Thread: How are the dogwood boys doing?

Take away I got from last of Apr was they weren't burning you guys up down there. I have that never fished lake on my bucket list...and was going to go down a couple weeks ago but held off till I heard some more encouraging words. Surely by now the redear are jumping in the boat? Although with the mushroom crop this year... attentions probably got diverted.

HHD

No responses.....I guess they did sell their equipment at a yard sale.

Going down tommorrow.Called and she said they are still catching a few crappie but with this coldfront coming thru it will probably slow down.Will let you know next week when we get back how it went

Fished 4 days that week the 8th being the last. Crappie were mixed,some better one's in deep water with dink's everywhere. Gills and redear were on or in front of beds. The cold fronts racing through didn't help but we had several nice ones, some on jigs and other days, live bait. There were lots of fish taken last week but I don't think the fish locked on the beds and finished spawning in the early cycle. The good news, we still have some full moons to try yet. Weeds are not helping the catching, some people are up-grading line size, some of those big boys will still pull off the hook.

Another cold front here in the north..........
Had to turn on the heaters to warm up the house.

Now to get heaters to warm up the waters..................

Thanks for the info . It has been a weird spawn yr... up and down. I caught some gills last week at John Hay and they were not on the beds.... they were out in the middle on top of weeds...pre spawn. I think the best spawn days are still ahead of us here in southern Indiana.

I got this update from J & R guide service today... and I tend to agree with him. What do you think?

( the following is a copy from J&R email.... )

Contrary to some belief , the main spawn for Monroe and Patoka , in our opinion is getting ready to take place . We had originally thought a few weeks ago that it was about over , but now realize that the Big females pulled back out when they started drawing water out of the lake due to rising water levels . The last few days we have been catching some huge female Crappie on Monroe that are full of eggs that are moving back in to spawn .. We think now that the best fishing for the Big Crappie is coming in the next week or so . Some other very good fishermen on Patoka have agreed that Patoka will get alot better for bigger Crappie in the following week , week and a half , We`ll see for sure very soon . Watch for some good pics of Big Crappie coming soon to the web site . Monroe is up about a foot and a half and rising and Patoka is up about half a foot . Bluegill have delayed their spawn somewhat also and should pick back up soon .

I was never convinced that we had exprienced a true spawn for any spiecies
yet. Some did but many fish never got it done in May's full moon cycle. Cold fronts, water cool-down, draw-dawn, fishing pressure, who knows for sure. The spawn is spread over several weeks anyway, we will just wait em out.
Hopefully those annoying knats at Dogwood will be gone soon too. They make it tuff to enjoy the day. I heard that some fisherman who traveled and planned to stay a few days quit and went home because of the knats. Shame.

According to the latest fishing report on Indiana's dnr website, the bluegill are nesting and being caught routinely. The redears are also nesting and being taken in four to five foot of water. It sounded very positive and upbeat, they're definitely on nest according to the report.

I was in the lower end of the lakes and not in the shallower back waters where they may have locked on. What I saw at the cleaning stations did little to convince me that we had a good spawn or that big numbers were being taken even away from the beds. Some of the locals that fish everyday were not bringing in big numbers of fish.
I know of a big private lake where some big slabs were being caught in the pads and stems. It isn't far from Dogwood, not all waters are the same even in the same lake. One of the C.O.s told me they had a good crappie bite at West Boggs too.

Originally Posted by Whaler

I was in the lower end of the lakes and not in the shallower back waters where they may have locked on. What I saw at the cleaning stations did little to convince me that we had a good spawn or that big numbers were being taken even away from the beds. Some of the locals that fish everyday were not bringing in big numbers of fish.
I know of a big private lake where some big slabs were being caught in the pads and stems. It isn't far from Dogwood, not all waters are the same even in the same lake. One of the C.O.s told me they had a good crappie bite at West Boggs too.

I heard Boggs had an excellent bite too. I went there last Sunday did ok but the knats you have at Glendale are also at Boggs. They are really irrtating and were probably worse since the fish didn't bite the best.