So here it is winter again and I have not heard much about cb. It seemed to be the hottest thing going last year. Any reports?
Printable View
So here it is winter again and I have not heard much about cb. It seemed to be the hottest thing going last year. Any reports?
It's been good, but not as good as last year. While some people are getting limits, others are getting skunked. Colors, styles and techniques seem to vary from day to day. I had my worst day this morning, with only nine in two hours, mostly on a slab slayer cajun cricket and a blue and pink hair jig. Tried plastic, marabou, and hair, fishing at seventeen feet; then off to church.
Definitely not as many people this year. This morning, several people were skunked. I got 21, mostly on black and pink. Then Fred showed up and started smacking them with his slip cork, right where someone else had gotten zip on a slip cork in an hour and a half.
I believe it really needs to get colder out for it to be on fire on a more.
I agree DrNip, in my experience the better catching is during the colder mornings. I was out there on Dec 6 and 7th, Sat morning fishing inside sounded good and the outside was a little slow. I fished outside for 3 1/2 hours and took home five 12inch crappie and broke my line on what I assume was a saugeye. Sunday was worse, at least for me...nothing inside and outside I only kept 4 out of the 3 hours I was there. Everyone and all the crappie seemed focused upfront around the ramp. But the trout pond there at Blackwell is nice when you don't catch any crappie! I got home early enough Sunday and built me a new toy, so that's a plus!
Attachment 181419Attachment 181420Attachment 181421
That oughta work ccwby!
Wow nice job. . .now you can get there later since your first thirty minutes won't consist of carrying your things.
I especially like the heater running in the background. The hand truck idea is great.
Nice looking hand truck, cowboy. I'm going to show Bigfishmama this post and see if she'll make one for ME.
Thin crowd today. Got 32, but 12 were small. Liked a brown/brown/orange hair jig.
20 is good any day anywhere.
When do you go? I tried early Tuesday morning from 5am-630am before work and only caught 1 :dono
Trying to decide between Blackwell or Arcadia Lake Saturday.
Out of the two I'd take my chances at Blackwell.
Ya, It will probably be Blackwell. I always wake up Sat morning when I planned to try a diff lake and say screw it ... I'm just going to Blackwell! lol
I'll be hitting it a few times after the holidays, if it turns cold. It feels gooooood!Attachment 182491
Two-three weeks ago, fishing was best from 7:30 A.M to 9:30. Lately, it has been 9:30-11:30, but you never know. One day, it wasn't until about 2:30. Most guys did not do well today. Four of the good Asian fishermen totaled about 10 fish and decided to do the trout, and the guy who usually slays them with minnows got skunked. Bring Nip's willow tail in black/pink. I am still using different jigs from Nip to see which works best, but the black/pink has slayed 'em several times.
ps The guys have been getting nothing but dinks at Arcadia, at least according to the guys.
You have a pic of that Nip's willow tail in black/pink?
Look at the last page of my Thump Huntin' Jigs thread and there is a pic of my black/pink in both the 2.5" Mo Magic and 2.5" Willow Tail. BigSkyFisherman must of had it in a 2" because at the time I didn't have the 2.5" Willow Tail. I have several different pink combinations in the pics. Be on the lookout out for brown and orange colors soon. Also have a new mold that I bought specifically for cold water fishing and I think it will slaughter them at the fish house. Look for it 1st part of January.
Ok, I saw those Jigs....very nice looking. I immediately looked for a mold and supplies so I could attempt to make some of those.
NO DONT DO IT!!!!! LOL
It is addicting, time and money consuming! In the end it's awesome as I no longer fish with any bait than what I make.
Agree with Nip. I rig two jigs on three different rods, and at least one jig on each rod is one I've tied. There is extra pleasure in catching them on something you made. Lately, though, Nip's jigs have been on at least two rods.
Wanna email me some of those jigs :biggrin
Have fished Blackwell a couple times in the last 10 days with great success one day and medium the next. Dec 13th, me and a buddy launched the boat and started along the Dam where there was a bunch of fish hanging around brush and we tried everything to get them to bite but no luck. We decided to head west and fish some standing timber and that was the ticket. We caught over 100 fish but several were small fish. We kept 74 fish with the biggest being 13" but majority were around 10-11". Baits were 2.5" Mikes Custom Crappie Jigs in Silver/Pearl and Silver/Chart and Slab Slobber.
Dec 20th, I fished from boat for a few hours and it was a lot slower. Headed west again and fished the standing timber but only picked up 15 or 16 fish, all 10" to 12" on BG Natural Cricket. Headed to Turkey Hollow and picked up a couple Sandies, a small Saugeye and 2 pound LMB, but no crappie. Had to quit early due to other plans for the day. Was nice to get out for a little bit though.
