Melvern Report

[wheels70]

Camped at Turkey Point for 4 days this weekend and caught a few fish. Friday we found a few crappie suspended over structure at about 10 feet. Found a whole lot of fish over brush piles. Probably caught 50-60 with only 12 keepers Saturday sitting over brush in 21 feet of water. We were fishing about 12-14 ft deep with minnows. Finally had to quit fishing the brush as the little ones were INHALING the hook. Had several of them bleeding out of the gills from the deep hooks even before we tried to remove the hook. Didn't want to kill 30 little fish to catch a few keepers so we tried trolling.

Did not have much luck trolling but did catch a few here and there. They were scattered over the flats in about 16 feet of water.

Sunday evening we tried the crappie piles again and started catching nothing but short fish (6-8 inchers) so we moved on. Got out the night crawlers and started drifting for walleye. Finally found them by the state park in 10 feet of water. Didnt keep track but caught probably 15-20 walleye with only 3 keepers. Most of the walleye were 17 3/4 to 17 7/8. With 4 poles out we would normally have fish on all 4 poles on each pass so it was a lot of fun! We were drifting with 1/8 ounce and 1/4 ounce marabou jigs tipped with a night crawler. My 4 year old caught 4 nice crappie drifting with a minnow and bobber set about 8 feet deep. One of the crappie was 15 inches!

Had a great time other than catching so many little fish that inhaled the hook. I get frustrated pretty quick when we start killing fish because they swallow the hook. It doesnt bother me on fish big enough to keep but when they are just little guys it is a waste to kill so many just to get a few more keepers.

Washed the boat and giving it till Saturday to dry out and then going to hit Pomona this weekend. Thought I would try the standing timber everyone talks about and then maybe do some chumming and let my son have a blast catching channel cat.

Has anyone been to Pomona lately?

Keith

[steveinsene]

Great report, I hope that was not tent camping, that might of been brutal. Glad you did good on the walleye, the walleye bite for me fizzled at Banner creek 3 weeks ago, prior to that 20 fish days were the norm. Its about a 2 hour drive but I plan to hit melvern this fall. Nice your 4 year old could catch a 15 incher, if he was not already hooked he is now.

[Chadku]

Sounds like a heck of a weekend! Nice job

[PurpleCrappie]

Nice job Keith!Gonna try Pomona next week.If you go,let us know how you do.Thanks.

[wheels70]

Great report, I hope that was not tent camping, that might of been brutal.
Nice your 4 year old could catch a 15 incher, if he was not already hooked he is now.

Oh no,, we gave up the tent camping immediately after our honeymoon in 2001........:o We spent 7 days at Webster and the highest temp was 65 degrees with severe storms every night. Each day we went to Stockton and dried the pillows and all the clothes. Ate supper in the truck several nights due to the rain! Shortly there-after we bought a camper! lol!!

We have a 30 ft Coachmen now so we stay nice and cool on the hot days! Amazingly the wife and I get along much better now that we have a camper in this type of weather! lol!


Our Son was born in March of 2007 and he was in the boat with us in June! He is going to be a fisherman for sure! All he wants to do is go fishing and camping. When he was 2 we got him into the white bass surfacing and he ended up catching over 20 white bass.
Got to start them early! He is quite the little fisherman now. He is always giving mom and dad static about catching bigger fish than we do. Could have something to do with dad driving the boat, baiting the poles, taking the fish off, etc. but it is worth every minute of it! As long as he enjoys going fishing it will all be worth it in the end.

Keith

[gabowman]

Those little suckas really inhale the hooks. I hate seeing that but it happens. Sounds like you guys had a great weekend with alot of fish caught. Congrats.

[wheels70]

Nice job Keith!Gonna try Pomona next week.If you go,let us know how you do.Thanks.

I will certainly post a report when we get back. Going to try to hit it Friday night and Sat or Sunday. It is only 9 miles from home so it is nice to fish when we dont have a lot of time.

It is getting too hot to camp so we will be hitting Pomona much more often now at least until it starts cooling down a touch. I love the heat but some of this is a little too much to handle. When it cools down I will be headed back to Melvern as that is our favorite lake to camp at and fish.

Keith