Thread: Lake Tyler - Labor Day fishing report

The wife and I decided to take a break from watching the news about Hurricane Gustav, and decided to try a little fishing on Lake Tyler this morning. All summer long, I visited my favorite crappie condos and brushpiles with frequent disappointment. Today was so different. The crappie were really biting great. Maybe they knew the weather will be turning bad in the next few days so they were feeding ahead of the predicted storm! The first brushpile was in 13-14 feet of water. They bit fairly well from daylight until the first jetskis and waterskiiers at 9:00. We fished with a 1/4 oz. jighead and electric chicken tube jigs; also had a crappie hook and minnow tied on about 8" above the jig. Most hit the jig. Caught about 15 of varying sizes - 1/2 were keeper-sized. When the skiiers came out, we moved to another part of the lake, to a brushpile in 17-feet of water. The crappie on the second brushpile wanted the minnows, although we did catch a few doubles (one on the jig and another on the minnow above the jig.) Ran out of minnows by 10:30am, and since the wind was building , we quit. Total caught was 30+ with 15 or so keepers to 14+". All were released. Funny how I fished the same spots all summer long with few bites, and today they were biting. Go figure!

Excellant report Super Dave. With the water still as warm as it is I think the drop in barometric pressure prior to the storm was probably thr trigger that you needed to get the fish to bite.

I know it's disappointing to find crappie in the hot summer that won't bite anything or if they do it's one fish every 10 minutes.

Hopefully as the water cools for fall they will start feeding up for winter. That cooler water will definately put the ski boats and jet skiers off the water.

Glad to hear y'all had a good trip.

Good post SD!