Newbie with a question and photo

[CloneFan4]

Hey ya'll,

I finally decided to join the forum. I absolutely love crappie fishing and what better place to talk about crappie fishing than crappie.com. Also ya'll seem very polite. I'm apart of other forums and I haven't seen a more courteous crowd than you. Now on to my question(s).

My dad, grandpa, brother and I all go on a annual crappie fishing trip. The past three years we've been going to Truman and have hammered them there. The first year we kept 106 and probably caught 250 in two days work. The second year we kept 75 and probably caught 150. The third year we kept 50 and caught around 100. All the fish were over 10". The last year we caught terrible weather. Thunderstorms every day and cold as heck. We didnt see sunlight the whole trip. Well this year we decided to go to Lake Rathbun here in southern Iowa. We only caught 8 keepers and probably caught 50 crappie. They were spawning the three weekdays before we got there. A terrible front moved in (same weekend as the Joplin tornado) and we had a heck of a time finding them. I dont know if any of you have fished Rathbun but the pool was at a normal level and there seemed to be very little structure. Crappie cove is where we caught the 8. My question to you all is what do you normally do when a cold front rolls in with rain?

Heres a pic of the 15 incher I caught:

[omegapd]

Glad to have you here and good looking fish! I'll let the more knowledgeable crappie folks help you out with your questions.

[jigflinger]

Welcome to the Forum CloneFan4. Great picture. You are fortunate to be able to fish with your whole family. Enjoy it every chance you get, my friend. It don't get any better than that. Again, welcome.

[CloneFan4]

Welcome to the Forum CloneFan4. Great picture. You are fortunate to be able to fish with your whole family. Enjoy it every chance you get, my friend. It don't get any better than that. Again, welcome.

I am very fortunate. Even weeks after the trips all we talk about is the fishing trip. Unfortunatly we don't do much crappie fishing other than the trip. There's a couple of farm ponds that we fish but we mainly fish Walleye. There's not many spots here in Iowa worthy of fishing for crappie.

[shipahoy41]

Welcome from Alabama. To answer your question I used to just put on a rain suit and find a nice cove. I might fish a little deeper till I found where the crappies hunkered down. Now at age 65 I tend to still do the same if I am out on the bank fishing.

[CloneFan4]

Welcome from Alabama. To answer your question I used to just put on a rain suit and find a nice cove. I might fish a little deeper till I found where the crappies hunkered down. Now at age 65 I tend to still do the same if I am out on the bank fishing.

That's what we did. We vertical jigged southern pro 2" hot grubs and some tubes tipped with minnows. We tried from 2 fow-20 fow and it still didnt make much of a difference. Tried stumps (best luck we had), points, dropoffs and much more. We would have fished more timber but there was only one cove in the whole lake that had standing stumps. I know that's hard to believe but we fished the whole lake and only found that one cove with timber. Didn't know if ya'll fished with different lures or what when fronts come in.

[Quicksilver1958]

I fished Rathbun in the early 90's when I was chasing the tournaments. You have a PM.

[Eager Beaver]

Welcome to CDC CloneFan4 from the better State to the West of ya. hehe Couldn't resist! I put a 1/16 Red Road Runner head on with a White bubble belly tail. Slow down and they jump on um. You can either jig it or cast it. I use this after a front moves through or in the rain. EB

[RBeav]

Welcome fellow Iowa fisherman. There are some good lakes in Iowa if you know where to look. pm me and ill fill you in.

[CloneFan4]

Thanks ya'll. You guys are awesome.