04/16/2007

Water Temperature North End - Rising 51
Middle South Main Channel - Rising 49
Water Level = 12’ inches over normal pool and flowing
Water Clarity = Stained
Last Rain = 04/14/07


Jim Dooley wins the annual crappie camp and gathering with 7 fish that weighed a total of 5 pounds 7 ounces. Jim’s bucket of fish is featured on my home fish. Brian Wiggs split the pot by catching the big crappie at 1 pound 11 ounces. Brian just miss doing it all by 4 ounces. He had 6 fish total that weighed 5 pound 4 ounces!

It was a tough day out there! We had to deal with rain, wind and dropping temperatures most of the day. It was a wonder anyone caught a fish and most boats did not catch any crappie. Jim’s boat caught 11 total and my boat caught 12. My brother-in-law’s boat caught 1 crappie and that was all the crappie caught out of 18 fishermen! Amazingly a lot of bass were caught.

Here's a list of the catch.

Jim - 8 crappie - bucket of fish pictured on UBO home page

Brian - 6 crappie - pictured with 2 biggest

Adam (my son) - 3 crappie (and a lot of bass)

Dick - 3 crappie

Me - 2 crappie

Jessica (my daughter) - 1 crappie - pictured

Arlen - 1 crappie - pictured

Most everyone caught fish of some sort and should be congratulated for their efforts on such a terrible weather day to be fishing in.

We found crappie working 1/6-ounce chartreuse and red jigs in 7 to 11 feet of water and casting and retrieving or dragging at 2 to 6 feet. Jim did catch some of his fish in 15 feet of water but most of his were found over weeds at the depths I just described. All of our fish were caught over wood. Our fish finders were showing fish stacked at 12 feet and next to the shelves but the fish in the shallows were the biters.

The bass were caught using the same method. It just goes to show you an ugly day on LOE is a great bass fishing day.

The weathermen are predicting mostly warming air temperatures for the next 5 days with a minor cold front to pass through on Wednesday. Let the water temperatures rise and then stabilize for 3 days and the spawn will occur. Some crappie will spawn in between regardless. Just like a women bearing a child when the time comes, the baby comes regardless of the weather.

Fish On!

Mike O.
UBetcha Outdoors