04/30/2007

Water Temperature North End – 69 Rising
Middle South Main Channel – 68 Rising
Water Level = Normal pool and flowing
Water Clarity = Stained and Clearing
Last Rain = 04/26/07


Just a short report, the past couple of days fishing has been very slow. The weather front has taken its time and is dragging it’s way through here. Because of the weather the crappies are off the beds. The bass and gills are the only things biting. This morning I was guiding 2 new friends John and Ron. In 2 ½ hours we boated 2 gills, 1 bass and 1 crappie. The focus this morning was crappie and I cut the trip short to add time onto the afternoon for bass fishing. Wish us luck!

This is where I left the report on Friday morning. The crappie went somewhere and I had no idea how to get them to bite. John and Ron were doing their best to hide their disappointment and fishing just had to get better!

I picked them up at Ron’s dock at 1:30 pm and everyone had their bass gear on. I had a white and red spinner bait and a crawdad crank bait. John had a green/brown brush hopper and I had Ron tie on a crawdad crank bait. We started the afternoon fishing a mid-lake main channel shoreline. We fished it to a point and as we rounded the point John set the hook and pulled in the first bass of the afternoon. Shortly afterwards Ron set the hooks and landed a second. We fished up the shore from the point on a weedy shelve and to make a long story shorter, it was the here’s Johnnie fishing show! The show included a 3 pounder, 3 fish over 16”, 3 under 12” and 4 in the slot! See UBO front page

John was on fire and the bass were co-operating. What we fished into was a major feeding frenzie! At first we thought the fish were spawning on the shore but no, the bass were chasing threadfin shad from the deeps and into the shoreline and we were there to capitalize. Well, at least John capitalized.

When the action slowed down I went to another point and I caught one on the crawdad. We tried another main channel bank and nothing. We went back to the point we started on and nothing. Before the end to the evening we caught one more and you guessed it, John caught it on the brush hopper 10 minutes before we called it a night!

So, the bass fishing is hot! What happened to the crappie??

Fish On!

Mike O.
UBetcha Outdoors

04/27/2007

Water Temperature North End - 66
Middle South Main Channel - 64
Water Level = 6’ inches over normal pool and flowing
Water Clarity = Stained and Clearing
Last Rain = 04/26/07


Just a short report, the past couple of days fishing has been very slow. The weather front has taken its time and is dragging it’s way through here. Because of the weather the crappies are off the beds. The bass and gills are the only things biting. This morning I was guiding 2 new friends John and Ron. In 2 ½ hours we boated 2 gills, 1 bass and 1 crappie. The focus this morning was crappie and I cut the trip short to add time onto the afternoon for bass fishing. Wish us luck!

Fish On!

Mike O.UBetcha Outdoors

04/25/2007

Water Temperature North End - 69
Middle South Main Channel - 68
Water Level = 6’ inches over normal pool and flowing
Water Clarity = Stained and Clearing
Last Rain = 04/25/07


The bass and the crappie are going to the banks and the spawn is beginning! Now that doesn’t mean all the fish are spawning. Some are and more will follow over the next 4 weeks. The peak will be over the next week.

What is happening is you can fish just off the shelves at 8 feet staging. On the shelves chasing. And on the banks spawning. The fish you want to catch are the fish on the shelves chasing. The staging fish aren’t active and the spawning fish have something else on their mind like spawning! Fish with almost anything that looks like shad or crawdads.

For crappie I will be using Road Runners, 1/16 ounce jigs, or jigs with a bobber set 3 to 1 foot. Whatever bait you use keep it around the 3 to 1-foot mark. The areas to focus on are weed beds, weed beds with structure (stumps, brush piles, rocks) or just structure. The weed beds are not as thick this year and I believe it is because the property owners have been using weed killer over the past 3 years to clean-up their shoreline and it has accumulated causing weeds to die out all over the lake. This happened 15 years ago and the power plant got the blame but I believe it was all of us just trying to clean up our shoreline that did the deed. More on this later.

