Thread: Missy water temps

Trying to find Crappie from Hogsback to upstream. All I'm getting is male white bass. 30 the last two days.

I think this cold snap has slowed them down and scattered them. The white bass seem more willing to bite but they seem scattered also, haven't really got into a big school of them yet. Weather dosen't look promising through next week, low 60's with rain and wind

Fished the lake yesterday with a boat this time. Water temps were from low to mid 50s. Could not buy a bite anywhere early. Finally found some fish in the evening in the back of a cove. Seen a lot of them hitting the surface so went with a bobber and tube jg setup a foot deep and started getting them. Highlight of the day, a 14 incher that was very fat. I had seen a fish hit the surface, casted to the spot immediately, and the bobber was gone as soon as it hit the water. While cleaning the fish i seen it had engulfed a huge shad minnow.

Outing yesterday around hogsback resulted in a few more white bass, no crappie. 2 guys fishing tubes and minnows got 1 white bass. Water a little more stained after the morning rains. Not as much surface activity as seen on Thursday.
Upstream or down? I'm guessing down.

Red bridge temp 59 hog back area temp was 62 at 4pm 2 of us caught 2 gar 40 crappie 9 to 11 inches spider rig n a minnow rig

I was getting around 59*-61* , limited out Friday and Sat, size ran 9"-11" , only kept the ones 10" and above, and threw a lot back. Never got into the bigger ones, like in years past. None had turned "black" so not sure how close they are to spawning. Timing was key, bite would go from nothing, to slow, to almost every cast for 30-40 minutes, to slow again, then just stop. I sent a friend out later in the day and he only caught ten. Glad to see the DNR out Sat. checking things out. A lot of rain with storms coming this week followed by cooler temps so looks like this will be it for a while. Was really hoping to get into a school of white bass, but they were really scattered and random.

Finally caught a break yesterday afternoon and was able to get out. Fished the main lake down from Red Bridge. Water temps 55. Spider Rigged 6-10 feet deep, caught fish in 12 to 30 feet of water. Couldn't find anything in less than 12 feet of water. Most productive depth was 12-17 feet. Probably caught 50-75 fish between 2 and 7 in the afternoon, kept 10 for my grandkids, they love fresh fish. Fish ran fro 8 to 11". Most productive color was electric chicken, but also caught decent fish on a white pearl and a black/smoke glitter minnow type bait, also a yellow body with white and red tail tube. No minnows, only used crappie nibbles.

Fished back in goose creek last evening from the bank. Probably caught 70 or so, kept 20 about 9-10 inches not really any big fish this time around. Was catching them on minnows and a slip as well as a tube jig. I was catching a lot of black crappie up close to the bank but none had started to turn that dark color they get during spawn. Best bite for me was the last hour to hour and a half before dark. Almost every cast during that time period. Forecast this week is terrible, 2 inches or more of rain. Probably enough to get the water real high and kill off a bunch of spawn when it happens and they lower the water afterward. Maybe we will get lucky with it being dry and the rivers so low that the lake wont get ridiculously high for too long.