What has happened to Clinton Lake

[Captain Dan]

I fished Clinton Friday and Saturday and talked to a lot of fishermen that where not catching very many legal crappie.
Only activity at the cleaning station was catfish.
I'm not seeing any gulls around on the lake.
The old guys that fish the marina daily are mainly catching shorts with a very few keepers, not like it was up to about 2 years ago. These guys are wondering also about the lack of keepers.
Has Clinton been fished out of keeper crappie if that is even possible?
I'm thinking about relocating to Hillsdale if it might be better.
Just getting tired of spending $100 in boat gas on a weekend of not putting any fish in the freezer.
All suggestions are welcomed.

[bluebasser86]

Crappies go in cycles, probably just in a valley after being at a peak a couple years ago. Melvern is in the same place after some really good fishing a couple years ago, tough to get the good ones out there now.

[springhillwantabe]

I imagine Clinton just like hd they are there just need to be in the right place at right time ??

[birddog one]

wouldn't move to HD it the land of dinks

[dester223]

I went to hd for some night fishing with friends last night. Dink o rama. Not a single keeper. Best was a 9.75" and the action wasnt that hot either.

[slabby joe]

Yeah I'm having a hard time catching keepers too....might have to start going after GREEN CARP!! 20in. and a little over 4#....broke my line and my friend hooked my line and I when I pulled it up his jig had hooked into the swivel attatched to my crappie jig....keeps fishing interesting !

[HaleDamage]

Here is something to think about.
The last 2 times I cleaned Crappie, they were full of bugs
No Shad.
July 3rd - on Clinton - We saw big schools of Shad but nothing was feeding on them.???
Maybe we need to start fishing with "May flies" or other bugs that are hatching??
I know a friend of mine was getting a "few Keeps" on SMALL 1/32oz hair jig.
Rick

[shane]

Rick,

You said it. Bugs!!! The shad are going to be very small now and the bugs are coming off the bottom. The diet of fish will change when the May Flies hatch. I have already seen it here in El Dorado. Fisherman, you have to change your fishing ways to catch fish.. Their diet will change and you have to figure out what they want. Dennis and I use jigs tipped with worms at times for crappie. It works.... Try something new and it might surprise you... Good luck to all.

[slabby joe]

A friend of mine read an article from a guy in Oklahoma that said when you have a mayfly hatch fish trees and bridge pilings with a 1/4oz. jighead , go to the bottom and bring your jig up real slow and keep it right against the tree trunk or piling. He said the crappie are feeding on the mayfly larvae that are crawling up any vertical surface.....so probably any creature looking bait attatched to the jighead would do the trick......the hard part would be keeping your jig right against the vertical surface if there's much wind.

[Captain Dan]

This past weekend the mayflies where everywhere, but I am confused. I'm used to seeing yellow mayflies in past years but these are all black.
So are they actually mayflies?
They covered the north side of the marina so bad they used a gas leaf blower to get them off the walls.
Also all the boats in slips had them all over the north sides out of the wind. several of the boats in slips motors where totally covered with them so their motors looked like they where camouflaged, even the white Johnsons where black with them.
Has anyone ever tried using mayflies for bait on crappie? one swipe with a butterfly net would give you over 100 baits.