sardis slow for everyone?

sure was for me. Started out by forgetting the boat keys and having to go back25 miles for 'em. Have one on my keyring along with 47 more and tried everyone I thought about 3 times but couldn't pick it out. Got home looked at the key and picked the one on the ring out in 2 seconds and it went right in the ignition. wasted an hour and 50 miles driving. Started east of clear creek .Water was stained a little. could see 2-3 boats further east. marked shad at 17 ft or so but the bite was slow. Not as many crappie on the graph but we caught some shorts and a catfish or 2. seems the story for most boats. The boats kept coming and by about 9:30 there were 22 boats nearby. Saw about 5 caught. folks started thinning out soon after 10. ended up with 7 and a couple of cats along with a handful of shorts. more than last year. Wind ended up being about as much as I want. It was whitecapping at the end of the day. Like the Miami Heat we took our beating and headed in about 1:30. Some days you eat the bear and some days the bear eats you.

I can't talk about people doing dumb things. One time I went out to the shop to get something. When I got out there I couldn't remember what it was. I went back in the house and set down in my chair and immediately remembered what it was. By the time it took me to walk back out there I had forgotten it again. I hope it wasn't important I never did think of it again. At least you got to spend a day on the water.

yes, same here...slow...managed 15 + 4-cats, but took from 7-2 to do it E of Clear Creek to Lespedeza, twice.....scattered

Noticed that the lake is still a couple of feet higher than pool. Figure they haven't moved out yet. Also full moon might hurt the bite. Rains have them screwed up. It's a tad stained. Might throw them off. Poor spawn from past is finally showing up now. All the pressure from out of staters is raping the place. Should have left the length limit at 12 inches. That covers about all of the excuses I can think of right now.

I haven't seen as many boats this year as there was last year, at least doesn't seem like it

Lots fishing Sardis Saturday were at enid Sunday.

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Originally Posted by Gomer Snerd

Noticed that the lake is still a couple of feet higher than pool. Figure they haven't moved out yet. Also full moon might hurt the bite. Rains have them screwed up. It's a tad stained. Might throw them off. Poor spawn from past is finally showing up now. All the pressure from out of staters is raping the place. Should have left the length limit at 12 inches. That covers about all of the excuses I can think of right now.

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Where do you see higher than pool? Just curious.
http://155.76.244.230/offices/ed/edh/plots/sardplot.png

Me too, almost 2 foot below pool

Neighbor told me yesterday they got the gate shut completely shut off. Said it was as low as he has ever seen lower lake.

Sorry. Was reading it bassackwards. Then change my excuse to "water too low."

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Originally Posted by Gomer Snerd

Sorry. Was reading it bassackwards. Then change my excuse to "water too low."

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You crack me up!!!!!!!:Rofl

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Originally Posted by Gomer Snerd

Sorry. Was reading it bassackwards. Then change my excuse to "water too low."

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All of your other "reasons" were valid though. LOL

Got there about 6 am yesterday and only saw a couple other boats on the lake. Left at about 1 when all the water fleas and wind started showing up. Ended the day with 13 plus 5 cats ( one 15 lb cat that tried all he could to tear my gear up). Most crappie were in the 12-14 inch range. Threw quite a few 10 - 11 1/4 inchers back.

Noticed about as many pulling jigs as cranks. Wonder how they were doing.

Caught em pretty good Saturday once we found them. What was surprising tho was size of fish. I only had seven that were over 12". The rest measured 11-1/4" to 12" with no throwbacks. Talked to several people who did not catch on Saturday and several others who commented about the smaller fish. I hope the pressure is not beginning to take it's toll. There's been a lot of boats on Sardis daily since August 2012.

Slow for us too. 12hrs fishing for 11 keepers, no slabs, several throwbacks and a few catfish. One of the catfish got me pretty good before getting thrown back in. Felt like an injection of pain.Attachment 165672 The bite was slow but picked up when my wife started putting crappie nibbles on the crank baits. Who da thought it?

I was surprised at the size of fish we caught Saturday--I was expecting dinks all day but only had a few and most of the 15 were 13 or over.

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Originally Posted by Gomer Snerd

Sorry. Was reading it bassackwards. Then change my excuse to "water too low."

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We fishermen are nothing if not adaptable. :Rofl

It's slow when your not on the fish. You catch short fish when your running with short fish. Iam glad to see a lot of 11" fish. My average keeper is 13". Brought home 5 Saturday. Fished 3 hours. Had 15 throw backs. When lake changes depth like it did you got to find them again. 1.5' rise in a week. Next weekend will be better.

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Originally Posted by KDAVID1

I was surprised at the size of fish we caught Saturday--I was expecting dinks all day but only had a few and most of the 15 were 13 or over.

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It was the opposite for me. You fishing minnows or cranks?

Either the rains have them messed up and they have not moved out yet or they are just not there to move out. Not catching any fish in areas i have always caught them,several dinks and white bass and only a few keepers here nd there. Looks like it will be a dry spell for a while.

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Originally Posted by CatchumDeep

I only had seven that were over 12". The rest measured 11-1/4" to 12" with no throwbacks.

