Thread: The Reelfoot Report

From talking to everyone on the lake today, as well as a few guides I know, fishing is slow and steady for the most part all over.

Water temp: Started out at 49 this morning and stayed that way for a few hours. But when the sun came out it shot up quick! got as high as 59 but settled back to abot 57 by the end of the day.

The lake is only slightly stained and much more clear than I am used to thsi time of year. I traveld all over today and saw alot of clear water where its usually very stained. Not sure what that means for the fishing. Lilly pads are coming up and just under the surface in a few places I noticed.

Started out this mornin on the extreme south end of Buck Basin. Trolled all the way from there to Simon pocket which took 4 hours! Caught 9 fish. Threw all but 3 back. Got myself a nice suprise when i caught a hard fighting stubbie (black crappie) 13 inches. I am including a pic of it. I know its no monster but black crappie are hard to come by sometimes at Reelfoot and i rarely catch one. He was very thick! I talked to a whole bunch of folks that had not caught anything. Fish were there the last few days but not today. Moved through rag point ditch and tried to jig the timber just outside there. Water was very clear. No bites. Moved across and fished the shoreline at Rat Island. Caught a few small fish. Moved inot rat island pocket, extreme northern end of Moultrie Field. Fish were there in about 4-5ft of water. Caught a few but felt it was still slow so I started back across the lake. Had 8 fish. It was 3:00 and I was tired, hot, and sunburned. The ride back across the lake cooled me off so i decided to try another spot. Never see anyone fishing but I have before with decent success. Got set up and by 5:30 had my limit. Nice fish. Two yanks in a rental boat were close by were amazed at the rate I was pulling them in.

Said they had been there since Thursday and had not caught a single fish. I hgave them 12 of mine. Fished on about another 30 -45 minutes and caught 7 or 8 more good ones. Threw them back. Already had my limit even though i gave thsoe guys some of them. Plus I didnt want to clean them all anyway! never left a 50 yard line the whole time. Tossed two markers and fished back and forth and just tore them up. After a tough day riding around slow and getting sunburned I had alot of fun. Got off the lake about 30 mintues before dark. Had my hands full the last 2-3 hours. Learned a few things too!

Trolled jigs tipped with a minnow. Thump-it jigs By Skip Nance (skiptomylu) here on crappie.com. They ahmmered them. And I never lost one and they all held up and are still on my poles for next time. I decided not to go tomorrow since I got burned. Ill be out there on Wednesday. Ill report back on conditions throughout the week. Everyone feel free to report in this thread. Im excited to be after them again!

here are some pics. First is of last Monday before I moved out of Buzzard Slough and had some slabs. Second is the black crappie today. Last is of what i brought home. Pics are not great. You can see the black crappie is 13 inches, then notice him in the top right of the entire catch pic. Lots of others his size and just a bit bigger. they dont look like mcuh. But 13-14 inches or so and thick and they were heavy! Along with a few 10-11 inchers. I gave away those 12 and about half of those were 13 inches or so as well. Enjoy!

Oh. And the black crappie was pale lookinf when i caught him, but notice how after a day in the livewell he turned dark black!

http://s441.photobucket.com/albums/q...ent=3-9-09.jpg

http://s441.photobucket.com/albums/q...ackcrappie.jpg

http://s441.photobucket.com/albums/q...t=03-16-09.jpg

Originally Posted by BANDIT

Nice report WTC. Here is my report. We fished hard today and kept 34 good fish. We caught them in 12 to 16 foot of water on minnows. Here is a pic of the biggest. 2 lbs 3 1/2 oz. This is close to the biggest crappie that I have ever caught on the foot.

Nice Catch!!!