Macbride Crappies

[Fortunato]

Was out at Macbride on Saturday -- along with LOTS of other people -- but didn't catch squat. Most everybody out there were fishing bass, but several boats in my vicinity were trolling for crappie. The one guy I talked to said he came up empty too. Weather was bad, front was moving through, cold windy. Water temp 73.

Anybody else catch any crappie lately at Macbride. (Kids and I have been killing em all summer at Darling, but all small fish.)

[Waygate10]

I have hit MacBride the last few weeks and usually get about 15-20 crappie each trip however size has gone down over the last month from what it was earlier. The bonus for me is getting into the wipers. Have caught quite a few of them this year however they have been small ranging from 1-3lbs. I have seen two big ones this year which one went 13lbs. and the other went 8lbs.
I have been fishing Coralville too since the pleasure boaters are down in numbers now. Did well last week and bite should only get better until ice up.

Fort - where do you fish on MacBride and what methods do you use?

[Fortunato]

Hi Waygate,

This was my first time fishing Macbride. I mostly fished the rock piles in the southern arm near the jetties. Mainly in 10-16 FOW. I was trolling a small jig with yellow twister tail.

FWIW, I'm pretty new to crappie fishing. In the past, I'd always fished in shallow water during the spawn. This is the first year I've even tried fishing for deep water crappie and have been learning it by trial and error.

[lebruce]

I've haven't been on MacBride for a couple weeks now,but I'll bet you could get into them by slow trolling minnows in 6-12' of water around shallow flats close to deeper water.This works for me from after spawn till about Nov..
Waygate,The bite on the Res. has been alright but the size of them are down and they seem to be moving around quite a bit too. You got to love the hunt.

[Waygate10]

Fort - I have caught a few craps on the rock piles you are talking about however B. Lee hit it on the head. I have been slow trolling with double-minnow rigs(four baits in water) from 8-15' around any wood you can find on the flats. Also, on the south arm you can find some points which drop off quickly into the channel and they are hugging tight to drop. If they won't hit the straight minnow try adding color with chartruese and white usually being good (however sometimes blue is the best). Just need to experiment on what they want that day.

B.Lee - Yes, the usual size is down a bit on the Res' the past few weeks but it should only get better the colder it gets. Last week, I had one of the biggest blacks I had seen in the Res' for a couple of years up to the surface and saw it was only hooked barely in lip. I tried very slowly to slide on top of water back to boat and with a flip of the head came off about 5' from boat. That was OK as the other 9-12" were pretty plentiful and really fighting hard for their size.