Smithville Saturday and Sunday

[APKape]

Saturday fished above W Bridge in coves with trees. Water temp 70-72, slightly stained, and the wind was blowing. Used a 10' dipping pole with Little Hustler tricolor black/green/chartreuse jig, a white/chartreuse jig, then switched the white to speckled blue/chartreuse jig. Caught fish anywhere from 4’ to 30’ of water; they seemed to be all over the place with no rhyme or reason. One strange thing I noticed was I caught a lot more fish in the front of the coves than in the back of them. Any insight from anyone as to why, I’d love to hear it. Fished from 8:00am to 2:00pm. Caught about 25 to 30 keepers. Since the fish being caught are larger, I’m only keeping 12” or larger. So I went home with 8 fish.

Sunday about the same as Saturday. Fished the same places. Water and weather about the same. Water was more stained; I imagine it was because there were so many boats Saturday kicking up waves. But, the fish weren’t bighting. Fished 8:00am to 1:00pm. Caught 10-15 keepers. When home with 2, 12”ers. Not sure what the deal was. There was a front that was close to KC, but not sure if it made it here or not. Did have an interesting encounter. I was dipping in some trees that were 20’ deep. Jig got snagged on some rope tied to a tree above the water line. Went down to pull the rope to unhook my jig, and the rope pulled back like a son-of-a-gun. Pulled the rope up and hooked was a 3’ catfish. Never saw one that big at Smithville before. Someone was going to have a nice dinner when they came back for their fish. Anyway, got tomorrow off and think I’ll be doing some more fishing. I’ll let you guys know how things go tomorrow. I think I’m going to try the Camp Branch side of the lake.

[Pole Bender]

Very nice couple of days, enjoy the third! If you find a line like that with a cat that size becareful of the hooks.

[got crappie]

apkape they did start letting out water might have something to do with different bite.

[APKape]

apkape they did start letting out water might have something to do with different bite.

There was a post by someone a couple days before mine that said they opened the dam up. Driving into Smithville the creek/channel that the water from the dam flows into was pretty high.

[beagle man]

sounds like a good time to me, as for the fish not in the back of the cove, bet the bait fish havent moved back yet, seems like when the water gets above 75 the bait fish here move shallow. and the big fish follow, I noticed you say no fish under 12in. you keep, does the lake need thined out of the bigger fish? never fished up north, so dont know.

[APKape]

sounds like a good time to me, as for the fish not in the back of the cove, bet the bait fish havent moved back yet, seems like when the water gets above 75 the bait fish here move shallow. and the big fish follow, I noticed you say no fish under 12in. you keep, does the lake need thined out of the bigger fish? never fished up north, so dont know.

The 12" limit is my thing. First few times I was out, I limited out within a couple of hours when I was keeping the 9" and above. Going for the bigger fish kept me on the water longer and hve more fun looking for them.

[crappiehawg]

Sounds like a good day--thanks for the report.

[InTheHills]

sounds like a good time to me, as for the fish not in the back of the cove, bet the bait fish havent moved back yet, seems like when the water gets above 75 the bait fish here move shallow. and the big fish follow, I noticed you say no fish under 12in. you keep, does the lake need thined out of the bigger fish? never fished up north, so dont know.

The one factor you have to consider here is that the Smithville crappie are just skinny. I don't know why but even the ones with length have no weight to them. So you will probably get the same meat from a Smithville 12" as a Truman 10" or maybe 10.5". I have seen a bunch of 13" of better fish come out of Smithville and even a few 14" but not a single one with any shoulders, width or weight to them. Just my observation.

GM

[APKape]

The one factor you have to consider here is that the Smithville crappie are just skinny. I don't know why but even the ones with length have no weight to them. So you will probably get the same meat from a Smithville 12" as a Truman 10" or maybe 10.5". I have seen a bunch of 13" of better fish come out of Smithville and even a few 14" but not a single one with any shoulders, width or weight to them. Just my observation.

GM

I've not noticed. The Fish and Game said that there was a good shad and minnow spawn causing the crappie to be larger this year. Not sure if that's true or not, but I've been catching some large fish this year.

[InTheHills]

Well maybe I am doing something wrong! You going to hit Smithville this week, maybe you can help me find those bigger ones.

I have gotten a few with the length and seen a bunch more caught from Smithville but they dont seem to have the weight. I could be all wrong. Lets go out and catch a couple limits together this week. We can tape and weight them and see how they come out in comparison. I never mind being shown the light, especially when I get to catch some big fish in the process!

GM