A bad day at Abel Reservoir
I hit the road for Fredericksburg this morning & spent the day checking out Abel Res. A couple of regulars rolled in as I was preparing to launch.
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When asked about the crappie population at Abel, they said they didn't know if there were any crappies in the lake (but admitted that they only bottom-fish worms for bream.) Not an encouraging start.
The water was fairly clear (18" to 24" vis.), somewhat dark, and not as cool as I hoped: 67.4 at launch time and as high as 76 by mid-afternoon. Lake level is down at least a foot
One small bridge crosses the lake - right next to the launch area. I figured that would be a good place to start & if there really were specks in this long skinny lake, some of them were bound to be there. Within minutes, wham!
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Looks like the lake does have crappies. :)
Page 2 in the "How to Catch Crappies" book says "look for brushpiles and fish them." Sometimes it's hard to know a BP is there, but this one was a snap.
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Page 3 says "look for wood"--no problem! Abel has wood everywhere you look.
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Did I mention beaver huts? Everywhere you look--I even saw the beaver scurrying away from one!
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One section of Abel looks like a mountain stream--complete with shear rock dropoffs.
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Nothing in the book explained how to fish this kind of water & being a flatlander, I decided to dial up Wasabi the mountain man & get some OJT. After his phone rang and rang and rang it became obvious that I was going to have to figure this out on my own. Fortunately, the specks helped out.
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Other sections of this exciting lake are quiet coves & creeks
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and beautiful vistas.
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DGIF lists this lake as 185 acres, but it seems many times that big due to the extensive shoreline.
Every fisherman I saw on the lake grumbled about how bad a day today was. If this was a bad day, I can't wait to fish Abel on a GOOD day!!!!
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For the day:
30+ specks (13 keepers, largest = 11.5")
3 white perch (2 eating size)
3 green carp
1 catfish
Minnows were the ticket, but occasionally one would hit a jig. If there was a color of the day, I didn't find it.