Thread: black slab spawn

My experience has led be to believe you'll catch more whites in stained and muddy water than blacks, and that blacks will nest away from a high silt layer in a given piece of water. Blacks will nest on gravel, under blow downs, or rock ledges As opposed to whites nesting on flats, in coves, sometimes very muddy. We've been targeting blacks during their spawn since RBR filled up. We've had great thru poor years. As the cover on the banks has diminished over the years, they have been harder to find. I'm concerned that this year is going to be one of the poor ones, due to the silt buildup.
It takes a lot of time to find the blacks even on a good year, cause they are in 8-14 in. of water, layin' up under something. Afish finder is useless. But when you do find a hot spot, you can catch 20 or 30 slab males in 10 by 10 ft. sq. peice of water.
Send some feedback on your experiences, cause I'd like to hear something that maybe I'm missing.
We can always catch whites, But I like them blacks. I think they taste a little better due to their deeper, clearer water diet of more crustations ect..

Usually during the best of the spawn I am not in competition with all the hundreds of boats that are beating the banks on Russell. I do go sometimes but quickly get bothered by seasonal crappie fishermen but it's usually the bass chasers throwing plugs at your boat that really gets under my skin. I mainly nightstalk during those times. There does seem to be a lull in the action for a nightstalker for a few days during the peak of the spawn but then it's back on again. I have noticed as you stated that there is a lack of cover along the banks vrs. years ago when the lake was alot newer. Now it seems more people rush from one beaver hut to another and those still produce good, you just have to beat the crowd to your favorite one at the crack of dawn.

Many years ago, before Lake Russell existed, me and friends used to sink cedars (and other brush) after Christmas in CH lake. Usually during that time of the year we were setting them on dry land since the lake seemed to always be low. But come spring time those same cedars would be 5-8' deep and those trees would produce very well. It never was hard to bring home a mess of fish from CH cause you knew where the cover was if you did your homework. If you couldnt find your brushpiles (or somebody elses) you didnt have near the luck.

I think there's still a very hugh crappie population in Lake Russell but the lake is getting to that age where a successful crappie fisherman has got to begin doing his homework to consistantly stay on fish. With today's technology we have the availibility of tools (electronics) that help us locate and catch fish during the daytime but you cannot fool yourself into thinking alls you gotta do is get on the water and start boating fish. Understanding the movements of fish and constantly searching out the kinds of structure they prefer is IMO the key to catching 'em. And it wouldnt hurt dropping in a little brush along the way.

BTW, on CH lake I catch more whites than blacks but on Russell I probably havent caught more than a half dozen whites in all the years I've fished it. Last year at our first daytime tourney on Lake Russell the winning string of fish were all whites and they were REAL SLABS. Just gotta know where to look I guess.

I have yet to catch a white on Russell but have catch many slab blacks there. I'm with bowman when it comes to the spawn on Russell, y'all can have to day I'm going nightstalking. There is no brush on the banks anymore other than a tree and a little brush that washed up on the bank. Most of the crappie I catch on Russell will be in stained water. When the spawn does starts you will find crappie in all color water but you have to work far them. Russell a hard lake to fish but if you fish it year around you can catch the crappie. I think this will be a good year for the crappie on Russell.

Hey gabo and stump, I'm hearin' that you are catchin' more blacks than whites by a large margin, am I reading right?? On Russell!

another question. Do you 3 moderators eat all you catch year round or release some. I'm an eater myself. Although we love the river, we don't catch and release as a practice. It's always been sort of a sacred thing in our family to take what you can eat or help someone else. That is one of the reasons we don't fish year round for slabs. We could never eat them all!
On occasion we'll fish a tourney, and I have to admit, it don't make me feel good wringin' their jaws out, to put em' back in the water. Now smaller fish and illegal fish, we take great care with, and do release. But it just ain't a habit. Iwas glad to hear that the crappiefest is an eatem' tourney!

I have "not" caught a white on Russell. Until the crappiefest last year I had not even seen a white caught on Russell. I don't keep all the fish I catch but I do keep my limit, I fish because I like to eat crappie. The reason I think this will be a good year on Russell is because there were a lot of small fish being caught last year after the water warmed up. I'm just saying what I think the fishing will be like but I have been wrong before. Who knows, I might fish in better places than you do on Russell.

There's NO WAY I eat all the fish I catch. Once the weather gets nice I will probably fish 2-3 days at a minimum (more like 4-5 days a week, this includes night stalks). I'll put up 5 or 6 messes of fish in the freezer and probably keep about 1 mess per week to eat. A mess around my house is about 12-15 decent sized crappie for the 4 of us. With Amy being away from home in college 10 or so would be plenty. I dont bring fish home to give away unless theyre for elderly folks that cannot go fishing. I just put 'em back to grow.

Regardless what others might think about size limits and stuff, me and my son really enjoy eating a mess of small fish off the bone. Ocassionally I'll keep around 20 8-9" fish when I want to fool with cooking 'em whole.

I think I solved my mistery. Just called scdnr to find out that I had bad info on the dorsal spine count between the two. They said that the blacks run 8-9 and the whites 5-6 or 7 ? that leaves a margin @ 7 or 8 that I have been using color as my further guide to determine the species. All said, i have been mis-judging a whole lot of blacks, calling them whites. They did say also that the % of whites to blacks is low in the region, with the exception of greenwood lake. Obviously the coloration on the miscalls had to do with the water they came out of, further compounding what i thought was a difference in species!!! ASk & LEARN!!!

Originally Posted by gabowman

There's NO WAY I eat all the fish I catch. Once the weather gets nice I will probably fish 2-3 days at a minimum (more like 4-5 days a week, this includes night stalks). I'll put up 5 or 6 messes of fish in the freezer and probably keep about 1 mess per week to eat. A mess around my house is about 12-15 decent sized crappie for the 4 of us. With Amy being away from home in college 10 or so would be plenty. I dont bring fish home to give away unless theyre for elderly folks that cannot go fishing. I just put 'em back to grow.

Regardless what others might think about size limits and stuff, me and my son really enjoy eating a mess of small fish off the bone. Ocassionally I'll keep around 20 8-9" fish when I want to fool with cooking 'em whole.

I hear ya on the bone fish! same here.