Lake Lavon Fishing Guide Report

[tarponfly]

Lake Lavon Report: been super busy and to tired to post anywhere. So here goes the Lavon Report for the last 3-4 weeks. The wind has been absolutely terrible. When it's not to windy, under 12 mph, limits of the tasty fish r being taken. And to add to that, the crappie have grown enormous. 15-16 inchers are actually very common. We came .08 ounces from beating the lake record last week. One shad away, lol. I'm sure this year the record or a couple of them have been eaten. There is still a couple weeks left to catch a female full of eggs that weighs 3 lbs. I know she is out there ......






Gear: 10 ft & 12 ft Bass Pro Shops CrappieMax rods and Pro Angler rods.
Spinning reels with 8 lb mono

Jigs: Black Chart / White Chart - Thump Buddy's by lightsouttackle.com
Using hand poured 1/32 & 1/16 th oz pink jig heads

Fishing Areas: Rip Rap ( rocks ), standing timber, brush piles, submerged boat ramps, sandy coves or along the sandy beaches.



Rip Rap: vertical fish 1-5 ft of water up in the rocks and fish slow covering every nook and cranny. Make sure your jig is off the bottom about 6 inches or so. Also jig and bobber on 4 lb line is deadly and u can cover lots of water a lot faster. Small twitches is all that's needed and sometimes just casting and letting it sit, will entice a strike. I start with the bobber 6 inches deep and cover the rocks in 1 ft of water. Then I make the bobber 1.5 deep. I keep making it deeper till I hit 5 ft. Then I move to the next spot 40 yards down the rocks. Some days you won't have to move and you can limit out your 25 crappie per day.



Standing Timber: work your jig 1/2 foot off the bottom next to the standing timber and hold it still as possible. Work the entire water column on the piece of timber your working. Sometimes they will be a ft down in 15 ft of water hugging the timber waiting for the shad to come by. The shad are spawning everywhere in the mornings so the crappie are 1-2 ft till 7:30-8 am. As the sun comes up, the fish that are not spawning, move out to deeper water. I try to start the foot down on the standing timber, before I send the gym to the bottom. So try to work the upper water column first before you start yanking fish from the bottom through the school that's higher up.

Brush Piles: find brush piles in any depth right now and there should be a fish in it. I have been focused on 5-15 ft of water while targeting fish in the brush piles. Somedays they are hanging out around the piles and sometimes they r deep inside of them. Make sure you have a lot of jigs on board. If your not getting snagged, your not crappie fishing.

I fish the top part of the piles and then move to the outsides of the pile before dropping directly into the pile.

Submerged Boat Ramps: Lake Lavon is dotted with submerged boat ramps. When you find them, I like to fish them with the jigging bobber, no bobber just a Jig, and then I will vertical fish it. Crappie and bass are spawning on the merged boat ramps right now. Only way you can really find them is with side imaging. After you find them figure out where the end of the boat ramp is and start from there. You want to work your way up towards the beach.



Sandy Coves & Beaches: The sand is hard enough surface for the Crappie to fan out of bed and lay their eggs. Best way to approach these: is a jig bobber covering water from 1 foot 4 foot. Cast to the beach and work your jig and bobber back to the boat. I prefer to use 4 pound line with a 7 foot rod with the spinning reel. Medium action on the rod. Remember you have to adjust the depth a lot till you find out if they are in a pattern or not.

Tire Reef: Fish live minnows or checks going to six-foot down. They will actually spawn inside the tire so always start out 3 inches deep. Then go deeper as the day gets brighter. They will spawn on the sides of the tires and on the cables that old tires together. You're just looking for hard surfaces during the spawn. I can't Spohn in silt otherwise the eggs won't hatch and they know that.

Live minnows are obviously golden. But if you can throw a net, a 2-3 inch live thread in shad or same sized gizzard shad, with smash the crappie. They can not resist a live shad if they are near it. Minnows on a size 6 bait hook with a small split shot to keep them now at the depth you want it to stay. I use pegged bobbers. When pegging them in, tap it. Don't mash it in there or you kink the line.

If you look at your line and see a kink or fray, cut it off and re tie. The next fish could be the big one and when u go to sling it in the boat, your line snaps and you instantly say a curse word as you see your fish slip back into the drink.



Have fun out there guys. The lake is 12 feet low. Lots of timber underneath the water hiding. Swingway out from points to avoid beaching your boat. Be safe make sure you have your PFDs at all times,

-Carey Thorn

[tarponfly]

Monday Report:

Did everything in my report from yesterday and had an epic day again. After my client limited, I joined in for some fun. We landed 150+ keeper crappie from 7:10 am till 10 am ish. This trip my guy limited by 815. Everywhere we went to we hooked into fish. 9 am we were releasing 14-15's.

[chucktx]

one of the best posts I have seen in a long time!!!!!! great pics also! thanks for the post, and sharing of info!!!

[kickingback]

Excellent report and pictures to boot!!! I got to get to lake Levon sometime and catch those really big ones!!! Way to go Tarponfly!!!

[TurboDan]

With reports like that, kinda wishin' I still lived in Dallas(Plano) area.

-danny

[usafret99]

Dang, that first pic looks like a couple four pounders.

[tarponfly]

6:17 am left ramp.
7:11 am limit.



So much for a 4-6 mph wind. Picked up to 15-18 mph out of the north.

Used pink/chart Thump Buddies. If the crappie are there, it doesn't matter what u put down there color wise. Minnows not needed. I sent one down on a stump and no bite. Sent jig down and got slammed. Minnows suck right now. Tires, piles, rocks. Everything produced today. Deepest I fished was 18 on a submerged road bed. Fish were scattered around on the concrete flat part and not on the rocky sides. But they were not spawning. No bait around. Just hanging out. Tried fishing with two poles, but as soon as it got to 17 1/2 ft we got wacked.

I went looking for the Sandbass school, and they r still hiding somewhere.

Round 2 in a couple hours.

[tarponfly]

Wind didn't die down till 30 mins before dark. My client took the afternoon off from work,'so we went out anyways. Tough battling waves sometimes. Put a major current in the timber and fish just didn't want to eat. Weatherman was way wrong today. Suppose to be 4 mph all day.

West wind tomorrow. Should be really good.

Tires, timber and brush 16 ft or shallower. Even got one in 1 ft. Not many spawning males today. So I'm sure the wind and front pushed them back a bit. Black and chart thump buddy's was the color of the day. White and chart worked better in the am.

[tarponfly]

Same thing. Different day.








On the tailgate, those fish in the back are 11 and 12 inchers. The rest of the fish were 14 to 16 inches on average to put it into perspective

[tarponfly]

Slower on the PM trip. North wind kicked up a bit. Suppose to be out of the west. Still got them though. 3-17 ft was main focus. Fish still spawning. Females starting to empty of eggs and not super fat anymore.