Thread: Rend vs. Carlyle

I was in the Carlyle Lake area yesterday so I decided to take a look at it as I've never fished there. Boy what a monsterous lake. Ive been around Rend forever and its big...but looking out at Carlyle from the Dam area there is no comparison. So the next question came to my mind...why is Rend such a prolific crappie lake and you never really hear many success stories from Carlyle? I have read that it suffers from a sufficient amount of structure and cover. But why would that be? Guys plant brush in both lakes...and then theres natural stuff that has always been there. Was Carlyle just completely cleared out without any natural cover or structure left for the fish? Im just curious. When I look at those 2 bodies of water at 18000 and 26000 acres each....and only 50 miles apart.....why is one so good and the other one so far behind?

Good question, I was told probably about 5 or 6 years ago they shocked a bunch if fish ot of Rend to put them in Carlye. There population must have been down bad I fished for bass at carlye in the 90's we would catchbasss there just laike rend, alot of flooded willows in the spring early summer so they ought to have a good place to spawn

Carlye has tons of structure you just gotta know where it is....i can go out on the lake and have a limit pretty quick...there is really good crappie fishing in the lake but the prob. is there is so much water to cover to find them that most people dont find the sweet spots before they give up....if you need up to date info on the lake call buddy at lavish bait shop...the old timers are always sitting around the shop BSin so he pretty much knows where they are at and what they are catching them on...but most the time try the Keyesport side of the lake...i got a lake house up on that end and always catch over there in the cove or by the docks

Carlyle used to be a great lake. I dont know what happened. There is a ton of planted cover and some natural cover. I just quit fishing there because of the 10 over 10" limit and all we were catching was 9.75" fish. I found lakes closer to home that I could catch 10" to 12" fish with no limits but mine and a few lakes were I can keep 9.75" if I want to. I keep hopeing to hear a good report from there but I dont hear many. It is a good white bass lake.

maybe there just aint too many ugys on this board from around the carlyle area..i bet you talk to the regulars and they will put it right up there with rend...i fished it in college when i was in edwardsville and did decent, but did more jet skiing than anything out there...might be another sangchris with lips sealed!!

I live less than an hour from Carlyle and have fished there many times over the years. Let me begin by saying the lake holds some good crappie. I have had some good days in Allen Branch and on the open lake, when the wind will let you out there. Peppenhorst holds a lot of fish, too, but getting your boat through the maze of sunken timber (which holds the fish) just below the surface can be difficult and hard on your prop. The same is true of the vast area above the railroad tressels: there are many square miles of sunken timber up there where most guys won't put their boats, but it has to hold crappie.

Here is my two cents worth on why Rend is known as a superior crappie lake, which I think it is, hands down:

One: Rend has a better crappie population, in no small part due to less drastic lake fluctuations during the spawn. I thought I read an article about how the lakes drain differently...Rend gradually and Carlyle way up and then way down. Did anyone else read about this? One way or another, I have seen it with my own eyes. It's no secret to fishermen that the COE is primarily concerned with flood control and not crappie spawning.

Two: Rend is easier to fish in that it has more visible cover (buck brush and fall downs) and the same opportunity to fish sunken timber. Carlyle has very little "visible" cover that average crappie fishermen target. Not much buck brush and very few fall downs. Navigation to and through standing timber can be difficult, so finding the fish at Carlyle is more of a challenge. The easiest target is to find the sunken Christmas trees in Allen Branch.

Three: The WIND. The wind can be bad anywhere, including Rend, but at least there are some options, as there are on Shelbyville, to get out of the wind on that lake. There aren't too many options on Carlyle...the wind can kill your plans to fish on that lake, and if you're not prudent, the winds can kill you on that lake. Carlyle is the "Mother of All Lakes" when it comes to wind. It is a vast open and relatively shallow lake that can get very rough very fast...That doesn't help make for a good reputation as an outstanding crappie fishery. There is a lot of slow trolling done there for white bass, which might be a good way to fish for the cropps, but it is difficult on many if not most days to hold your boat over structure on the main lake.

Four: 10&10 Creel limit - Not many lakes are going to become known as crappie havens with a 10 and 10 creel limit. Crappie fishermen usually are looking to fill a cooler with fillets when they drive to a lake. I guess you can always take someone with you to help with this, but...

For all these reasons and more, I'd rather drive another hour and fish Rend...or just about anywhere else so I don't have to worry about the wind.

Just my humble opinion .

CR

I agree witt the wind problem up there it gets rougher than rend. Question is the limit just ten fish over 10 inches, none under 10 inches?

10 and 10 is a great rule. More people should use it self imposed

I fish Carlyle almost non stop. I have had much better luck at Carlyle than I have Rend but part of that reason is I put a ton more time on Carlyle than Rend. A few years back when I first Started fishing Carlyle I also could not catch a fish over 9.75 it seemed. The next year those fish all grew over the 10 inch limit and I couldnt seem to catch much under the 10 limit. Over the last few years I have caught several in the 13-15 inch range and a few very close to 2 lbs but have yet to break that weight. THis year the little I have gotten to fish it due to work I again have caught a lot of short fish. Not sure if it is in a cycle this year as we all know crappie tend to run thru cycles depending on spawn rate, cover, weather and other considerations. But one good thng about catching the smaller ones is that it shows the lake still does hold a good rate of crappie. As far as fishing the lake one thing I did learn is once you find the cover spend the time trying diffrent things. On more than one occasion I have been able to pull on on a spot that someone else just got of off and couldnt catch a fish to be able to pull a limit off it in an hour. As far as wind yes it is a nasty lake. I have seen a few boats not make it coming across the big lake. However that has mostly been kids that never should have been there in the first place. They get out in the big water figure out its way to rough and try to turn the boat around at the wrong times or way to fast and get swamped. A little commo sense goes along way on that lake to fish it safely. Also while I have never read about COE draining or raising lake to fast I have seen it on many occasions. First time I saw it happen it was really strange to start fishing a set of cover and next thing you know it seems that cover just raised a foot and you looking again. The river is noted fr water raising and lowering to quickly. I have been chased out of the park area boat ramp beacause ti was geting ready to flood, yet when I had launched of it I still had a few feet left to even wory about that.

I won't say Carlyle is superior to Rend I just prefer it since I have put the time into I never have on rend.

Rend has a spillway which does give it a gradual release, has better limits, better cover. I've never fished there, but know many that do.

Carlyle's flood control does cause problems with up and down water levels especially during spawns. The past couple years the Corps has been trying to hold water during and after spawn, but with it such a low lying lake it can cause problems doing so. A 10 creel and 10" limit really sucks as there should be a 10 above 10" and a 5 below 10" limit. Cover is basically what is put there, the annual Christmas Tree drop will be March 7, 2009...be there if you fish Carlyle. Above the tracks where the stumps are just below the water level isn't what it used to be. With the up and down water levels and the rush of water from up stream have silted this part of the lake drastically. Back in the 80's and early 90's it was a gold mine for crappie and probably number one crappie fishery of Illinois, now it just has it's years for decent crappie fishing.