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Gents, looking to head to JOHN REDMOND in the next few days. I have never fished the lake and would really love to put my buddy on fish considering I planned his bachelor party at waconda and that looks like its going to back fire with the weather! Pending the weather reports stay the same for Waconda I will be fishing JR any help would be greatly appreciated!
duckman,
I can't offer any personal experience and myself new to the crappie hunting but I'm interested how the crappie fishing might differ in this lake being shallow.
I assume you have done your homework on the fishing reports and looking at a few maps online.
I think water temp and clarity will play a big role. Probably fish rocks/rip rap first from shallow to deep. Close to dam as the reports suggest. Then maybe look for deep weed beds. Either way I'd be lookining in the range of 4 fow.
Most if my knowledge has came from CDC. So I am interested in others input and hopefully some personal experience.
Will be looking for a report if you make it out!
Good luck. I think you'll do pretty good myself.
A friend and I went to JR around 2 to 3 weeks ago, we searched every where we dare, a whole lot of 3ft water, go easy. In my opinion I would concentrate on the dam, as it is some of the deeper water we found, and it was only 4 to 7 ft in places just 10 to 20 yards out from the rocks. I am guessing once the spawn hits heavy, this is the place to be. We kind of decided that bank fishing would be the way to go during the spawn. We never really seen any shad balls or fish to speak of and we were using down and side scan technology. Not a single bite but was a learning experience. Good Luck, hope this will help. DK
John Redmond is shallow and muddy. You're gonna be hard pressed to find many crappie in there. It doesn't have near the number of crappie as other lakes nearby. There's more catfish to be had than anything else. Despite what you read on the Kansas website about it ranking high for crappies, it is a tough lake to fish because it is so muddy and shallow with little to no structure and the crappie numbers just isn't there. You'll be better off at Pomona or Perry, much better water clarity and much better numbers of good sized crappie.
I agree with cy912
Fished Redmond this morning caught three crappie and about one hundred white bass off the dam. White bass were every where big fish also. So if you want to have some fun catching white bass that is the place to go. We were pitching road runners with wht/chart tube jig.
Crappie reports for John Redmond being good aren't from the main lake... 95% of the lake is less than 6 ft deep. There are no submerged weed beds unless the lake is up and floods into some willows/smartweed.
Looked like 200 people fishing the dam yesterday.
There were a number of boats at the otter creek mud ramp yesterday pm. Now that it has rained would not be usable to a normal person. Might try eagle creek South of Hartford.Quote:
Originally Posted by zummy
Lots of white bass on the dam Zummy
I fished the river Thursday. Never caught any but saw 4 caught in the hour I fished. Elbow to Elbow on the dam isn't my thing. Were you in the boat fishing the rock point just south of the dam?
BD we fished eagle creek two weeks ago, watch your trailer getting high centered on the rocks at the boat ramp. Also the entire fishable length is very short with all of 2 to 3 foot of water at the most. We had not even a bite on crappie or whites.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackdog40
I was but it was Friday the day I was there. Not many fishing off dam then.
Yes been there done that but sometimes it can be awesome just have to catch it right. Which I never do.
Sorry fellas life happened and never came back with an update. We absolutely killed the whites that weekend off the dam. They were catching crappie (painfully slow) on the north side of the dam by the trees. Dad ended up coming out with the boat but we ultimately fished from shore. Closed the weekend with one crappie and cleaned 200 whites between 8 of us. People were also catching crappie in the river, all very small. Technique for crappie was black and chartreuse under a bobber at 2-3 foot super slow. Sorry for the late update just got caught up in the wedding!
Those are some good sized whites. We were there a few days after you guys and they weren't biting as good. Guess they started running water out the dam and so that slowed down the bite plus the weather got much cooler when we went.Quote:
Originally Posted by duckman_2009