss
If what you're doing isn't producing the desired results, then change tactics. I know I'm just as guilty at times :deadhorse Adaptability is a must for success.
Most of our laws are sportsman mandated, that is to appease a few who pursue those changes. Unfortunately, most sportsman will not "get involved" to stop these violators, which just leads to more and more useless laws. If us sportsman continue our ways our outdoors will become limited to "store hours" with limited access and checkpoints to ensure that laws aren't being broken. In short, if we don't call for an LEO, IMO we become just as guilty as the violators. It's a resource we all share, what our "ante" is in the game is pointless, we upgrade to benefit ourselves, not to buy more liberty than others. Have a great day and get some bend in that rod.
There are still nice fish in Clinton. A lot of them are in a transition period from the spawn and the fishing for them will get better soon. Summer patterns will begin shortly and those fish will magically appear. Everyone makes a good point about what is a slab and who is responsible for reporting SUSPECTED violations. It will never be a eutopia for all of us. I did not see the fish Al did as I was busy with the boat but trust his judgement. In my opinion the length and creel limit on walleye needs changed. If you cut the head and tail off a 15 inch fish you could very well end up with a 10 or 11 inch piece of meat. If there are that many violations there is no way law enforcement can keep up and who wants to go to jail for an argument escalating over short fish and that is what will happen when you call out these idiots. How does one chastise crappie keepers with short fish when many people load their freezers with well over possession limits thru out winter and the spawn Unless you are selling them or giving them away, in my opinion no need to rape a resource just because you can. Many things wrong with the crappie system but it is the best we have till something better comes to the front.
I call any crappie 11+ a slab. Thanks for the input guys going to try Rock Creek next weekend if mother nature lets me.
Is the spawn over?
:fish CD I would have to say the main spawn Is done but there are still same late spawners out there problem being they are mostly the smaller fish now. With these lake temps heating up I would at least start checking the summer patterns out. Some of the early spawners are starting to show up in those spots. I would guess the main spawners will be still resting up and scattered but wont be long and they will be looking for the shad hatches.
No problem here, slabs still coming out of Clinton along with lots of wiper and a few eyes. We ran into scotty at the cleaning station the other night. Great to see you again scotty!
What do you mean by the summer patterns? I usually try for catfish and walleyes during the summer, but have done good at night with a floating headlight to draw the shad into me then the slabs will be there too.
Dan, for me there are two summer patterns that I use. First is what I do 95% of the time is dip trees and stumps with jigs or minnows. The depth of water and how deep the fish are varies daily. This would be hard to do with your pontoon as I get stuck with my boat quite a bit. There are still plenty of trees that you could get next to with your pontoon. There are some big trees out from the west boat ramps that I am catching some fish on now. The second is get above brush piles and fish in them. This takes a lot of boat control and a lot of jigs. If you don't know of any brushpiles I will share some with you. There are many more summer patterns but these two are what I catch my fish on in the summer.
Sorry if my post came across wrong there, it was a little late when I did it. Terry has it nailed on the brush piles right now. If you can use Chatt's Kentucky rig and get right down in them you can get some solid fish. The bigger fish are toward the base of the pile and the smaller fish hangeout up top a little more. Minnows fished around the edge of the pile can produce some nice fish. We tried tree dipping Sunday and didn't get much at all but it will also be a good method shortly. Most of my keepers have been coming out of 15 to 18 ft of water 12 to 15 ft down on minnows. Wiper bite hsa been really good trolling cranks and shassy shad at almost every lake that has them.
I went last week and managed to tangle up with some shorts but the big ones scattered for now. Had a small ten minute window where we were pulling crappie almost every cast and managed to find a few just over ten inches in that group but it was hard fishing.
My dad and a couple buddies fished Clinton a week or two ago. One of his buddies had a 16.5" crappie on his first cast :yikes Only keeper they caught so she got dumped back in the lake and swam away strong he said.
That must have been over 3 pounds????:popcorn:santaQuote:
Originally Posted by bluebasser86
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crappie Commander
Looked to be in the 2 1/4-2.5 pound range to me, but I've weighed very few crappie and it wasn't overly thick with having recently spawned.