Tville 2016

As mentioned, here is the start of what hopefully will be a thread full of pics and success stories this year. Crappiehabits and I will probably not be makin posts for a little while. We sold our boat. Congrats to cox, a new cdc member and the proud new owner of a war eagle. We are in the process of getting the new rig all transfered(comin from tn so no title) slowly but surely. Then we'll start the customizing. Hopin to use cumberland crappie for our rod holders and Brian at bbgmarine has got us in line for some new electronics. Anyways, it will be end of Feb or beginning of March before we all done and ready so until then, it's up to you guys! Good luck.

What boat did you buy?

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Originally Posted by Ricky83

What boat did you buy?

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and PICS by all means pics so I'll know who to pull up by when I'm looking to find fish LOL

Also curios what kind of boat yall went with..hopefully I'll have mine ready for the spring..

Ha. Maybe where not to go. We are buyin a bay boat. It will suit our multiple species need better than any other we think. So we should still be easy to spot since you don't see many bays. It's a skeeter zx20 bay. 115 yamaha 4 stroke. White with a north Carolina blue stripe. Hoping to pick it up sat. Will post pics then.

Pap (my dad) and I went to Tville Sat (1/9/16). We got there at about 8:00. There were zillions and zillions of baitfish in the spots we were fishing. The top 10' of the water column was nothing but baitfish. So we started off spider
rigging just under the schools at about 10-12' with minimal success. The fish I did catch came off a Bobby Garland Mo Glo in Ghost color. So I decided to change tactics. Never get stuck in the same rut. I had made my dad a crappie rod for casting jigs so I wanted to see how he liked it.....
I tied the same jig I caught the other fish on and started dad off with a drop shot. My second cast I got thumped by a Dink. Third cast was a nice 10 1/2" black. So I told dad to switch to my style jig and we continued to cast to timber with better success than I expected.
We fished all my spots that were similar until about 12:00. We ended up with 10 nice keeper blacks with prolly 25-30 Dinks, all being whites. There is a really good population of whites that haven't reached legal size. All fish had eggs and bellys FULL of minners. Water color was what I would call coffee with light creamer. Water temp was 48. I'm looking for a big shad kill in the next month when water temps drop into the 30's. Never seen so many shad this late into winter.
Jan, Feb, and March usually cause me trouble. I'm looking forward to finding the fish once the winter pattern hits. Seems like they are still in a fall-like pattern still.
I will post write ups of all my trips from now on. I have followed this site for about a year. I'm looking forward to maybe being a help to some folks. Sorry details are so vague but I have worked really hard for about 5 years to figure Tville out and I think I'm close.
God Bless

Went yesterday, Thursday 14th,
Water was 39 deg by Van Burren (saw some ice on the water)
and 46 to 47 down mid lake between Chowning & Settlers.
didn't venture any further, may be warmer at Settlers.
Fish were slow and scattered.
Caught a few in shallow 7' of water and a few
in deeper water (over 20')
I only fished with a jig, probably would have done better
with minnows considering how slow they bit.
They just mouthed it, no thump like normal.
It was hard to detect a hit.

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Originally Posted by JCCLARK

Went yesterday, Thursday 14th,
Water was 39 deg by Van Burren (saw some ice on the water)
and 46 to 47 down mid lake between Chowning & Settlers.
didn't venture any further, may be warmer at Settlers.
Fish were slow and scattered.
Caught a few in shallow 7' of water and a few
in deeper water (over 20')
I only fished with a jig, probably would have done better
with minnows considering how slow they bit.
They just mouthed it, no thump like normal.
It was hard to detect a hit.

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Put a crappie nibble on that jig and the bites will increase. I don't leave home without them.

Thanks for the good information on this thread the last few days. My new boat and me will get back down that way hopefully next weekend. Going out of town with the wife this weekend. I know before Christmas the water temps were rising every week and it was more like they had started into a late fall early winter and then thought it was starting to be spring. It was weird there for a bit. Hopefully next weekend it will be back to something more like I would expect. And since you all were asking of other folks, I got a Tracker Pro Team 175 TF.

