So....Anybody Hammered Em

...in the shallows yet? From all the pictures and reports it's like everybody is STILL catching 'em deeper (15' of water or more). What's going on with the spawn? Have they moved in? Are they laying yet?

I’ve noticed that too. I feel like from most of my research in the area they would be in post spawn by next month. It doesn’t help that it’s going to get in the 30s tonight. That will probably have them messed up for another week.

Earlier in the week, the hill water temp was from 59 in the morning to 64 in the afternoon. Most of the fish that i caught were staged on a flat near spawning grounds. 1/32 jigs and small black and chartreuse jigs were the winning hand. Kept 14 and rest were throwbacks. Trolling speed varied from .9 to 1.2 depending on the wind. Just about all were females and full of eggs. Keepers varied in size from 10 to 11 1/2 inches.
Most of russell had similar results with 62 topping out, for water temp, this week also.

Been catching blacks shallow for the last month and a half. That bite slowed this weekend, so we went deep. Killed the white crappie staging up on brush in 20 plus feet of water.

It was tough sledding on Murray yesterday in the rain. I started out tightlining in the backwaters and zeroed. Swapped over to jigging about 9:30 and fished a little bit of everything from shallow to deep. Never caught a fish shallow but managed 7 to make a mess from 10-15 FOW. Most were females that were laid out.


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I have been catching some good stringers and limited out on April 3rd, I fished the 2nd and 5th as well and kept 12 and 13 respectively but I took someone with me on the 6th and we fished from 2 to 5pm and couldn't buy a Crappie bite. We did find some really nice shellcrackers at the end of the trip and kept 7 nice ones. Everything has been caught on 1/32oz. jig fished real slow in/around docks, laydowns and brush. The pictures begin on the 2nd, the 3rd was a limit day but a bad picture because I gave the fish to a friend on the water, 5th is with my lab and the shellcrackers on the 6th. Dang, forgot to mention that most came from 2 to 4 feet of water and I am on Murray.

I fished Murray Thursday with an old friend. We pulled 1/16 oz jigs from 391 bridge to bush river and only caught 2 crappie. I am going to try shallower this week

Butch, it varies from lake to lake. From what I've heard on Oconee everybody is catching them real shallow and I have already caught some fish on that lake that was spawned out and I don't like catching fish on the bed.
I changed lakes knowing it doesn't warm up near as fast as Oconee and caught them out in deep water.

Thursday on the Hill some shallow some in 13 to 25 feet all had eggs and none looked ready

Slammed them yesterday in the grass casting jigs. Out of 40 fish had about 7 white crappie.

Thanks for your reports guys. I'm off work again beginning next Wednesday so with your help (info) I think I have a few starting places in mind. It's gonna feel good getting to fish again after such a long, dry spell.:) Thanks again guys.

Butch,

Wednesday should be the second day of 70's after these two days of 50's (today and tomorrow). Maybe we are finally getting some stable weather. 3-5 days of 70's should have fish shallow all over the Hill.

It's been VERY inconsistent for me, with surprisingly difficult trips for crappie in the old standby locations. My last three trips on the Hill were poor for crappie but outstanding for hybrids. I expect much better fishing this week!

I had an overall pretty good week of fishing last week on the Hill. Did not catch a limit any day, but had some excellent quality with one 17 incher that was fat and full of eggs. No scale to see what she weighed. The hybrid were a challenge but fun with one about 7 lbs and quite a few at about 3 lbs. Lots of little ones also that created a mess long lining. Most I caught were females and still had eggs but I did catch some shallow in about 2 to 5 ft of water. Most were caught long lining in about 10 to 15 feet of water.