Wappapello today

Fished from 7:00 am till 3:00 pm...mostly pushed jigs but did cast to the gravel early. Caught AT LEAST 200 crappie and had ZERO over 9" !!!!
Fished Asher,Mill,Possum,Lost and every where in between.
It's damn pitiful!!
Fished it Monday with about the same result...except the tiny males were on the bank then and did have a whole 6 keepers.
IMO....this 9" limits has really hurt this fishery.
8-10 years ago probably 1 outa every 5-6 fish were over 9". It sucks cause Im now living 15 minutes from the lake !!

Grrrrrrr,

Pirogue

pirogue i've been fishing wap for only bout the last 3-4 yrs. (mostly spider rig) when i first started down there i had the same problem would catch 100 or more a day and have hardly any keepers. ive been catching some good fish since mid february lots of 3/4 to 1lb fish and some close to 1.5 lbs. its been the best yr ive had down there. i felt like its getting better or maybe ive just found what works for me. keep at it and good luck. pm me anytime if u wanna compare notes. im pretty much only on here at work which is at night and im off all next wk to hunt/fish. ill try and remember to check in tho

also im planning to go sunday w my gf ill try and report back. if u ever see a guy in a 16' alumacraft with 25hp mercury spider rigging its prob me usually fish around asher/possum area

I can tell you I agree with pirogue. I have fished it enough in the last 4 years spider rigging to tell a big difference this spring. Last 3 years I had caught several big fish. Seemed like everytime I went out I was bringing home 20 or more. Then some days you would bring home nothing but 9-9.5 inch fish with maybe a couple fish over the 12 inch mark but the numbers stayed the same. This year has been by far the worst year I have ever had on Wappapello. Fished yesterday evening had 1 keeper crappie and one channel cat. Fished Saturday all day had 6 and fished sunday pretty much all day and had 8. I believe it just takes too long for our crappie to reach that 9 inch mark and Wappapello is notorious for having terrible spawns due the fluctuating lake levels.

I don't get it....plenty of feed there...shad flippin every where I go. Unless the last 3 spawns have been total busts,you'd think at least 1 outa 20 would measure!!

Pirogue

back in feb there was a guy spider rigging right through same spot as me wind was drifting us. he was bout 40 yds out n front of me we literally drifted almost the same line i put 5 big fish in the boat and lost 2 more and never saw him set the hook. he got to the end reeled up and moved, i hit it again and put bout another 5 keeps in the boat never catching a short fish. not sure what we was doing so different. ive been on the same pattern everytime and im coming home with anywhere from 10-20 keepers everytime i go. i was there last wk everyone is beating up the banks and shallows and i fished in 10-12fow catching 3keeps to every 1 dink. like i said maybe its just whats worked for me lately. and when i say a keeper im not even thinking bout measuring these fish most are 10-13"

That's just wapp. Runs in cycles. High fishing pressure ,but fertile water and good capacity to produce fish. There are times the bigger crappie make up a small percentage of the total crappie in the Lake. Sometimes the year classes will be separated. You have to change places or techniques to try and increase the size. That lake has always been a year round fishery...people hammer the thing all year. If you are not fishing a lake where the 10" plus fish are 50 to 60 percent of the total then you're gonna catch a lot of dinks in places.

Maybe Ive just lost my touch.....fished the lake religiously from the mid 80s till 2010.
Moved away for a few years and then hit it a few times last spring and now this week.I personally have never seen it like it is for ME now.

P

Hopefully my old summertime pattern will prove better results.
P

Fished wap last Sunday from 7-130 tried up shallow and barely caught a fish. Went back out over some deeper water 10-13ft and ended up w 10 keepers. Size quality was down from previous trips most of these fish were right around 9.5-11". I prob only caught 15-20 fish all day which is pretty rare for wap.

same issues. I think it's safe to say there might be 10 keepers left in asher, sad to see constant biting, I mean every pole slapping the water on the rig, and nothing keeper size, also most of the fish I caught had several hook holes in their mouth, some had Thier paper torn up pretty good, hungry little 5-8" fish biting a 4" crank bait even. literally caught a 5" fish on a 4" crank baits lol!!!

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