Just out of curiosity : did any of you other Taylorsville regulars realize that Asian Carp are in the Salt River below the dam at Taylorsville Lake :yikes

YEP, they are !! So, let's hope that no one decides to dip any "shad" out of the spillway tailwaters and river below the spillway, and then fish with them in the lake. :banghead

... cp :kewl

Attachment 226016Attachment 226017

These are as good as I can do for now. The side pic is kinda deceiving, as it makes the boat look thin(which it isn't in any way shape or form ha). We are on the road first thing tomorrow morning to go pick it up. Hopefully we'll have some finished pics before March gets here. Will look alot different once we get it all set up. Anyhow, yall see us out on the water come say hey. Very excited about such early participation in this report thread. What you workin on mickey?

Nice looking boat

Here's a couple pics of mine and Kywareagle's new rigAttachment 226206Attachment 226207Attachment 226208

What kind of rod holders,electronic's ect....are yall goin with on this one?

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Originally Posted by Crappiehabits

Here's a couple pics of mine and Kywareagle's new rigAttachment 226206Attachment 226207Attachment 226208

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You will sure like that thing hangin off the back of it!!��

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Originally Posted by MICKEY1982

What kind of rod holders,electronic's ect....are yall goin with on this one?

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I think we've decided on Cumberland crappie for rod holders and we're gonna go Lowrance on electronics.

Attachment 227682

My brother and I went to Tville yesterday (1/30/16). The wind was howling thru the midday but calmed down nicely during the evening. The fish were pretty hard to find but once we did find them, they were willing to bite.

Water temp was around 45 and pretty milky, tho not as bad as I expected. The number of baitfish has drastically reduced since about 3 weeks ago forcing the fish into the winter pattern finally. So now if u wanna catch craaps u have to fish the baitfish. We were able to find two nice spots with the right combination of cover and forage. We added the right presentation and ended up with a good little mess.

I fished a drop shot while my brother casted a 1/16 oz jig. He switched over to a Thill Pro Series slip float with a minnow right before dark with good success. Bobby Garland Mo Glo Scent Wig'lers have been amazing. Very good product for winter fishing.

All the females were full of eggs with bellys packed full of minnows. The fish we have caught this winter have been the healthiest we have seen come from Tville. I'm really excited about the upcoming spring fishing. The size and quality of fish shld be excellent.

I have to say with the exception of the wind, yesterday is as good as it will get for January. I had a really good time with my brother and finding the fish is as rewarding as it always is. Feeling that thump never gets old!

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Originally Posted by BubbaThump

Attachment 227682

My brother and I went to Tville yesterday (1/30/16). The wind was howling thru the midday but calmed down nicely during the evening. The fish were pretty hard to find but once we did find them, they were willing to bite.

Water temp was around 45 and pretty milky, tho not as bad as I expected. The number of baitfish has drastically reduced since about 3 weeks ago forcing the fish into the winter pattern finally. So now if u wanna catch craaps u have to fish the baitfish. We were able to find two nice spots with the right combination of cover and forage. We added the right presentation and ended up with a good little mess.

I fished a drop shot while my brother casted a 1/16 oz jig. He switched over to a Thill Pro Series slip float with a minnow right before dark with good success. Bobby Garland Mo Glo Scent Wig'lers have been amazing. Very good product for winter fishing.

All the females were full of eggs with bellys packed full of minnows. The fish we have caught this winter have been the healthiest we have seen come from Tville. I'm really excited about the upcoming spring fishing. The size and quality of fish shld be excellent.

I have to say with the exception of the wind, yesterday is as good as it will get for January. I had a really good time with my brother and finding the fish is as rewarding as it always is. Feeling that thump never gets old!

