Sparkly black jig, I love you for night fishing...

[Shoemoo]

Because the fish can't get enough of you.



Went to my favorite spring crappie spot last night. Only fished one color all night long. Came home with 25, but probably caught 100+ fish. Threw back or gave away everything smaller than 11". Biggest fish was 15" and most of these are over 13". That's a bathtub and not a cooler, BTW.

I love spring crappie fishing.

 

[Kdog]

Awesome! Crappies in the Bathtub. I would not even be allowed to sleep in the doghouse if I did that.

 

[Jig Man]

Crappie on an ironing board and in the bathtub... Hummmm washing machines next... Nice ones shoe.

 

[CrappieHappy]

nice work...

 

[Shoemoo]

I'm single and my new apartment has two bathrooms, so I used the spare. Didn't have any ice and didn't want to clean fish when I got home at 5:30 AM, so I had to wash the dirt off them before I put them in the fridge.

I ache all over, but it was worth it.

 

[plateboater]

Good fishing....

 

[Fatman]

Great catch!!!!!!!!

 

[Pup]

Simply spectacular crappie fishing for your latitude. At a glance, those look like white crappie to me. Would have to count dorsal spines to tell for sure. Did you fish a reservoir or a river perhaps?

The size of your fish is incredible. Way to go.

 

[Shoemoo]

I was fishing a large reservoir on the Snake River. This reservoir is at the confluence of two rivers and is basically shaped like a huge V. The southern part is a big flat basin about 15' deep, except where the old riverbed was. It squeezes through a narrow canyon about 45 feet deep before joining the main reservoir. The spot I was fishing is a 150' canal on the south side of the basin part. It's about 6' deep and leads to an area about an acre in size where people at the nearby campground park their boats. The canal and boat slip area is protected by a set of jetties with an opening only about 50' wide. The limited water exchange and shallow depth makes it one of the places that warm up fastest in spring. It's a popular spot for both fish and anglers. The crappies spend the winter in the canyon where it's protected from the wind and then migrate up the old riverbed as the water warms in the spring.

I've fished it several times already this year and had some luck, but most of the fish were small. Last week I caught 20 or so around 8"-9". Last night was the first time the big boys showed up. I arrived just before dark and there was activity everywhere. Tons of minnows swimming around, lots of smaller crappies starting to stake out nests and a few larger bass checking things out. Quite the switch from just a few days ago when the whole place looked deserted. Like a lot of places in the west we had a really mild winter and early spring. The crappie are about a month ahead of schedule. Those males are in for a frustrating wait, because none of the females I've been catching have fully developed eggs. Funny thing is the crappies just aren't biting during the day. Show up before dusk and you might as well be fishing in your living room. But as soon as the sunlight fades, they put on the feedbag.

Obviously both species are present in the reservoir, but normally blacks predominate. Last night I caught about even numbers of whites and blacks overall, and the biggest one was a black. All of the really big ones I've caught in this reservoir have been blacks. Which is nice because blacks are stockier so when they get big a black will weigh more than a white of equal size. Last night was an oddball because most of the bigger ones I was catching were whites. The black crappie population recently went through a boom/bust cycle that didn't seem to affect the whites. Last spring you could get 100 blacks and maybe have 10 over 8" long. Maybe the black population crash left more available food for the existing whites to grow bigger? Perhaps the scads of small blacks can't eat the same foods as the adult whites until they get to a certain size?

 

[AllenOK]

I've read somewhere that when you have both species of Crappie in a lake, there will eventually be more White Crappies than Black Crappies. Can't remember why.

I know my home lake is horribly over-populated with lots and lots of stunted White Crappie. Most are around 6" long, and those are 4-year-old fish. I can count the number of 12" White Crappie that I've seen come out of that lake on one hand, and I'll have fingers left over. I finally managed to catch a couple Black Crappie out of this lake a couple years ago.

 

[Fatman]

Talk to your Fish and Wildlife people and see if they can put a special reg out to allow more keeping to thin them out. I know it's a pain cleaning smaller fish but a bunch still make a great meal.

 

[Shoemoo]

I think the white crappies taking over depends on latitude and water conditions. Both species have existed in this reservoir since it was created in the '50s. If white crappies were going to take over, I think it would have happened by now.

 

[AllenOK]

Honestly, I wouldn't mind catching a limit of those stunted things (Statewide limit here in OK is 37 combine White and/or Black Crappie / person / day) home, scaling them, cut off the head, clean out the guts, bread and fry them. Unfortunately, SWMBO insists on fillets.

This particular lake is a "city lake", owned and operated by the town I live in for drinking water. NO SWIMMING. They do allow boating and fishing, but you have to buy the yearly permit, $10/year. That's on top of the State fishing license. There is a bait shop on the lake, with the person running that reporting to City Parks. I know him, been fishing out there for years. He would LOVE for each and every person that comes out there to take home a limit to use for "whatever". I hear fish makes great fertilizer for gardens

Speaking of which, I need to go up there and renew my fishing permit. It expires Saturday......

 

[AtticaFish]

Outstanding haul for the evening. Need to get out and find something in my waters like that. Still in pre-spawn here and out of my casting reach for most of the little upground reservoirs around me. Wife would hang me if i had them in the bathtub..... for ANY reason. haha.



Dinkers make GREAT FREAKIN fertilizer. So do sheephead (freshwater drum - gaspergoo) big and small. Trust me. Not only trust me, but that was simply how you grow things way back before us americans ran off the natives. Has no one here watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special????? Geesh.

 

[StumpHunter]

Very nice catch. Our lakes have both white and blacks and neither one is over taking the lakes. If I was to guess the black crappie would be more populated than the whites.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Geez Shoe, that rivals the big hoopla down south reservoirs! Noticed you didn't name the res - hope it doesn't get fished out like my (former) CO honey holes. The late evening bite could keep the pressure off too.

Are you fishing from shore? In the canal or basin?

 

[Shoemoo]

I was bank yanking. The reservoir is about 7,500 acres and most is narrow canyons, so it covers a LOT of area. The biggest fish I caught in the canal, but all of the other big ones came from the very end of the boat slip area. The shoreline in the canal and boat slip area is made from riprap, so it drops off very quickly. The fish roam around close to the bank looking for minnows that dart in and out of the rocks. I went back the next night and caught 15 more big ones before the wind came up and put an end to the fishing. We've had a cold front over the last 2-3 days with windy conditions, so I haven't tried since. It's supposed to warm up to the high 70s by the middle of the week, so I'll be hitting it again for sure.