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Keeping 11-12" fish is WHY your not seeing bigger fish. :)

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Originally Posted by CatchumDeep

It was the opposite for me. You fishing minnows or cranks?

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was pulling cranks. as much as I hate to say it but since they are way scattered cranks will hace to be it for awhile.

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Originally Posted by BigRiverMarine

Keeping 11-12" fish is WHY your not seeing bigger fish. :)

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Yeah, I know...

Couldn't find enough good fish for a limit and had to keep the smaller ones. Took me about 6 hours to get what I had on Saturday...tough day. :(

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Originally Posted by CatchumDeep

Yeah, I know...

Couldn't find enough good fish for a limit and had to keep the smaller ones. Took me about 6 hours to get what I had on Saturday...tough day. :(

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Legal is legal, but I sure wish they would change the size limit back to the over 12" at Sardis. It would be much better for the fishery in the long run. It's not your few or whoever's few it's Everybody's few that add up to take a ton of 11" fish out of the system.

Definitely not a criticism to you or anyone else for taking 11" fish because they ARE legal. This is just an observation on the lake, and its my Personal opinion. ;)

I feel the same on the length. But can't do nothing bout it. Figure if everyone starts catching 100 11" fish and only keeping 5-10 over 11" they will change it to 10". Hope they don't but you never know.

Catched - kept 19 Mon. 22 Tues. Had to grind. Water seemed clear to me? More ski boats than fishing.

Slow yesterday also,pulling cranks 5 over 12", 20 throw backs and 11 slimers.

We fished it yesterday from 6am till 3pm picked up 14 had several slimers and a bunch of stripes too. Very slow !!!! worst I have seen in several years

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Originally Posted by hotrod1

I feel the same on the length. But can't do nothing bout it. Figure if everyone starts catching 100 11" fish and only keeping 5-10 over 11" they will change it to 10". Hope they don't but you never know.

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Good point! Last year I saw very few 11"-12" fish in Sardis. It was easy to get a limit or double limit with no fish under 12". Things have really changed this year....seeing a lot of under 12" fish and the fishing is really slow for crankbait season. Makes me think that folks kept a lot of 11" fish last year and it's put a hole in the 12"-13" fish size range. Maybe the excessive pressure has thinned out the good fish. I pulled cranks yesterday and caught only 10 keepers in about 6 hours of fishing. Being limited to three rods is making it more difficult for me to pattern the fish each day.

3 rods is tough. Next spring should be half as good as 2 springs ago. 11" change is showing its outcome. They need to go back to 12". 3 rods might be tough but it has its purpose. Not going to catch as many with 3 vs 5. I say 12" and 2 game wardens at each ramp during peak months there presence alone gets the mouths talking and the double dipping stopping. Also 10 for a limit. You would have 10 nice fish and possibly a 17" to brag about. Instead we're looking at puny 11" fish and maybe a 15". 10 big slabs is a nice stringer. But with all that said if they don't change the pressure will fall back due to these recent reports. That's why they changed it to 11". Who wants to drive a hour to fish and throw back fish.

me!

Cry me a river. ... some of y'all cannot and will not ever be satisfied. Here's one. Let's just close the big 4 for a yr. No worries be happy. Geeezz

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Originally Posted by joekiller

Cry me a river. ... some of y'all cannot and will not ever be satisfied. Here's one. Let's just close the big 4 for a yr. No worries be happy. Geeezz

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I can't be any happier I live 5 minutes from Sardis. Love catching crappie no matter what the size. Just like to gripe about my home lake because I can and I know what Iam saying is da truth. Based on 14 years of fishing it.

I hope you're negativity over the fishin keeps every other boat off the lake too...I want it all to myself just as much as yo do..... keep on keeping on but know this I'm just calling em like I see em

5 pole 12 inch!!!!!

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Originally Posted by neaslabber

5 pole 12 inch!!!!!

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We may see it at 12" again but doubt we ever see 5 poles again at Sardis or Grenada either, hope we can keep 5 at Enid and Butla.

Don't worry about it....be happy ....go fishing. Been fishing Sardis since 1964 and they haven't run out of fish yet.....goes in cycles sometimes....good years and bad years. I think all the lakes do that.

There's the wisdom.

I don't want it by myself just do a little more enforcing at boat ramps when it's peak season. I know when they went 10" to 12" it took a few years and when the size caught up it was perfect. Dropping to 11" satisfied people that were throwing back 12" borderline fish never should have changed. Also 14 years ago there wasn't no where near as many trolling out there today. Times have changed so 3 poles and a 15 limit is dead on for now. Another thing look at all the clubs and tournaments that's going on and that keep poping up a lot of the reason is due to trolling. Instead of spring fishing for crappie it's 365 days a year now this ain't like it was there going to have to stay on top of this. Don't get me wrong on the clubs and tournaments people need something to do I get it. The way I look at all these tournaments is like going to the fair to play a game you got better chances of winning pulling a duck out of a baby pool than you do throwing a ring around a bottle neck. Everybody is pulling that duck "trolling" can't blame em. Same goes with fishing the other 10 months out of the year it's to easy. I like pulling the duck too. I need to get back on point. Everybody have fun and catch a boat load of 11" fish so we can go back to 10" length.