Horseshoe Report 2-28-09

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03-02-2009, 06:28 PM
ceb

Horseshoe Report 2-28-09

Went over to visit the family in West Memphis this past weekend. Was going to go fishing with LRJoe and Bob, but they backed out due to the gale force winds on Saturday. The women folk were going furniture shopping, so I decided that I'd go ahead and find somewhere to fish. Ended up going down to Pete's old place on Horseshoe, but the wind was blowing so hard I couldn't open my eyes. So I figured that I'd drive on around to Karefree and drift-fish off the northern bank. Took a little while to figure 'em out, but the crappie were 23' deep in the 24' channel. They kept biting better as the day went on, through the rain, sleet, and finally snow. Man, I love fishin' in the snow...:D I had about 2" of snow in the bottom of the boat before I had to head out to my nephew's birthday party...and caught one as I was pulling in the last pole.:( Could have cleaned house if I could have stayed till dark. Ended up with 17 crappie, all at the 12" mark except for a 2.4 lber. Also couldn't keep the cats beat off, and ended up keeping 3 for grilling. Didn't catch a single tater-chip, which is pretty unusual for Horseshoe. And that's the report...

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j1...c/IMG_0327.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j1...c/IMG_0325.jpg

All the crappie were females and full of eggs, and looks like they're ripening...
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j1...c/IMG_0333.jpg

The area that I was fishin'...
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j1.../Horseshoe.jpg

Was going to head a little further south on Sunday morning, but decided that I'd sleep in when I went out and found this...
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j1...c/IMG_0319.jpg
03-02-2009, 06:43 PM
DrJohn

Great catch. That's a lot of bellies full of eggs. Glad you didn't freeze your "nads" in the snow on Sunday!
03-02-2009, 07:14 PM
L.A. stumpjumper

That's a good catch Chris, especially in those conditions. And they call me crazy for fishing in the hail storm on friday, but you got to get'em whenever you get the chance.
03-02-2009, 08:35 PM
hudnut

great catch considering the weather. Who are your relatives in WM? I have lived here all of my life.
03-02-2009, 08:55 PM
ceb

Hah, I get a lot of those..."you dang fool" comments from the family and such. They just don't understand...I'd take a snowin' 30 degree day over a scorchin' 70 degree day anytime...:D
03-02-2009, 11:21 PM
Towrope

Nice catch and great report!
03-02-2009, 11:37 PM
bobberwatcher

Quote:

Originally Posted by ceb

Hah, I get a lot of those..."you dang fool" comments from the family and such. They just don't understand...I'd take a snowin' 30 degree day over a scorchin' 70 degree day anytime...:D

I couldn't agree more!
03-03-2009, 12:38 AM
dedawg1149

nice catch
03-03-2009, 05:04 AM
CrappiePro

Nice fish Ceb! You in a snow storm and LA in a hail storm, Now thats what i call going to battle. I'm going to haft to try that spider rigging sometime. Great pics. CP
03-03-2009, 06:52 PM
LRJoe1

We got up on Sat morning at 5.45am. I called CEB, and said that there was no way we could fish in that wind. We were getting gusts over 30 mph at 5.30am.

I'll be dang if he did not go. I don't know how he held a boat on the lake that day, but he did.
03-03-2009, 07:33 PM
creekslick

Quote:

Originally Posted by ceb

Hah, I get a lot of those..."you dang fool" comments from the family and such. They just don't understand...I'd take a snowin' 30 degree day over a scorchin' 70 degree day anytime...:D

You haven't tried pulling cranks on a pontoon under a bimini top drinking a cool drink yet.:D
03-04-2009, 01:48 PM
MaggiesMaster

Good Catch!! Did you try fishing around the piers at all?
03-04-2009, 06:00 PM
ceb

Quote:

Originally Posted by creekslick

You haven't tried pulling cranks on a pontoon under a bimini top drinking a cool drink yet.:D

Well, you'll just have to show me what I'm missing out on!:cool:

And I didn't get a chance to try the piers. I started out one of my drifts in 9' of water, but didn't mark any fish until I got to 17'. That said, I'd be willing to bet there were some good'uns hanging around the pilings.
03-04-2009, 08:15 PM
duckman74

I tried horseshoe today like ceb was talking about and caught 2 crappie and 1 striper. guess i need someone to teach me how to fish!!
03-04-2009, 09:55 PM
ceb

Quote:

Originally Posted by duckman74

I tried horseshoe today like ceb was talking about and caught 2 crappie and 1 striper. guess i need someone to teach me how to fish!!

Welcome to the site, duckman. Sorry I left out a bit of info that may have been helpful to you today. I was spider-riggin' with 6 poles, drifting with the wind while draggin' a chain. I caught them on rosy red minnows, and also on Slab Buster electric chicken color tipped with a rosy red. Also tried black/chart, blue/chart, and purple/white jigs without much success. I hate it that those crappie didn't cooperate for you today. Hope you have better luck next time, and thanks for giving me the update. It may just be a hit or miss thing right now.
03-05-2009, 10:49 AM
blairarnold

I think Horseshoe is pretty much hit or miss this time of year.
03-05-2009, 09:46 PM
CRAPPIE 123

Horseshoe can be really good to you at times... I've never caught fish being that big on the same day though. The ones we usually are in the 10"-12" inch range Those were nice fish for the shoe.
03-06-2009, 09:29 PM
ceb

Quote:

Originally Posted by CRAPPIE 123

Horseshoe can be really good to you at times... I've never caught fish being that big on the same day though. The ones we usually are in the 10"-12" inch range Those were nice fish for the shoe.

I don't get to fish Horseshoe very often, but I did have a similar experience with nice fish at this same time (first couple weeks of March) a few years ago. They were right on the bottom of the channel, but the lake was low at the time. And trust me, I've caught plenty of 9" fish out of Horseshoe...:D