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Nice mess there. I'm getting my new troller I've been saving a year for this week. I'm gonna want to get out the next time the weather cooperates. Were you on visible cover?This winter pattern you speak of,do tell!!! Seriously only what your comfortable sharing. I haven't been on the water since early December and I'm pretty sure they aren't in the same place.

For us the pattern has been consistent from fall all the way till this last snow and cold spell. There was still plenty of baitfish to go around so all the fish didn't have to move location much. Add to that the milder winter up till last week and the fish still stayed in the fall-like pattern. Pretty much all my spots held fish. I could go to most of them and end up with a limit in a days time.

This cold spell and snow hit last week and dropped the water temp enough that the baitfish started to die off. We saw plenty of floating forage while we tried to spider rig in the 20 mph wind. Every school we passed over would have a couple baitfish floating on top of the water. But we didn't stay with it long enough to amount to anything on account of the wind.

Learning to use your electronics is a must. I rely on my Lowrance HDS-7 Gen 2 Touch heavily to find the right amount of cover and forage. We found one spot right off the bat that held baitfish and 7 craaps, with 3 being keepers. After that we spent most of the day scanning trying to find baitfish with little success. All my winter spots were void of forage with only Dinks holding to the cover. We did find one channel that held some suspended fish around some baitfish but the wind made it impossible to hold position. Winter time is about fishing as SLOW AS POSSIBLE. And with the wind I couldn't keep the boat still.

It's also about having the grit to stay most of the day. Winter time fish don't feed all day long so you have to be there when they do decide to bite. We went for a while without any success but I had to stay focused and keep telling myself the next spot will be "the one". The wind calmed down nicely around 4 o'clock and we were about to leave. We were up the lake pretty far from the boat ramp but I told my brother we needed to try one more spot. We got to the spot at about 4:30 and noticed pretty fast it was holding a wad of baitfish about the size of our boat right in the creek channel .The wind was dead calm by then and low light was upon us. I could sneak up on our spots with the trolling motor and hold my drop shot nice and still.

That last spot turned a mediocre day into a nice day for January fishing. By not giving up we finally found some good fish. All 10 keepers were 10"-11 1/2" and extremely healthy, again because of the better than average forage until now. With the drop in baitfish from now till spring, finding fish will be increasingly harder. The fish follow their forage because it is getting harder and harder to find and they want to expend as little energy as possible eating it.

With all this being said, in my experience, the "winter pattern" is all about finding the baitfish. If you can find the baitfish around the right cover there will be craaps nearby .You have to fish the area around the baitfish thoroughly to find where the fish are holding. It might be around stick ups. It might be in the channel. It might be on a mid bay bump or ditch. This time it was unexpected. The cover they were holding to was in about 10 ft of water, all because dinner was nearby. The area might be different but the fish will be close to forage. You just can't give up till you find the sweet spot they are holding around.
Hope this helps.

Baitfish+Cover+Grit=Wintertime Craaps

Thanks Bubba,I appreciate you taking time to post this.

Well, Kywareagle and I went out today. We spent the first couple hours runnin around Taylorsville tryin to find minners. Everywhere was out of em except salt River supply and he didn't open up till 830. We took every minner he had which was about 2 dozen live ones and two dozen dead ones. We were spider riggin all day in various depths. Right off the bat we found some fish on brush in bout 16 ft of water suspended round 12 ft deep. Caught 3 decent 10 1/2 - 11 inch keepers real quick, then nothing. We searched for bait fish all day in depths from 30 to 10 ft. Finally found some warmer, better colored water and it was loaded with shad. Fished the area for a couple ours without a bite. The coldest water we found was down toward chowning (40 degrees) and the warmest was around settlers (44 degrees). It wasn't a total bust, this was the first time out with our new HDS 12 and spyder loc rod holders, both of which we were very impressed with.

Also, all three fish were caught on straight minnows.

Hey Crappiehabits, is your 83/200 sonar transducer mounted in the hull or in the water on the transom?

