Went to Hardy last Friday night and for the life of me, could not find a respectable slab. It's been a number of years since I fished Hardy consistently, but it seems to have plenty of small ones. I fished hard for 6 hours and never caught one that measured more than 10", but caught a ton. I'm going back tomorrow to try a few more things to see if I can land any dinner. For you folks that fish Hardy quite a bit, is this normal?
I went to Weiss Lake (AL) early in March. Everyone knows that it was low pressure every single weekend early on, but we still managed a fair amout of crappies. Weiss imposes a 10" size limit on slabs, while most of the rest of the state requires 9". The state says that once crappie's hit this range, they really start to swell. Why wouldn't we want the same thing? With some of the shad populations in various places, I'm sure that a school of 10"-14" specks could certainly help keep those smaller shad in check. Personally, I have a size limit of my own, but why not have a state size limit? I've never heard anyone say, "Man, I caught a 7incher that was thick as hell." I hope I haven't hit any nerves, but with opinions you often do.
Btw......I'm actually more interested in hearing about Hardy than my soapbox....
Hardy has alot of dinks in it, but it does produce quality fish also. Have not been for a couple weeks, but last time out night fishing, we brought 15 to 20 12" or bigger fish home. Never got a 2 lb fish there, but lots of good eating size fish.
I would love a 10 inch size limit... for the right lake, the problem with that in central Indiana, is that we don't have enough people that target crappie, so there really isn't that much pressure which could lead to even smaller crappie, because they would out number the food source. I fish Morse just about 3 times a week in Oct, Nov, and the beginning of Dec if possible, and I rarely have company and its a 7 mile reservoir. I go down to Kentucky Lake, and you can see 10 boats in every cove, so it needs a size limit (or Weiss), mainly for two reasons, larger fish have better spawns (more eggs), and the state (dnr) has to protect against out-of -staters coming down and saying "I spent good money to come down here so I am taking meat home, 7" ers or not".
When I keep crappies now, I usually only keep 10-12 inchers, and let the smaller and bigger ones go. But to be honest, I don't know if I am doing more harm than good... its just like keeping males or females during the spawn, but that is another can of worms.
Well, this Friday didn't seem to change that much. Only difference was, we caught a few 10+, but also ended up with more 5-6" fish. We started out in a different place, but after 2 1/2 hours of soaking, the bait fish still never really showed. So, we went back to where I was last weekdend, and got a fish almost faster than the baitfish. We had a few really busy times, mainly from midnight to 2. One thing that I noticed was that we didn't see any baitfish that were the same size as our minnows. I'll leave that to some thinking.
Locator, since you seem to have a little info on the fishing there, are your more of a humps and points kinda guy, or do you generally work the vast amount of stumps, stickups, and lillies?
HT, I remember back 20-25 years ago, I would spend summers with my grandparents up on Raccoon, and I remember catching 10-14" fish very regularly. A lot has changed in stocking efforts on Raccoon with the addition of various predators, but when I go, it's not for crappies anymore. I don't know what all factors have caused for this decline, but I know for some time now, anytime that I went for slabs, I had to catch through all the white bass. Not that this was a problem, because I just like to catch fish.
Every fish that I catch at Hardy, is VERY healthy. Even the smaller ones make me grab a bumb board, just to make sure that thick fish isn't bigger than he looks. When I look at the some of the fishing reports from the DNR, most of Indiana's lakes produce mainly 8-9" fish. Granted, this is only the people who had their catch reported, but I do know, if they go in the live well, they quit growing. I never fear that a crappie populationsin bigger lakes will ever become overpopulated. We can't seem to keep unwanted baitfish out of these waters, so the case with most lakes is that the forage is so abundant. I just think this is something that the state should really look into. As a means of shad control, as well as focusing on one of the finest meals known to man.
Fished last night (Sat) from dawn to 4am with the old man. Brought home around 30 good fish. Did throw back a ton. We had problems getting baitfish to show too, until we found out they were under the lights. Caught fish around 9' in 15' of water. We have had alot of luck lately fishing points with stickups around. Fish bit consistantly all night, not hot and heavy, but a steady bite.
Took vacation this week, and fished again Tues. night. Took a while to find any baitfish, had to move a couple times until we found fish. Set up on a old reliable spot and got into them around 2am. Ended up cleaning 22, threw back about 10 small ones. May sound weird for August, but needed a light jacket and pants. I'll be back out there this weekend.
I know what you mean about the temps......and I love it! I know I'm going out real close to the full moon, but I'm gonna give it another whirl,tonight. Locator, you better hope I don't figure out which boat you are, you must have some pretty spots compared to what I've been managing. With the current conditions, I'll probably try to get a few channels, as well.
Locator, you ever hook into "big" fish while stalkin? I know their are some stripes in Hardy, but didn't know how keen they were on lights, I know they love the shad. And, good luck to ya.
Nothing good on the crappie end last night, but I did take reinforcements. Knowing the full moon was going to make it harder to draw slabs, I took some catalpa worms to mess with some fiddlers. Well, I got that and more, some real nice channel and an occasional crappie. I'm going back this evening, but after talkin to the old man I think he wants to get into some whiskers.
Hooked a couple nice blue cats at night, but thats about it. I have also heard about the hybrids in the lake, but have never seen any. Been getting them lately around the stumps in about 13' of water. I try to find isolated stumps, away from everything else. Got a couple good ones the other night, had 3 or 4 around a 1lb. 1/2, the rest were around 10"-11". If you find them, they will keep you busy.
Hardy Lake at night
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