Hey Gang, have not been fishing much this year yet. Started Phase II of remodeling our house, what a mess, tour up all the floors and put down new. Needed a break and decided to go bass fishing a bit. Dropped the boat, trolled over to a point by my house and on about my fifth cast got hung up. emoBang Trolled over to it to get it unhung and crappie scattered! emoEek The lake here where I live is very clear. You can sometimes see ten feet deep. Got my chatter bait unhung and started looking around. I could see some really nice crappie cruising around and it dawned on me they had come up to spawn. Wow! Lake Balboa is not known for it's crappie and some have told me there were not any in this lake. emoBigsmile I backed out and got out a couple crappie rods. Used several colors but whites seem to be best. I fished from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. targeting grass patches that were just starting to come back up for the Spring. That was the ticket. emoThumbsup Talk about a blast. I never have sight fished for crappie before. Some were looking for a place to set up house and others seemed to have already started fanning.
This lake is as deep as 80 feet in some areas with lots of old trees deep and a whole bunch of brush piles. These crappie must stay deep most of the year because you cannot find them in the summer. emoScratch Used ultra light rods and reels with 4 lb high viz line. On the end I was using 1/16th oz heads and just shooting the jigs to the grass patches. Working it back with a jumping motions a few would take a swipe at it. Many would not commit but a few did. You could not get too close or they would swim off. Ended up boating 22 crappie, here the limit is 30 so I fell short of a limit but had one nice live well of large crappie. Some were over 2 lbs. Here are a couple pics. I think I lost about 8 that came off. emoAngry Must be out of practice, at least that is my excuse. emoRolleyes Water temp was 55 to 56 degrees and most of the ones I caught were sitting in about 4 to 5 feet. Hope you all are catching some! emoToast Jmax
This lake is as deep as 80 feet in some areas with lots of old trees deep and a whole bunch of brush piles. These crappie must stay deep most of the year because you cannot find them in the summer. emoScratch Used ultra light rods and reels with 4 lb high viz line. On the end I was using 1/16th oz heads and just shooting the jigs to the grass patches. Working it back with a jumping motions a few would take a swipe at it. Many would not commit but a few did. You could not get too close or they would swim off. Ended up boating 22 crappie, here the limit is 30 so I fell short of a limit but had one nice live well of large crappie. Some were over 2 lbs. Here are a couple pics. I think I lost about 8 that came off. emoAngry Must be out of practice, at least that is my excuse. emoRolleyes Water temp was 55 to 56 degrees and most of the ones I caught were sitting in about 4 to 5 feet. Hope you all are catching some! emoToast Jmax
