09/26/2007

Water Temperature North End – 78 Steady
Middle South Main Channel – 78 Steady
Water Level = 26 Inches Below Normal pool and Dropping
Water Clarity = Clear
Last Rain = 09/24/07

The crappie bite is on! Well, if all you want are small fish.

Over the weekend my brother Charlie and I caught a few and not one over 10 inches. Jim was fishing with is buddy Dick and Dick’s wife Sharon. They did better with a couple of crappie over 10 inches. The crappie were caught sort of scattered in 7 to 14 feet of water. Most were caught in the main channel and it helps to be around brush in the deeper water and weed and brush in the 7 foot water. We caught them on jigs, Road Runners and crappie sized spinner baits. On LOE there isn’t a limit on how big you can keep them and I hope all of us would return the small ones. Overall the crappie fishing was slow to fair.

Bass fishing was fair. My brother and I caught some on spinner baits. Dick did better with more and bigger fish. Dick was catching them up to 16 + inches on rubber worm presentations as Jim was looking for deep water crappie. Once again the bass were caught in the main channel on points and flats.

More importantly I got a chance to fish with my 5 year old grandson Logan from my boat. It was a wonderful experience. My son Adam had him casting and fishing since he was 3 years old and it showed. Logan started off fishing a frog over the weeds, which he talked me into buying him while we were at the marina buying worms. Many cast later Logan stated the bass are not biting so we switched over to blue gills. After refining our gear and using smaller hooks we started catching gills. We boated many gills and my grandson caught 3 on his own cast, hook and retrieval. He was very proud of the ones he caught by himself and I was very proud he knew the difference. Logan was so happy he added me and Uncle Charlie to his list of fishing buddies and Uncle Charlie even got invited to his next birthday party! That's a very prestigous invite! Grandma has been uninvited 3 times for making him eat his vegtables! Before the outing was over he was practicing his fish story. That’s when I knew he is a chip off the old block!

Twenty three years ago his dad Adam and I … well it doesn’t get any better!

Fish On!
Mike O.
UBetcha Outdoors

09/12/2007

Water Temperature North End – 80 Dropping
Middle South Main Channel – 79 Dropping
Water Level = 22 Inches Below Normal pool and Dropping
Water Clarity = Clear
Last Rain = 09/08/07


The crappie bite is on!

I have received many reports of catching a lot of crappie with limits coming in everyday! The fish are small and under 10 inches in length. On LOE there isn’t a limit on how big you can keep them and I hope that all of us would return the small ones.

Most of the fish are biting on chartreuse/red or chartreuse/black, 1/16 ounce jigs and at the 8 foot level in front of weedy drop-offs in the main channel dragging the jig or using a cast and a slow retrieve.

I’ll be out there this weekend (maybe before) giving it a try. So stay tuned and...

Fish On!
Mike O.
UBetcha Outdoors

09/5/2007

Water Temperature
North End – 84 Dropping
Middle South Main Channel – 84 Dropping
Water Level = 20 Inches Below Normal pool and Dropping
Water Clarity = Clear
Last Rain = 08/29/07

Labor day weekend came and went. The summer season is over and it is time to switch over to the fall crappie season.

Last weekend gave us a mixed bag of success. On Sunday morning I went fishing with Bud and Chuck. We were only fishing for bass rising on shad. We were fishing by 6:30 AM scanning the horizon for rising fish. Singles were popping up every now and then. Schools of rising fish were not seen. Chuck and Bud suggested we should fish closer to the shore for the occasional rising single. I responded by insisting they have patience. Ten minutes later I sensed a mutiny. Lucky for me the rises started and we found them in the main channel. We fished until 8:30 AM and caught around 18 bass. The biggest was a 14 incher and quantity was there so the mutiny was avoided.

Saturday evening Bud and I were on the lake at 4:30 PM where we met Jim. Jim was watching a couple of fishermen in a pontoon boat land 8 bass off a main channel flat. They were using a crank bait. Jim reported the fish were good sized and one may have been an 18 incher. There was a lot of boat traffic so Jim went to the back waters and Bud and I braved the frenzy and went into the ski area. We found some minor rises in a bay leading to the main channel and managed to catch 4 bass and lost 2 others. The ones we caught had no size to them but the ones we lost… Jim caught 2 bass in the back waters and one or two worming a main channel flat. Tim and his wife Nancy were in the back bays as well and Nancy out fished Tim by landing a 17.5 incher, 3.4 pounds! They caught 7 fish total and all the rest were 12 to 15 inchers.

Tim, send me a picture of Nacy's fish and I'll post it.

Monday morning was terrible! My thermos spilled over 20 minutes after I got to the spot, I had to head back up the lake to take a dum… and 2 hours later all Bud and I caught were 2 very small bass. Jim had a similar experience except I think he caught 3. Jim tried crappie fishing as the morning went on catching one and officially opening the fall crappie season!

Fish On!
Mike O.
UBetcha Outdoors