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Took a ride around Shenango yesterday. Still has some ice on it in spots. Water is really dirty. There some places where you can fish from shore. With the warm up mid week I'll be out for my annual first open water day of crappie season. Water temp is still in the mid 30's. The rain this week should get rid of the ice but I hope it doesn't rain to much and raise the lake levels to unfishable levels.
It was nice to get out of the house for a change. Lake still has ice on it so fishing spots are at a minimum. Fished for 3 hours this morning and only had one hit. Will give it a try again tommorow at a different spot. Lake still has large mounds of ice on the shoreline in spots. By next week should be able to put a boat in.
Did you check Mahaney launch area? Before I left for Ky it was open completely. Could have launched the boat and fished the bay. I,m hammering some big slabs down here. I,m on my new iPad and haven,t figured how to download pics on it yet. I,ll post when I do. Some really nice crappies here.
Man o man rub it in chaunc.wish I was south floating my boat.have a good time.hoping to get on shenango soon.
I see you posted picks of your bait. How about some big fish picks? Ha Ha. Way to go!!!! How big were they? I am going to southern Va in a week and hope for some nice size fish also. As always thanks for the picks.
Nice fish!
Nice... Great job! I have Fished Davis lake in TN, slabs are similar.
The launches are clear as is most of the lake. What ice that is sleft is paper thin and youcan easily go around them. With this rain and wind tonight and tommmorrow it will all be gone. Water level has dropped from what it was 2 days ago. Water is clear. Only caught one musky 23 inches where a stream comes off the hill into the lake. Other than that not a single hit.
Kenny,
Your killing me man those are some nice slabs!!!!! See u on the water soon.
Bill
That Photoshop is a wonderful program, isn't it? :biggrin Put some of those fillets on ice and send them my way, Smitty.
Zeke, i'll put todays catch away for our pymy get together this spring.
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:biggrin :biggrin :biggrin:biggrin :highfive :Rofl
The docks are going in next week. All launches are open. Will not have to have a pass until the camp grounds opens for the year. Somewhere around the 15th of May. Bite is still slow.Another 6 -10 degrees and fishing should pick up.
Sounds good, Smitty! When is a good time for a pymy get together, usually? Do you have a time frame in mind? I hope we can have few more get togethers at various lakes like we used to. It was fun trying out some different areas. I have a few guys that I know would be interested.
Late May is a good time frame for a pretty good crappie bite with some walleyes still active in the same areas. Can take a mixed bag from the northend of Pymy or we can get some fair sized crappies from Shenango at that time. Let me know when and where and i'm in. I'll bring some of this KY fish to fry. I hope Sparky can make it too.
What do you think about maybe and early May get-together at Shenango and then plan something late May at pymy?
The young males are starting to hit the shoreline. Tuesday and Wednesday caught close to 50 fish and nothing really worth keeping. All in the 8-9 inch group. 5-7 feet down depending upon where your fishing. All the fish hit right at daylight and for an hour i was fun than they just plain up and stopped. Cats and muskies are showing up also. Water level seems to have come up just looking at the shoreline as I crossed 846 this morning.
The feed was on yesterday morning. Caught 1 walleye, 7 perch, 4 cats and 16 crappies. Missed probably 20 or so bites. The wind played havoc with setting the hook set. Also the bait store at 5 points was out of medium minnows so I used large and it may have been due to the size of the bait the fish were just grabbing the minnow and swimming off.
Good day on the water Sparkie. Cant believe I left Ky lake and came home to SNOW this late in April. Water temps will probably drop 10 degrees this week. What was it last week when the bite was on?
Is it summer yet? Looks like a couple weeks of cold, before it starts warming back up.
I know one thing it sure was chilly this morning with that wind. Glad I had my thermals on this morning. As for the bite the fish have me stumped. Every year I have spots that produce early. This year nothing. The fish that I have been catching have been on the move. 4 or 5 small ones than they're gone. Nothing has moved into the shallows yet all are out in the 10-13 for range. And right on the bottom.
I agree. They weren't where I normally catch them either. Moved out to deeper water, fished a foot off bottom, and caught around thirty with 8 over 11". The rest were smaller blacks. Bought a couple dozen minnows but only used one. BG shads did the job.
Chaunc what depth you hitting them at?
FIshed this morning and had a good day. Not much in the numbers wise but size of the fish I caught you didn't need many to make a meal. 2 in the 15" range and 5 13-14" and one 10 incher that swallowed the hook. One little dink. They wanted large minnows so had a few run offs that driopped the bait. Put a small minnow on and nothing. All the fish came from a mud flats drifting with the wind. 6-7 1/2 feet deep was the ticket. Boat was drifting anywhere from .5-.9 mph depending upon how strong the wind blew. Any shallower or deeper nothing. Water temp is 50. I was at Pymatuning yesterday and water temp was 47 and no fish.
Good afternoon fellow fisherman. Its been a while since I posted! Went to Shenango last sat. Caught bout 30 nice crappie bout 28' deep. I saw Chaunc when I was leaving. Always good to see a local pro. I went back Sunday to the same spot. Only got 6. Wind had picked up pretty strong. Headed out tomorrow again. Any more info would help. Any reports of Pymy? I'm hearing nothing positive!
Read the post above yours. Went out this morning and hammered the slabs for 2 hours. Brought home 11 that will make 4 meals. All males. Caught 5 or 6 females that were loaded with eggs that I released.
The lake was calm this morning as glass when I got there. Had to use the trolling motor on the lowest settting to move the bait around. .2-.3 mph was the ticket in 6-7 feet of water with medium minnows. Had the bait about a foot off bottom. Around 8:30 they got lock jaw and couldn't buy a bite.
