Thread: Cataract 11/08

Took the neighbor out to Cataract today. Weather was great except for the wind, but it wasn't near as bad as yesterday. Still can't complain about near 70 degree temps this time of year. Parking lot was pretty crowded when we arrived at 12:30 due to the nice weather. Water was pretty stained on the State Park side where we were, with some areas a little clearer as we moved around and a surface temp about 54 degrees. Lots of shad schools getting grouped up on the wind blown side of the lake making graphing difficult. Lake still down below winter pool. Lots of boat traffic in the little area we stayed in, a mix of crappie guys and bass anglers.

Heard the bite was pretty good yesterday for numbers but size was harder to come by. We had to work to get our fish today but still came out alright. Nothing really big today, just a nice solid limit of 10.5"-11.5"crappie. Most fish came from 8'-12' for us, with a few shallower and a few deeper. A mix of tube jigs and curlytails, whites and chartreuses for our fish today.

Haven't seen the extended forecast but would like to get back out there and see more of the lake while the lake is down. Didn't really get to move around much today.

nice job call sometime still need HELP

Good job again! I have been to Racoon a couple of times lately and the fish are a little bigger and fatter but you don't get near the numbers as you do at Cataract.

Great catch T9. I almost went out to cataract but ended up at Geist. You did better than me. It was a nice day to be out on the water.

[QUOTE=Team9nine;932962]Took the neighbor out to Cataract today. Weather was great except for the wind, but it wasn't near as bad as yesterday. Still can't complain about near 70 degree temps this time of year. Parking lot was pretty crowded when we arrived at 12:30 due to the nice weather. Water was pretty stained on the State Park side where we were, with some areas a little clearer as we moved around and a surface temp about 54 degrees. Lots of shad schools getting grouped up on the wind blown side of the lake making graphing difficult. Lake still down below winter pool. Lots of boat traffic in the little area we stayed in, a mix of crappie guys and bass anglers.

I wonder why there was soo many boats and fisherman in your area?????
It couldn't possibly be because everytime you guy's catch fish you post it on the internet where the entire world can read it....Or could it????
I just wonder how many fisherman are fishing there and pulling out 50 to 75 every time? I know that I only take what I need to have a fish fry I don't need to fill the entire freezer in one year. It's called being smart about protecting a good thing. I myself have the ability to travel and catch crappie all over the place but to the guy's who can't afford to fish anywhere else ( Probably you as well?) then I feel sorry for them when the fishing pressure ruins the only thing they had. If you guy's read other states forums you will see they don't keep announcing the same lake over and over and over and over and over to draw attention the way you guy's do to Catarac... Think about it...A post every now and then isn't so bad but every other day!! Like they say on TV Come on man!!!

great catch

Originally Posted by TDHcrappiemaster

I wonder why there was soo many boats and fisherman in your area?????
It couldn't possibly be because everytime you guy's catch fish you post it on the internet where the entire world can read it....Or could it????
I just wonder how many fisherman are fishing there and pulling out 50 to 75 every time? I know that I only take what I need to have a fish fry I don't need to fill the entire freezer in one year. It's called being smart about protecting a good thing. I myself have the ability to travel and catch crappie all over the place but to the guy's who can't afford to fish anywhere else ( Probably you as well?) then I feel sorry for them when the fishing pressure ruins the only thing they had. If you guy's read other states forums you will see they don't keep announcing the same lake over and over and over and over and over to draw attention the way you guy's do to Catarac... Think about it...A post every now and then isn't so bad but every other day!! Like they say on TV Come on man!!!

I wasn't complaining about the pressure, merely noting its presence. And I'm sure all the Internet posting is accountable for some of the extra pressure we're seeing on the lake this year. That said, we're talking crappie here, not bass or steelhead or river smallies. DNR creel surveys routinely show average harvest estimates of 30,000 crappie a year from each of our central Indiana reservoirs, so "hurting" the population is unlikely. Plus crappie are so cyclical that things will go good or bad regardless of the anglers. It was just back in '03 or '04 when things went from great to terrible in the same season due to a huge year class that was recruited into the fishery.

It's pretty rare to see a stable population of consistently big crappie in most of our reservoirs. The few times I've seen it you wouldn't know because I never posted trips from those lakes for the exact reasons you mention. Unfortunately, word did spread via 'word of mouth' and one of those fisheries is back to being cyclical. So I understand your point and actually follow those general guidelines. I've just fished Cataract long enough to feel that refraining from posting isn't going to change that fishery one way or the other. When it swings back to "crappy" in the next year or two, you'll see all the pressure come off that lake and the reports fade as people head elsewhere.

Either way, I'm good though. I personally don't keep any crappie myself. Really only fish for them heavily in the fall/winter. Half the time the fish in my posts are just 'staged' for a picture to go along with the report and then released. The other times I'm fishing with friends who do like to keep and clean some, so in those cases they're kept. For the way I like to fish, which is different from many, there are so many spots on that lake I have GPS'ed it would be hard to imagine enough pressure that would ever hinder me from catching fish out there. It's not the easiest lake for someone unfamiliar with to catch good sacks of fish off of.

-T9