EF 8/11

My dad and I fished EF for about 4.5 hours this morning. Perfect weather and water conditions. No rain, water in good condition despite heavy rains last night.

I continue to be disappointed in the size of crappie there. Haven't fished it since last September and I fish open water with double-minnow rigs this time of year. Last year, I remember I could only manage about 10 keepers out of a hundred+ fish. Places where I used to haul in some nice fish. Today, we must have caught 60 crappie and only 3 were above 9" and just barely. I don't want to get carried away with only one trip this year, but there seems to be a problem with crappie that isn't fixing itself -at least not as quick as I would like :)

Fishing used to be so much better there. Seems like they are stunted to me. Maybe not enough shad in the lake anymore? I'll probably be going again in a week to meet some family up there and fish. It's a great place for kids to catch a bunch of fish but guess we need to wait if we want to catch a mess. Incidentally, rain was threatening so I'm sure that kept some people away but for a summer morning, there weren't many trailers in the parking lot.

mbk

​Glad you were at least able to get on the water. One thing about it, shorts are better than skunks. lol

Well, its not the Musky, they don't eat Crappie.

NP

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Originally Posted by Nightprowler

Well, its not the Musky, they don't eat Crappie.

NP

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You don't have to worry about those stinky muskies anymore, they discontinued the stocking program. They ran some nets last year and are finding very few fish.
Now if they would just discontinue stocking those mutant white bass (aka: hybrid stripers) they could start a saugeye stocking program and make everyone happy.

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Originally Posted by crappiemax

You don't have to worry about those stinky muskies anymore, they discontinued the stocking program. They ran some nets last year and are finding very few fish.
Now if they would just discontinue stocking those mutant white bass (aka: hybrid stripers) they could start a saugeye stocking program and make everyone happy.

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A guy putting in same time as me was after hybrids. Not sure how he did. We caught a few channels. I have never seen a musky in that lake except the one time I happened to be putting in at the exact same time as the stocking truck. Tons of 15" musky at the ramp.

I caught lots of 5" crappie yesterday. So seems like spawning is happening. But so many 7" fish and not a single nice larger fish makes me think there's just too many of them in the lake based upon available food.

mbk

I've caught a muskies, 3 or 4 most were small but I had 1 that was around 26-28". Only time I catch a decent hybrid is when it's cold out and more times than not they are 20' deep.
I really much rather see some saugeye.

I'd be lying if I said weren't getting any good fish but as I've said many, many times there are a bunch of small fish in that lake.
I don't think lack of food is the problem either there are huge schools of shad in that lake.
I only keep 10"+ fish and I only keep enough usually just for me and the wife. On a rare occasion I'll keep some for some friends. I can normally get enough for a few meals when ever I want them so I don't have much need to fill the freezer with every 10" fish I catch. If filling my freezer was the goal, I wouldn't head to EF. Other area lakes have a much better dink to keeper ratio.
I know what area you are fishing and if it was me...I'd probably fish a little deeper.

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Originally Posted by crappiemax

I've caught a muskies, 3 or 4 most were small but I had 1 that was around 26-28". Only time I catch a decent hybrid is when it's cold out and more times than not they are 20' deep.
I really much rather see some saugeye.

I'd be lying if I said weren't getting any good fish but as I've said many, many times there are a bunch of small fish in that lake.
I don't think lack of food is the problem either there are huge schools of shad in that lake.
I only keep 10"+ fish and I only keep enough usually just for me and the wife. On a rare occasion I'll keep some for some friends. I can normally get enough for a few meals when ever I want them so I don't have much need to fill the freezer with every 10" fish I catch. If filling my freezer was the goal, I wouldn't head to EF. Other area lakes have a much better dink to keeper ratio.
I know what area you are fishing and if it was me...I'd probably fish a little deeper.

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Thanks. Yes. I know we've discussed fishing locations in the past. My thought was next weekend, I'm going to switch it up. I've been fishing in 12-20 foot of water and they are there, at least the small ones. I may try the mouth of a cove which has much deeper water. If I go, I'll post results.

I havent fished much for them the past few years and i am not sure how well they have done recently, but i enjoyed fishing for the hybrid stripers at ef. They are a blast to catch and believe it or not some of our best days was in 90 degree weather in 10 to 15 foot of water. You could get over a school of them and have every rod on the boat go down. Also never had problems catching many crappie in the same time periods. But i agree alot more small fish lately for me as well there. Haven't been on here much lately but how are you crappie max. I no longer have my old blue and white cc starcraft, bought a new ranger 1882wt this season. Did you go to kentucky lake this season?

Hey Liprippersc78
I thought you got a new boat but I didn't know what you got, I hope it's working well for you.
No Ky Lake for me this year. I screwed up my knee in late March and had it operated on in early May. By the time rehab was over it was into June. My buddy Ken (the guy you ran into at Ky Lake) is going through cataract surgery on both eyes though out August so we've been stuck at home all year. We've been talking about going to Erie perch fishing next month but who knows if that will happen.
I've still got the same old boat so if ya happen to see me out there stop and say hi.

There's a ton of shad in the lake.I was crappie fishing one night and there was thousands of Shad beating the bank.I had the same problem with a bunch of 8 inch fish.Ive given up on East Fork.


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