Thread: Lake Lavon Crappie Fishing Guide Report

2 days ago-





Sorry I have not reported much. Been working doubles everyday. I have moved my PM trip to another day due to the winds. So I now have some free time to let yall know whats up.



Fishing Guide Reports: Sandies and Crappie



Lavon is averaging 75-78 degrees and feels great. Water is a clear green with visibility of 3 ft in some places. That North wind kept a lot of boats off the water....... lol, to bad. The crappie have been on fire for the last 3 weeks now ( I have been targeting them for 3 weeks....So who knows how long they have been biting every jig we drop to them ). Sandbass have been really good and very predictable on the depth and where they are going to pop up. Only for a shot time, but fun. A few more weeks and the water will warm up and they should start to surface like clock work! Power plant is loaded with them right now. Lots of dinks and bring lots of lures. You will snag a lot.







In the mornings the shad are super thick. Millions and millions of them. Its worthless for me to go out early. By 730 they finally bunch up and I can side scan my target and see whats there.









Had some kids on the boat the other day and had a blast. Hit the White Bass Hybrids on Hubbard in the AM and found them in both coves smashing shad on the surface. They didn't realize there were two hooks and when they would catch 2 of them, they were just in amazement.







After the Sand Bass nose dived we hit the rocks with some bobbers and cut bait. Thew out some chum and the fun started.











Caught a bunch of catfish and drum, till the wind picked up and it was time to leave.



Back to Lavon:



Crappie: No pattern. I am catching them in 4 ft to even 31 ft. The best depth is: -I really cant answer that, lol. They are everywhere.







If I had to answer and give you a depth to start in, I would have to say 18 ft. Vertical Timber. Fish less obvious places.



One of my groups wanted to hit whatever was easy at the moment. So, we went and limited on Sandbass in about an hour and half to two hours. Then we went looking for some crappie.








I got used a tandem rig and caught a bunch of doubles. Super fast limit right there.......

(Below 2 pictures, was one trip.)

Sand Bass





Crappie





I got bored of catching two Sand Bass at a time, so I decided to tandem some crappie up. That was the fastest personal limit I have ever gotten on Lavon. Doubles on 90% off the drops and everyone was 11-15 inches. Crazy action.





You can see all the crappie here. Everyday a new batch come here. Over 40 crappie on this tree.



I will only stop the boat to fish a target if I can side scan more then 10-15 crappie on one target. I pass up a lot of fish, but I don't want to hop all over the place. Its having fun, relaxing and ripping lips. Tried my lights out the other night for crappie. They work well. So night trips are good for crappie and sand bass for the night peeps.





I have not caught many Black Crappie this Spring. I thought they wee making a come back. Maybe they are in deep timber or something. But I did find a Black Nosed Crappie ( black crappie) Thats the only place I have yet to look. No reason really....







Tandem Chart Slabs decorated with reflective ribbon by my girl friend and friends. Crazy..... They were pretty though. Anyways, a slab with a small 1/16th oz jig with a Zoom Fluke tied 18 inches about will land you some fish, Bring lots of slabs. 3/4th oz. I have lost so many slabs there, I decided to pour my own. With some friendly donations, Thanks Victor, Im making my own slabs and jigs. Wow does that save a lot of money. So with that said, pay attention to where the snags are and hit the safe zones and let the slab hit the bottom and medium retrieve with jigging action here and there. They are swimming at all depths there. They come and they go, but they will be back eventually. Sometimes you get lucky and they stay!







Hit the crappie after the sandies and had to teach Patrick how to not snag stuff.Still he pulled up some monster. The lady of the lake is handing out a lot of 15-16's.















Toady's trip was perfect weather glass calm, and the fish were dropping in the boat. They caught some toads to 16 inches.







First submerged tree was in 18 ft and the crappie were at every depth. One even grabbed the jig at the surface. Later in the day the best bite was "all depths from 8-22 ft". Magic depth, 18? I have no idea. Its just crazy out there. But again, I would not stop unless I saw a good school of crappie on structure on the side imaging. Then I would side scan the other side, then go over it with the down imaging and make sure the structure was loaded and ready to explode crappie on the boat deck. Personal Bests were well over achieved this week.

Male with Spawning colors! Still trying to spawn...........?









Same fish but belly shot. She had eggs and was ready to pop. So yup. A couple other crappie had their spawning suites on too....







Black and chartreuse is the hot color.







Caught over 100 crappie today. Landed another 10-15 keepers that were released and called it a wrap. Some dink were caught as well. Even this little guy counts.....











MONSTER SLABS!







Two man limit ( 50 ) Crappie



Side Imaging: Dont leave home without it.

May 25th-


Hit the lake with Mike at 7 am yesterday. Decided to go where I have never been before and see what was out there.

Same story. 18 ft is the magic number. It really does not matter where we go as long as long as u find structure in that depth. If you power fish- spending no more than 2-3 mins, fishing everything you see or know, you should limit. We hit standing timber 14 ft-22 ft, Brush piles, and rock piles in 15-26 ft. Most of the fish were 1-5 ft off the bottom. Black/chart on 1/16 th oz was the choice, as always. I would post some cool side scan pics, but my boat is not here to pull the pics up. Next report, I'll post some up.

To get a better understanding of Side Imaging, you can read a blog I wrote with some pics to explain at the images.

Texas Freshwater Fishing Guide Carey Thorn

I scan everything before I drop the trolling motor, to make sure there are fish there. Even if I have have a honey hole, I scan it first. I scanned a spot yesterday I fish a lot, and I had to stop the screen. It had more crappie on it than I have ever seen before. Over 50 were boated in this one spot with 31 keepers. In less than an hour. The structure was one single tree in 18 ft of water. So what I'm saying is, scan it before you fish and decide if the amout of fish at the targeted structure, is actually worth your time. I don't stop unless I see more than 15. If you don't get bit within 3 minutes, go to a new spot. Sometimes minnows out fish jigs, sometimes jigs out fish minnows (90% of the time jigs rule the water).

wow. and all those crappie are from lavon? talk about some good fishing. cant wait to get on the water again. havent fished in years. maybe 10 years or better. mind telling me the rigs you have been using? i have some jigs i can use but im not sure about them. its light colors for dark waters and dark for light right?

Originally Posted by Fisher_Girl_Kitti

its light colors for dark waters and dark for light right?

Actually, Ms Kitti .... it's dark colors for dark water/conditions & light colors for clear water/conditions, more or less. Putting on a jig with contrasting colors, like black & chartreuse or blue & white, will usually take care of most conditions & water clarity. Contrasting colors help the fish see the bait, from any angle, as it would also contrast against the background (bottom, water's surface, etc) with at least one of the colors on the jig.

... cp