What has happened to Clinton Lake

I fished Clinton Friday and Saturday and talked to a lot of fishermen that where not catching very many legal crappie.
Only activity at the cleaning station was catfish.
I'm not seeing any gulls around on the lake.
The old guys that fish the marina daily are mainly catching shorts with a very few keepers, not like it was up to about 2 years ago. These guys are wondering also about the lack of keepers.
Has Clinton been fished out of keeper crappie if that is even possible?
I'm thinking about relocating to Hillsdale if it might be better.
Just getting tired of spending $100 in boat gas on a weekend of not putting any fish in the freezer.
All suggestions are welcomed.

Crappies go in cycles, probably just in a valley after being at a peak a couple years ago. Melvern is in the same place after some really good fishing a couple years ago, tough to get the good ones out there now.

I imagine Clinton just like hd they are there just need to be in the right place at right time ??

wouldn't move to HD it the land of dinks

I went to hd for some night fishing with friends last night. Dink o rama. Not a single keeper. Best was a 9.75" and the action wasnt that hot either.

Yeah I'm having a hard time catching keepers too....might have to start going after GREEN CARP!!:crazy::yikes 20in. and a little over 4#....broke my line and my friend hooked my line and I when I pulled it up his jig had hooked into the swivel attatched to my crappie jig....keeps fishing interesting ! Attachment 167510Attachment 167511

Here is something to think about.
The last 2 times I cleaned Crappie, they were full of bugs
No Shad.
July 3rd - on Clinton - We saw big schools of Shad but nothing was feeding on them.???
Maybe we need to start fishing with "May flies" or other bugs that are hatching??
I know a friend of mine was getting a "few Keeps" on SMALL 1/32oz hair jig.
Rick

Rick,

You said it. Bugs!!! The shad are going to be very small now and the bugs are coming off the bottom. The diet of fish will change when the May Flies hatch. I have already seen it here in El Dorado. Fisherman, you have to change your fishing ways to catch fish.. Their diet will change and you have to figure out what they want. Dennis and I use jigs tipped with worms at times for crappie. It works.... Try something new and it might surprise you... Good luck to all.

A friend of mine read an article from a guy in Oklahoma that said when you have a mayfly hatch fish trees and bridge pilings with a 1/4oz. jighead , go to the bottom and bring your jig up real slow and keep it right against the tree trunk or piling. He said the crappie are feeding on the mayfly larvae that are crawling up any vertical surface.....so probably any creature looking bait attatched to the jighead would do the trick......the hard part would be keeping your jig right against the vertical surface if there's much wind.

This past weekend the mayflies where everywhere, but I am confused. I'm used to seeing yellow mayflies in past years but these are all black.
So are they actually mayflies?
They covered the north side of the marina so bad they used a gas leaf blower to get them off the walls.
Also all the boats in slips had them all over the north sides out of the wind. several of the boats in slips motors where totally covered with them so their motors looked like they where camouflaged, even the white Johnsons where black with them.
Has anyone ever tried using mayflies for bait on crappie? one swipe with a butterfly net would give you over 100 baits.

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Originally Posted by Captain Dan

This past weekend the mayflies where everywhere, but I am confused. I'm used to seeing yellow mayflies in past years but these are all black.
So are they actually mayflies?
They covered the north side of the marina so bad they used a gas leaf blower to get them off the walls.
Also all the boats in slips had them all over the north sides out of the wind. several of the boats in slips motors where totally covered with them so their motors looked like they where camouflaged, even the white Johnsons where black with them.
Has anyone ever tried using mayflies for bait on crappie? one swipe with a butterfly net would give you over 100 baits.

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Bet it's worth a shot

Lakes cycle. Water levels have been down for a couple years in both Melvern and Clinton. Doesn't leave as many places for young crappie or baitfish to hide. Water has returned to these lakes so I bet we see them cycle back up shortly.

The lake has changed drastically from last summer, go fish where ya caught caught them 3-4yrs ago. The lake may be in a down cycle hawg wise, but there are plenty of eaters in there! Just gotta do that fishing thing for awhile, then you'll be doin the catchin thing again!

At the State Park West ramp.:yikes <*)}}}>< Attachment 167935Attachment 167936

All of those copperheads must be eating the crappie?????????:twocents:santa:santa:santa

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Originally Posted by Crappie Chatt

At the State Park West ramp.:yikes <*)}}}>< Attachment 167935Attachment 167936

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So Chatt what type of bait/plastic would a guy use to imitate these "july" flies?? I've seen some mayfly nymph plastics in the Grizzly Jig catalog...might be worth ordering some.

Crappie Sliders prolly best choice to try. Dark to black colors. A slow rising, next to trees best tactic. Remember this is a shallow and night time bite. <*)}}}><

thought bout a dark brown chenille and squirrel hand tie but then I read night bite

Nice one.

Nothing has happened to clinton...fish are still there. You just have to have no conscious and figure out who knows where to catch them and then cut in front of them. Do it as many times as it takes and you'll catch em too! Works great for some idiots.

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Originally Posted by Top Secret Jigs

Nothing has happened to clinton...fish are still there. You just have to have no conscious and figure out who knows where to catch them and then cut in front of them. Do it as many times as it takes and you'll catch em too! Works great for some idiots.

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