Where did the crappie go ?????

[the jig wizard]

We're fishin' a Res. here in Nevada and for the first 3 - 4 years had done really well, then all of the sudden no more crappie. We used to catch 1 1/2 lb - 2 lb slabs out of this res often but for the last 2 - 3 years ...... zippo nothing. There is no vegetation in this res. This res has a sandy-silty bottom on it and it was built for irrigation purposes. Now with the water levels so low the river doesn't even flow into the res anymore. The deepest part of the res was only 37 - 40' when the res was full. There are a lot of rocky shelves that ran into the res and we used to hit those spots a lot since they would hold fish. The transition places that we used to fish seem now to only catch our jigs....lol . The Carp, catfish and wipers seem to do OK, but last year we saw a lot of nice sized walleye 3 - 10lbs either dead on the banks or floating dead in the water. Anyone have a thought on where the crappie might have gone............... Thanks the jig wizard

[scrat]

95% of the fish are in 5% of the lake. Well that is what I have heard. I have problems finding them myself sometimes on the lake I fish. Hopefully they are still there and you just have not found them yet. Don't give up and good luck fishing.

[brucec]

I have no idea but I would contact the local Dept of wildlife biologist and ask them. They maybe can tell you what is going on.

[Ketchn]

I imagine they are still in there and just in a pattern you are not used to seeing
you try extra shallow water on cover/rock piles/concrete/etc. ? and what kind of bait is present there ?

[the jig wizard]

Well........ the fish and game had planted Sacramento black fish in there years ago to supply a bait fish for the walleye and the wipers, but we have never seen any minnows and very little insect life there. We have checked out the rock structures looking for aquatic insect life and have found very little to go on. The river...... when it's running, does have some crawdads in it but it often dries up during the summer. The only thing that we have really been able to find are the midges that come off on the res and even then the hatches aren't really very heavy like we see on some of our float tubing lakes. Thanks for your input. I'll keep on checking things out ........ the jig wizard

[scrat]

Also when reservoirs get older they lose the natural fish habitat that they started out with . If it is (legal) placing new fish habitat in shallow water will help the small fry and minnows. Placing fish habitat in deeper water and around points will help the fish and help your catching fish. There is nothing like having a few honey holes to fish when the fishing gets tough. If you don't know much about fish habitat I would suggest reading and asking questions here:
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/crapp...and-pond-mgmt/

[the jig wizard]

Thanks a lot there scrat for this great info.............. I know that our fish & Game dept. has put structure in other lakes around our area before. I've seen them hauling their structures down the highways so I know that they do use them. They had used wooden pallets built into a "A" frame shape structure with dead tree tops attached to them with sand bags on the inside floor to weight them down. Also this particular res has a few large piles of concrete chunks piled up in it, but the water level has been so low that they are no longer in water. This has happened every year for the last 3-4 yrs. Not much one can do about that........... Anyway thanks again for your info. I see that I'll have some research/home work to do ....... the jig wizard

[vic n]

You might ask fish and game if they will give you the gps coordinates because they may have put out some piles that are still under water. That might be the key to finding fish

[the jig wizard]

Great idea..... thank you the jig wizard Kevin