Was at Pymie Tuesday and Wednesday and only caught a few perch and one smallmouth. Did have a hold of a nice eye but lost it. And that was right before sun rise. From what I've heard they (eyes) are biting at night but my source isn't the most reliable person. Tried 4 or 5 spots for crappies and not a bite. Tuesday I only saw 2 boats and Wednesday saw maybe 8, this was at the south end of the lake. I'm done with crappies for the year now on to the eyes until August.
Fished yesterday and today. I shoukld of had my head examined for being out there yesterday. Wind and rain didn't make it to much fun. But had fun with the fish. Not many crappies but either the large strippers or muskies were up on the shallow bars. 3 fish one a large hyubred that weighted about 6 lbs. Hit a jig while fishing vertical for walleyes. I tried to do a little trolling and lost 2 other fish that snapped 8# test like it was thread. All the hits came on a 1/8 jig and tail. The water temp came down so I moved out a little deeper and the crappies were staging out in the 10 foot range suspended off the drop offs.
Today the crappies were hugging the bottom. I picked up 6 over 12 inches while jigging for eyes in 12 fow.
I had temps in the high 60's low 70's during the hot spell, now today it dropped down to 64.6 degrees. Water is a foot higher than normal and clear down to about 4 foot.
If any one is going up to the lake it is high and muddy.
Bill, how was your week of camping and fishing on Shenango lake last week? Couple of my buddies from Ohio said they were there yesterday and caught over 40 crappies but only two were actual keeper size. I've been fishing Mosquito and the size of fish are much better with only a few throwbacks a day in getting my 30 fish limit.
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KENNY, We had a good time but the weather wasn't the best we were there for the storms and the 2 days of rain the lake was real high no beaches at campgrounds u could step on to your boat!!! Portions of lake were like chocolate milk. We did have 1 good evening with some nice size crappies anf few big perch a small walleye and bunch of bass. we released everything. Thinking of perch and walleye soon erie trips I will keep u in mind.By the way joan and I are still not smoking!!! but were a lot fatter now also!!!!!!!!!! You take care see u soon on water.
Bill
Been fishing the lake for eyes and not targetting crappies but something I noticed this year from past years has me got to thinking. I've only caught 3 crappies trolling this year. Usually i will catch around a hundred. Seems really strange. The white bass and hybrids aren't hitting either. They aren't even doing any slashing on the surface. By this time of the year they should be knocking bait fish out of the water.
The lake is having a strong algae bloom right now but this wind and rain should knock it down.
I''ve fished a grand total of 7 hours the last couple of days. The only fish I have to show for it is 3 muskies, 47", 27" and one unseen at the boat. 1 eye and 3 perch. i'm not marking very few fish out in the deeper water, 13-20 fow. They may be shallow but I would think with the water temps hovering around 75 they would have moved back to the deeper water by now.
The lake level is still high by 4 feet. temp is 74. Mahaney and Shenango recreation area are the only open ramps, all others are closed. There is a heavy algee bloom. Excessive amount of timber is floating.
Started to troll this morning and most of the garbage was on one side of the lake. A little wind came up and blew all the junk to my side of the lake and made trolling impossible. Did catch some crappies and one eye trolling. All fish were suspended down 14 feet in 18 fow.
Todays up date. Water is very-very high. Docks are about 20 feet from shore at Mahaney launch. Had to back the Trailblazer almost to the back doors to float the boat off the trailer. If you have a deep boat you will have trouble putting in, even my 14 footer was a chore. The crappie were suspended at the 14-18 foot range over 20 fow. Caught 17 trolling this morning. 2 cats and one eye. Lake still looks like pea soup. My advise would be to launch at the camp grounds, With the rain that is forecasted for the rest of the week, it really shouldn't be all that busy next weekend.
Sparkie, how's the lake looking lately? Last I heard the water was up to the guard rail at Mahaney. That has to be a crazy lake right now.
Actually it's starting to drop back to fishable depths BUT still high with rain forecasted for the week, the level will shoot right back up. Trouble is that the fish are no where to be seen. The fish aren't out in the open water but hanging tight to the shallows. All the shallow spots are now 14-20 feet deep. The fish seem to have left the bars and humps and moved into the flooded timber. I'm seeing a lot swirls back in the woods. What fish that are in the lake are very scattered. Trolled for 2 hours this morning and only marked maybe 10 fish and this was at the east end of the lake.
Be careful and watch for timber floating. Had a 30+ foot tree float by me yesterday morning.
If anything it should bulk up the fish with these new areas opened to feed in. The fall bite should produce some real nice heavy weights.
The crappies were stacked up this morning for the first time in a long time. Every hump that I hit had them on them. Couldn't troll without getting 4 or 5 on every pass. Nothing over 12 inches but a lot of them. They want the lure trolled at a higher speed 2.3-2.5 mph for some reason.
On the lake this morning at 6 Am. Was trying to do some trolling for eyes but the darn crappies wouldn't leave my lures alone. Caught 17 in the first hour. All down 11-12 feet. It didn't matter what color I used. The larger fish came when I up the speed to 2.4 mph. Even caught a few at 2.5 mph, started out trolling 1.8mph but was catching to many little guys.
Was there too and casting jigs to brush piles on mid lake humps was productive for me. Caught quite a few that were 11" but most were 10". Still can't find the big ones, yet.
Fished Shenango today. Pretty good day. Not a lot of keepers but caught a lot of fish. I was using the plastics I won from Fle-fly. The crappies loved them. Sprayed the flavor on them and the fish smacked em good. Gonna try them on a different lake in the morning and see how they fair there. My fingers still smell like bubblegum.:biggrin