7/6 & 7/9

got some time to get out panfishing!
7/6 went to a small private lake south of Hastings (sorry cannot give name ) with a friend of mine from eagle, spent 3 hours in a canoe tossing various color jigs and tubes.
lots of small crappie and bass , fish were only down about 3-6 ft and all were near the weed edges , caught probably around a 100 fish to keep 20 nice 10-11 inch crappie.
sure was exiting fishing from a canoe, have not done that for at least 30 years.
what made it more exciting was when the snake came out from under the middle seat after we got to the middle of the lake!!!!! I do NOT like snakes! :yikes
strange thing was that there were still bluegills on beds in less than 2 feet of water!
never seen fish on beds in JULY..........
7/9 , thornapple lake just a couple miles from me.
I wanted to see if fish on the beds was a fluke.
NOPE , found gills on the beds here also, both 2ft deep and 8 ft deep.
the 8 ft beds had a TON of fish around them, worms and waxies as fast as I could bait and drop in.
nothing big , but kept 25 for a couple meals all between 7 and 8 inches, went solo after work , but wish I would have had one of the grans with me, they would have had a blast!
water temp was 80

Interesting. Wonder how much all the rain had to do with the late bedding?

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in my private lake we had for 8 years BG would bed up at different times of spring and summer and we would go around to their usual areas and find them into july. nothing like bedded bg unless it's spawning crappie!

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Originally Posted by yankee doodler

Interesting. Wonder how much all the rain had to do with the late bedding?

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That is a great point Don. I think high water might have also played a key in all of it. The rain held the lake tempuratures down for quite awhile and the normal spawning grounds that were 2 feet of water are now in 6 feet of water!

The lake I went to last week, the water depth was 4 feet above what my maps show. On Erie, the majority of areas that are normally 15 feet deep are now almost 20! Going to make for an interesting year that is for sure.

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Originally Posted by wicklundrh

That is a great point Don. I think high water might have also played a key in all of it. The rain held the lake tempuratures down for quite awhile and the normal spawning grounds that were 2 feet of water are now in 6 feet of water!

The lake I went to last week, the water depth was 4 feet above what my maps show. On Erie, the majority of areas that are normally 15 feet deep are now almost 20! Going to make for an interesting year that is for sure.

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to some point I agree with the water level thoughts...BUT thornapple is basically a river and is always up and down due to rains.
right now it is normal and has been for a couple of weeks.
the cooler than normal spring and late arriving summer I think had the biggest effect along with the rains that we did get were colder than normal for so long..
:dono
probably 5-6 of the crappie I cleaned still had good sized egg sacks , it appears that they just did not spawn this year.
Erie is definitely MUCH higher than normal, will be plenty of things different down there I net.

Water temp in the Au Sable is 72. No beds. Have seen times when the B.G. were in 8-10' of water spawning around the 4th. of July. We caught Sunfish last week with eggs in them. Cold wet Spring has everything late this year, shallow lakes not so much.