Swollen,
You're doing better than most of the boaters I have talked with the last few trips. Only one boat came in today, and they only got one bump among three guys. They marked a lot of fish, but couldn't get them to bite. The dock was really slow. One guy got two on a slip cork. Everyone else got one or zip. I got 26 and an LMB, nearly all on a brown/dark brown/pink jig with some Krystal flash and a pumpkin pepper/chartreuse Thump Huntin' jig from DrNip. There were only six smaller ones this time, and most were 10 1/2 to 11 1/2.
Pretty nippy this morning. Not many fishermen out, and with good reason. The Kansas guys didn't get a single fish. One guy who switched from cork to vertical, off and on, got about ten, and 3-4 guys got 2-4. Blue and pink hair jig got 10 of my 12 fish, but only four were keepers.
Serves dem Kansas boys right. 😋
Anybody been lately?
ScottKeener, I was out at Blackwell for only 2 hours Sunday morning 7am to 9am and it was real slow for everyone. I only had 3 crappie, 2 were keepers I gave away. I came back Sunday from 4pm to 6pm and caught 10 crappie and 7 were keepers. I did land 1 Saugeye, 21" about 3lbs. All were caught on BG bleeding shad. Its been rough but I think this cold weather will draw them back in...I hope at least!
My buddy and I hit CB this afternoon for about 3 1/2 hours. Only 6 others fishing. One young guy had been there all day and left with a limit at about 5. He was using an 11-12 foot rod and fishing about 10 feet from the edge of the dock with a dark blue feather jig. The others got zero to 4 or five. We got 25, nearly all on the Nursery jig, and three on Nip's willow tail.
Fished blackwell today in boat for a few hours today. It was a horrible day to be in boat. 16 degrees with windchill of 6. Only caught 2 fish on tubes in 25 foot water fishing 15'. Trolling motor froze in down position and then froze in stowed position..lol. eyes on rod froze. Buoy line froze after first use so would not unwind when marking fish. Hole for bilge pump to kick out froze. Lol. But i always fish last day of year and first so today was no different. Seen another C.C member out there at fish house..not sure how he ended up doing. I got off water at 230. Will be back at it tomorrow to start the new year off right.
It was terrible indeed. I fished a different lake for 2 hours from noon-2pm and that's all I could handle. I too will be back at it tomorrow before the play-off college games. Maybe tomorrow will be different with winds out of the South unlike today's North winds.
Well this morning was decent fishing... I got out there from 830 to 11 and come home with 14 good size crappie. The others out there seemed to have found the hot spot on the north side of the dock and were pulling in some good ones. I'm just happy the crappie seem to be moving back in! Hopefully Saturday morning will be even better! Now time for me to pan fry my crappie I caught today.. Mmmm!
Nice!
Josh, your a trooper, and my wife said I was crazy. Hope you had better luck today.
Took little brother out today and fished Blackwell and had a lot better luck. Didnt get enough keepers to make a 37 fish limit but we did okay and Alex had fun so that made it worth it. Fished 12' with Arkie tubes in Blue/Silver and solid Chart and Gates Custom Jigs solid yellow hair jigs. Several others were slip corking and having better luck. The bite was very very light today. Will be back at it tomorrow i hope.
Attachment 184296
Nice job, Josh. I was going to take the grandkids up there, but the boss needed me at work. If the roads aren't really bad, maybe my daughter will allow me to take her little preciouses in the morning (provided bigfishmama lets me use her van).
Apparently the bite was really good early on. We got there about 11 and got 41, but more than half went back into the drink, with instructions to send their grandmas back to "visit" our jigs. At least two of the guys who got there early went home with limits and one nice saugeye. Bright colors and dark colors worked, but they didn't seem to key on any one color. Most of mine came on the nursery jig.
Swollen was there with a technical problem, which he will probably describe in a post.
I missed something Sky- what is the nursery jig?
swollen- looking forward to further light and knowledge re your technical problem.
Well, Cc,
What are the dominant colors in the nursery? Light blue and a bright pink. So a jig with a bright pink head, light blue Estaz for a body blanket, and a little pink hair with a silver ribbon showing HAS to be called the nursery jig. It has caught most of the fish the last four trips, including two trips where the other guys were struggling to get anything in the bucket. I tied a larger one for yesterday, and the son-in-law got a 13 incher on it right away, then fed it (poor use of antecedent, the jig, not the fish) to the brush. Will tie some more big nursery jigs today, with some help from three of the grandkids who have been tying when they come to visit.
The nursery jig BigSky- got it now! Nip if you're reading this maybe we should add some nursery jigs to the mix!