Let's Talk..........Crappie

[crappie247]

Has anyone gone out? Whats new in your area? Gear bought anything cool? Open to all to talk. Lets get people talking in here again.

[fish_4_all]

Only report I heard was from Duck Lake in Grays Harbor and the crappie were small and few and far between. Still in deep water and not moving anytime soon.

As for gear, nothing new bought but have more jigs and a larger variety of jigs than I ever thought of having since joining CC. Will be definitely trying a lot of them out once we get some warm weather and the fish start moving.

[sharpshooter223]

it hasnt been the greatest spring so far for fishing for warm water fish.

[SMITTY 58D]

Fish 4 all how is my home town of Aberdeen doing? We used to catch them out at duck lake too. A big fish there when i fished it was like 7 inches. We used to catch alot of nice Rainbows outta there thou.

[fish_4_all]

It sucks out here right now. Getting down to the last one to leave needs to turn off the lights.

As for Duck Lake, too cold and still muddy/mucky. There is a size limit on crappie of 10 inches now and I guess it has produced some real slabs out of there. I have seen a couple that were 14 inches or over. Trout fishing should be good right now as they just planted 3000 or so in there a couple weeks ago.

[Kokanee King]

well here is what is up with duck...you may want to sit down...
starting in 07 the city of ocean shores has put a pesticide in the lake to try and controll the weed groth. in turn it has devistaded the fishery... I useed to go down the first week of march every ear to fish for bass and crappie and even in the worst conditions i would produce fish (it's the lake not me) well i went down the second week of 08 and in the past would catch 2 to 4 bass a day plus many many crappie well on this trip i caught 3 crappie and had one bass follow in three days of near perfect conditions i have not fished the lake since. and have heard horror stories about the lake. this year it seems that the crappie may be on the bite but i assure you no where near what it used to be there were days where you could catch well over a hundred crappie in a few hours it may be awhile before we can do that again...

[fish_4_all]

Last year about Mid August a neighbor of my dads went out here and simply slaughtered them. 17 keeper crappie, 30 gills and 4 keeper bass. Didn't even count the perch.

Fishing last year sucked period until Late July early august. Trout fishing was horrid. If they didn't all die there should be a hold over of 20-30,000 rainbows in the lakes in Grays Harbor. I talked to one of the hatchery guys and they took a sample out at Failor lake. Normally they get 3-5 fish in November in the population checks per check point. He said they were getting 30-40 per checkpoint with most of the fish being plant size from earlier in the year.

The weather pattern messed up the fishing here. I do know that the guy in charge of Duck Lake said the fish were lethargic from the herbicide but recovered in 2-3 weeks after the vegetation decayed enough and the water cleared up. I think it should be a nice fishery this year and next year should be a catch fest. I could be wrong but the last word was 50-250,000 bass and crappie planted sometime this year in the catchable range and spawning ranges so things could be a lot better than one might expect. If they actually plant the fish.

[SMITTY 58D]

Wow a 10 inch limit. do they grow that big there? when I fished it back in the 90's We were catching them alot smaller than that. I remember they were so small and we wanted to eat some so bad we had to find smaller fillet knives to clean them. The trout fishing was awesome thou.

[Kokanee King]

THAT IS FANTASTIC I AM SOOO HAPPY TO HEAR THAT!
I might have to head down there soon.....:D

[fish_4_all]

The reports I get now is that the crappie are biting so I am getting ready to go out. Gonna either be bank trip or a flat tube trip as I have no one to go with but I have to go soon or I am gonna go nuts.

I have "heard" that there have been 100+ caught with 17 keepers. A few gills are hitting and there are some huge triploids in there that were planted. Some over 5 pounds. This weather will turn the fish on quickly and I think next weekend, maybe Easter will be really hot. Might have to take the kids fishing Easter Sunday after the egg hunt in the morning.