Thread: Lower lake at Sardis!

Fished Lower Lake off the bank today. Lower Lake itself had only 3 or 4 boats tops. Just a trickle coming out of the gates, no surprise, as the Upper Lake was as high as a giraffe's adams apple. I checked by Honda.....Wyatt's Crossing, the boat ramp at hwy 7 Veterans Bridge ramp and the Tallahatchie was up over the top of the boat ramps and it was positively ripping at 10 am. On down around to Engineers Point, well, the islands off the ramp were nearly completely under water.
Back to the Lower Lake .......we did catch a few Crappies, no Slabs, and I only saw one fish that was even close to 12". The fish that were caught were taken with long casts, fixed float, 8 to 10 feet deep on single and double rig jigs. Any combination with Chartreuse in it worked, mine were caught mostly on Root Beer/Chartreuse/Pink Head. From the gates to the end of the riprap water was stained, the mud line was very distinct just past the rocks and no fish were caught in that muddy water. The bite lasted until around 1 so I left. That wind made things pretty dynamic casting that far, plenty of crossed lines as there were between 5 to 10 folks working those rocks. Everyone was very civil and understanding when the cast got hijacked by the wind.
All this rain and its gonna be one heck of a run this year, can't wait for the jigging in the bushes to start.....it ought to be one of the best.
That's what I saw and thought anyway today.

Originally Posted by Crappiemaniac

Well I’m just going to go ahead and post my real thoughts on this matter! Times has changed and the internet is here to stay! I can remember camping at grenada as kid in the 70’s and the boat ramps being full and folks parking in the grass. They might not have had quite as many boats back then but most of the boats were leaving there with 100-150 fish every
Spring. 50 fish limit and no boat limit and no 12 inch length limit. It’s going to take a lot of extra boats with a 15 fish limit 40 boat limit and 12 inch length limit to make up for the difference. I remember some people even neighbors around Tupelo back then coming back from a weekend of fishing in the spring coming home with 3-4 coolers full of crappie and people coming by and getting fish all the time. One guy that my dads trucking company hauled furniture for had a place at grenada. He would bring coolers to his plant on Monday mornings and let his employees get what they wanted. Ask the people at the dam store at Sardis how they feel about the folks from other states spending money in the local community to benefit from. I have serious doubts they could stay open just from the local folks. It’s getting hard to even find minnows in most other places anymore. We don’t need to lose anymore places. With most people these days ordering most of there tackle on the internet it’s awful hard for most what you can call a real bait shop to stay open. Ask the guy that raises the minnows, the local restaurants and hotels how they feel. Just think of all the money from out of state fishing license we as MS fishermen benefit from. With out it it could mean not having the nice new docks or the real nice fish cleaning stations like the one at Engineers point or even the clean heated bathrooms that stay open Year round and the new concrete fishing piers below each dam for the handicapped and folks that can’t afford a boat. As far as the lower lake. Why do you think there’s no length limit down there. Just go down river to the deep holes and follow every pig trail to water you can find and see how many of them upper lake fish are caught on there trip to Mississippi. My late uncle grew up down that way and up till a few years ago still went down stream and fished the banks every year during heavy water releases. I sure hope when I go to TN and AL fishing none of the local folks hold a grudge. A lot of people on here have good friends from other states that come down every year and I never hear a complaint about it. These are federal lakes paid for with federal tax money from the whole United States. I’ve lived in MS my whole life and am now 50 years old and have been a avid fisherman since I was old enough to hold a pole. Not everyone can fish all the time or live long enough to retire. If I can help the ones that don’t get to fish as much or catch their crappie of a lifetime from me posting a report Then I’ll just have to be frowned upon. Man I love this site and all the friends I’ve made. But there is a reason the views are down and I hope we can get it back to where it use to be. Until one of these local folks that complains about these outsiders shows me a Deed to these lakes I’m not likely going to change my mind. I’ve always respected Rees (John) because I don’t think he has ever meet a stranger and helps anyone know matter if they are from MS or not. This is only
My opinion which usually don’t mean much. Good fishing to all. Because some people don’t get to enjoy it as long as others.


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Amen. If I knew you I'd buy you a beer or 12.