San Carlos Lake, Arizona mini stalk 7/18/2008

[TeamCSJE]

Took my Father and Nephew on a mini night stalk on San Carlos lake, Arizona on 7/18/2008. My Nephew is 13 years old and had never been fishing before. He is from Hawaii and only plays video games so he wanted to see what us rednecks do for fun since we play video games. I told him the real game is fishing…fooling the fish into biting. We started fishing at 7:00 PM in a cove that I have never fished before. My Father is a bass fisherman and has fished the cove in years past and named the cove “Cove from Hell” because they did so well with the bass. We figured we would give it a try on crappie and we were not disappointed. The crappie started good and stayed constant into the dark. My nephew caught his first fish, a healthy crappie about 13” then a catfish then more crappie. He had a great time! My Father is somewhat converted to crappie fishing now also. He still likes his bass but he is really getting into the crappie thing. We ended up catching about 50 crappie (honestly), 100 if I was lying and trying to impress you all. We only brought 8 home because our freezers are full and we don’t have anymore room. The longest crappie we brought home measured 16 ½”. I caught one bigger than that but didn’t have a tape measure so heaven only knows how big it was…possibly my personal best but I threw it back to catch on another day. I know it was longer than 16 ½” and boy was she heavy! The wind blew us off the lake at 11:00 PM (it is no fun being caught in the wind at night). Overall a great mini stalk!

We also did some experimenting with Bobby Garland Baby Shad, which I read about on this crappie form so I decided to purchase a few packs and give them a try. They worked great! We used Licorice/Chart, Blue/Pearl and Bleeding shad. It was a tie between Licorice/Chart and Bleeding shad. I will definitely be purchasing some more for future trips to come.



TRIP SUMMARY
Location: San Carlos Lake, Arizona. Launched from New Gov’t and fished bout a mile east of the dam on the South side.
Weather: Hot and muggy with the occasional thunderstorm in the distance. Strong winds until night fell then calm then breezy again at 11:00 PM.
Water Temp: 85 degrees
Water Depth: 30 feet deep with the crappie suspending at 10 to 12 feet.
Setup: My Father used a Kentucky rig (20 lb Spider Wire braid main line with a 6 lb leader/loop knots and ½ oz weight, #1 Gamakatsu chrome red drop shot hooks).
My Nephew and I used 1/16 oz single jigs (#2 red chrome sickle hook jigs made by Tommy Crenshaw at TCI Fishing) on Suffix braid line 6 lb. test
Lures/Bait: Bobby Garland Baby Shad - Licorice/Chart, Blue/Pearl and Bleeding shad
Technique: Vertical jig 10 to 12 feet down. We used a 100 watt white AquaStar fishing light to attract the bait fish. Underwater Fishing Light - Fishing Lights- Dock Lights
Results: 50 crappie and 2 small catfish...we kept 8 crappie with the longest kept measureing 16 ½”

[jimeisaac]

I really like your report format. This sounds like our experience at Lake Alamo. I can't wait for it to cool down and I can make an AZ run. Stop at Yuma for a couple of days, on to Alamo for a couple of days and a stop at Blythe for catfish on the way home. The only things stopping me are the temperature and price of gas.

[tankusaz]

teamCSJE, sounds like a heck of a trip. Your father sounds like one fine dude. Bet he is a heck of a fisherman no matter what he is after. Keep taking him fishing as often as you can, he probably needs it. Tankusaz