Thread: Need suggestions

You certainly covered most of the bases it sounds like to me.

What size minnows? Don't buy smalls, buy mediums. Smalls don't exist in lakes or rivers right now. Minnows in lakes don't spawn until at least mid June, or even July. I proved this point to a neighbor one year, as the wife and I were catching crappie, and they weren't. It does make a difference.

Originally Posted by S10CHEVY

What size minnows? Don't buy smalls, buy mediums. Smalls don't exist in lakes or rivers right now. Minnows in lakes don't spawn until at least mid June, or even July. I proved this point to a neighbor one year, as the wife and I were catching crappie, and they weren't. It does make a difference.

We bought fatheads. They were about 3" long and some were bigger.

Originally Posted by gdengr

We bought fatheads. They were about 3" long and some were bigger.

IMO, they were too big. 2 inch or smaller work well for me.

Originally Posted by gdengr

My wife and I fished at Glendale Lake, yesterday. Water temperature was 45-47 degrees at the surface.
The ice has been off the lake for a little over a week now. We marked a lot of bait schools and fish in 20-30 foot of water.
We marked fish from the bottom all the way up to about 5 feet below the surface.
We caught 8 nice crappies ranging from 10 to 12 inches for 6 hours of fishing. It was slow for us.

We used slip bobbers with minnows and varied the depth from 25 feet to 10 feet down. We caught most fish that way.

While fishing we noticed some type of insects flying around. We also noticed fish activity on the surface at times.
We then tried using a hair jig with a fixed bobber. We used black and white jigs with crappie nibbles, and we caught one crappie on the black one.
We varied the depth from 1-5 feet below the bobber.

We also tried flatlining with plastics. BG baby shads and twister tails. We varied the countdown for starting the retrieve.
Tried various colors.
We used slab sauce with the plastics. No fish caught that way.

Is there anything else we could/should have tried? We are beginners to crappie fishing so suggestions would be appreciated.

Hey gdengr. I have fished Glendale before many years, I mostly fish the slate lick side left arm from the dam breast. I start by the blowdown on right from there up about mile on left then you are in 3-6’ there is a old busted splash dam there. Myself I would fish small jigs and little plastic about 1”to 1 1/2” fish will tell you want they want , start out on small baits and work bigger if you need to , I don’t have much luck this early with minnows. Minnow lives matter! Try to find warmer water , boat docks , north bays black bottoms . My preference is not Glendale, bald eagle either. Right now I would start in 20 or shallower 10’ then 8 to 4’ water temp. Needs to come up. Went to Clearfield to sports show, find guy that make 3/4” plastics In real good colors, Limestone bait co , Clarion pa. He is buying more molds for crappie fishing, sounds good. Hope I helped you some. Go fish Shenango isn’t the right.Chaunc!


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Thanks for the input so far.
I am still curious about what could be hatching this early in the year. There was a lot of surface activity at times.
I even saw a few crappies break the surface.
I will try to make a few more trips to Glendale to see if I can figure something out.
Shenango will have to wait until later in the year. I am scheduled for knee replacement surgery in April.

Originally Posted by gdengr

Thanks for the input so far.
I am still curious about what could be hatching this early in the year. There was a lot of surface activity at times.
I even saw a few crappies break the surface.
I will try to make a few more trips to Glendale to see if I can figure something out.
Shenango will have to wait until later in the year. I am scheduled for knee replacement surgery in April.

Yep know about knee replacement had both of mine done , both at the same time in 2009. Good luck with your surgery . Bugs probably were some kind of bottom insects that come up from bottom sometimes like May flys


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Originally Posted by Zimmy

Yep know about knee replacement had both of mine done , both at the same time in 2009. Good luck with your surgery . Bugs probably were some kind of bottom insects that come up from bottom sometimes like May flys


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Thanks Zimmy. I have been putting the surgery off for over a year now because of COVID. Getting to the point where I can't put off any more.

What could be used to imitate a hatching may fly?

What boat launch do you use at shenango? Maybe we could meet there sometime for a fishing trip.