Transom.

Oh and chad forgot to mention..... you know how you go out early spring and you have a little extra confidence in fishin the open water cause you know the lake will be clear of lice and HUGE wake producing boats and habits? That'd be a big negative ghost rider for Feb 20 2016. Yes that's right. 2 grown men wake boarding in 42 degree water makin 4 ft rollers. Just drivin back and forth and back and forth. HA. Never would've guessed it.

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Originally Posted by Kywareagle

Oh and chad forgot to mention..... you know how you go out early spring and you have a little extra confidence in fishin the open water cause you know the lake will be clear of lice and HUGE wake producing boats and habits? That'd be a big negative ghost rider for Feb 20 2016. Yes that's right. 2 grown men wake boarding in 42 degree water makin 4 ft rollers. Just drivin back and forth and back and forth. HA. Never would've guessed it.

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I used to know a guy that'd put on a wet suit cover all exposed areas with Vaseline and fill his insides with hooch and go water skiing on Jan 1st every year, ice or no. CRAZY

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Originally Posted by wannabe fisherman

I used to know a guy that'd put on a wet suit cover all exposed areas with Vaseline and fill his insides with hooch and go water skiing on Jan 1st every year, ice or no. CRAZY

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Wow. that's one crazy dude.

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Originally Posted by chaunc

Wow. that's one crazy dude.

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yeah I remember 1 year they had to clear the ice on the ramp to get the boat in the water. Did I mention that he did this on the MIGHTY OHIO on top of it

My dad and I went to tville yesterday (3-5-16). I wanted to get out and work on my sonar network and do a bunch of scanning. The weather man I saw forecasted 20% chance of rain in the morning hours but it was more like 80%. We got rained on pretty good twice. Water was at winter pool and 43-44 deg. All areas were about like weak choc milk in color.

We bought a new HDS-9 for the console and moved the HDS-7 up front with my Elite-7. The HDS-9 and HDS-7 are linked together thru Ethernet with a Point-1 GPS antenna tied into the NMEA 2000 Network. The Elite-7 is stand alone on the trolling motor. My new transducer install worked out great. I'm very pleased with the accuracy of the GPS and the clarity of the sonars.

Attachment 231182

We spent the majority of our time scanning but I did manage to fish two of my spots for about a half an hour. I hooked a nice craap right off the bat but lost it. Then after that I just managed a lot of light bites. Baitfish were nowhere to be found. I did scan over a great brush pile with what looked like several nicer fish but I wasn't able to actually fish there. We left at about 12 o'clock.

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On the way out the road to the boat ramp I think we passed CappieHabits and KyWarEagle. Hope u guys did good in the afternoon. It was much more pleasant than the morning hours.

Yep, that was our boat but it was actually me and "cox" goin to try em out. We only only had a few hours to fish. The fishin was rough on us. I messed up by stayin in the wrong spot to long which is my (crappiest habit). When I finally made the choice to move we were bout outta time. The water had better color in the second spot and was a little warmer 44.9 degrees. Marked some fish on brush in 14-16 ft water. Fished that spot about 20 min or so and Caught two shorts pretty
quick and missed several
short strikes. By then we had to go.

We caught 13 keepers today spider rigging gigs tired with crappie nibble. Water was 44.5 when we put in. Still a little dirty but very fishable. Best bite was between 9:30-12:30

Attachment 231193

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Originally Posted by Ricky83

We caught 13 keepers today spider rigging gigs tired with crappie nibble. Water was 44.5 when we put in. Still a little dirty but very fishable. Best bite was between 9:30-12:30

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Good deal! [emoji106]. Were they relating to anything particular?

We stayed close to standing timber.

Went to Taylorsville yesterday 3/9 water temps 45 to 47 range, water stained, caught 11 with 4 being keepers all on minnows holding tight to standing timber. Met some nice fellows on the ramp when we came back in, that were crappie.com members.