For bass, fish shallow and put your bait into the cover. If you fish the beds you need pin point accuracy and you have to antagonize the fish to strike more out of defense then because of hunger. So, fish slow and have a lot of patience. Jigs work well here. Now the ones cruising the shelves are hungry and looking for a spot on the bank to spawn. These guys are aggressive and hungry! So fish aggressively! Spinner baits and crawdad crank-baits work well here. Buzz your bait over cover, let it drop and buzz it back in.

I was out guiding my buddy Tom this past Friday. We fished for crappie and caught a mixture of crappie, bass, and rock bass. We started seeing fish on the banks as well as fish chasing shad. We didn’t catch as many crappies as we would have liked but before the weekend was over Tom fished a shelve I showed him and caught 20 crappie making up for the slow day on Friday. Good job Tom! We fished 1/8-ounce red and chartreuse jigs and fished them the way I described above.

I’ll be out there today, tomorrow, Friday and Saturday sooooo…

Fish On!

Mike O.
UBetcha Outdoors

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

04/12/2007

Water Temperature North End - 56
Middle South Main Channel - 62
Water Level = 3 inches over normal pool and flowing
Water Clarity = Stained and Clearing
Last Rain = 04/11/07


Here’s another short report. I’ve been turkey hunting since Monday. My brother-in-law Chuck killed a 22 pounder, 11 ½” beard on Monday. I killed a 21 pounder 9 ½ beard this morning!

In between time we did get out on the water. We were using chartreuse and red jigs 1/16 once and fished 2 to 3 foot deep. We fished for 2 hours in the evening and caught 4 crappie from 14 ½” to 9 ½” and one bass at 16’ (Chuck out fished me again). The fish are still up even with the cold temperatures! We fished mainly around wood. The spawn has not occurred, yet!

Sorry about the short report but I am still reeling on the turkey. It’s a tough time of the year with all the hunting and the fishing! I will be fishing this weekend in my annual crappie fishing camp! Hoooo, hooo!

Fish On!

Mike O.

UBetcha Outdoors

04/02/2007

Water Temperature North End - 67
Middle South Main Channel - 67
Water Level = 3 inches over normal pool and flowing
Water Clarity = Stained & Clearing
Last Rain = 04/01/07

Crappie fishing has been phenomenal! The numbers are acceptable with many daily (fishing morning and afternoon) catches of 24 and up reported. More important the size of the crappie is phenomenal. The fishermen I’ve been fishing with are catching 13, 14, and 15-inch fish with regularity. And 16 inchers aren’t uncommon. Saturday I caught a 16 5/8 inch crappie. This morning I landed a 16 ¾ incher and it weighed 2 pounds 5 ounces! That is my third 16 plus inch fish over the past 2 weeks!

This morning I fished with my friend Doug. We were on the water at 6:00 am and had 16 fish in the boat by 9:30. Besides the 16 incher we had a 13, 14, and 15. Dave insisted we throw the big ones back for seed and we kept the 10 to 12 inchers for dinner. Hats off to Dave. Over the weekend my brother-in-law Chuck and I released everything we caught and that included Chuck’s 2-pound crappie and many fish that were 13 to 15 inches. Jim fished this weekend catching 15 incher's as well!

Crappies are chasing and active in water 12 to 7 feet deep. You want to fish 7 to 3 feet deep over structure. Wood with weed is working the best. I’m using 16-ounce jigs with red and chartreuse tubes.

The fish aren’t spawning but they are way up in the shallows chasing shad. Their backs at times can be seen. The fish cleaned are showing eggs that are still 1 to 3 weeks away from the spawn.

As I’m writing the report the weatherman is predicting a cold front to arrive in the area tomorrow with storms and dropping temperatures below normal through the weekend. This should slow down the bite and move the fish out of the shallows as the water temperatures fall.

In the meantime hooooo, hooo …

Fish On!

Mike O.
UBetcha Outdoors
www.ubetchaoutdoors.com