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Windy weekend for sure

RUGER

RUGER

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I managed to squeeze in 3 trips this weekend between keeping the grand daughter and honey-dos.
Had a mixed bag of trout, bass, bream and crappie.

Fished out of the boat on Saturday and it was absolutely brutal.
Fish were biting but staying on, or even CLOSE to them was dang near impossible.

For the weekend I ended up with 41 fish total and kept a mix of bream and crappie of only 19 fish.

I honestly believe 99% of the crappie at Garrett Lake stop growing at 9 7/8" :mad:
Gets harder and harder to throw back one that is literally 1/16" short.
I caught 17 Saturday and only had two legitimate keepers.
I may or may not have kept a third that may or may not of been legal. LOL
Just can't find the larger ones.

I really believe this coming weekend is gonna be GOOD.
Unless I change my mind I am going after ditch pickles this weekend.
Hoping to find a big pre-spawn hog mamma.

Of course if I happen up on a school of crappie or bream I will have a couple rods ready. ;)
 
gasman said:
Sounds like TWRA needs to take the size restrictions off and let folks thin them out. Whiteville Lake had that problem in yrs past and now I'm catching 10"-12" fish consistently.
Click to expand...
I had that conversation with the local officer two years ago.
He said he had begged and begged them to do just that.
He gave me the guys name to call and I did.
That guy said that they had seen no numbers that would indicate it needed to be done and he said that officer had never mentioned it to him.

From what I have seen lately I gotta believe the guy in Nashville was full of 💩 and was basically spouting off crap to get me off the phone.
I know there isn't a LOT of meat on a 9 1/2" crappie but I agree they need thinning out bad.
I believe @woodyard caught in excess of 60 crappie last year in one day and all but a few were short.
I am wondering where all those fish are now. I swear it seems like the just quit growing.
Also, of the fish I threw back Saturday, they were THICK which also leads me to believe there are just too many in there.

Another thing I don't get is at Carroll Lake there is no limit and no size restriction on crappie. :confused:
 
RUGER said:
I had that conversation with the local officer two years ago.
He said he had begged and begged them to do just that.
He gave me the guys name to call and I did.
That guy said that they had seen no numbers that would indicate it needed to be done and he said that officer had never mentioned it to him.

From what I have seen lately I gotta believe the guy in Nashville was full of 💩 and was basically spouting off crap to get me off the phone.
I know there isn't a LOT of meat on a 9 1/2" crappie but I agree they need thinning out bad.
I believe @woodyard caught in excess of 60 crappie last year in one day and all but a few were short.
I am wondering where all those fish are now. I swear it seems like the just quit growing.
Also, of the fish I threw back Saturday, they were THICK which also leads me to believe there are just too many in there.

Another thing I don't get is at Carroll Lake there is no limit and no size restriction on crappie. :confused:
Click to expand...
Last year at Whiteville Lake, me and Sandy caught limits 2 different times (120 fish) and very few were over 10". This weekend I caught 35 crappie and all but 6 were in 10"-12" range. As you said they were thick also.
 
RUGER said:
I had that conversation with the local officer two years ago.
He said he had begged and begged them to do just that.
He gave me the guys name to call and I did.
That guy said that they had seen no numbers that would indicate it needed to be done and he said that officer had never mentioned it to him.

From what I have seen lately I gotta believe the guy in Nashville was full of 💩 and was basically spouting off crap to get me off the phone.
I know there isn't a LOT of meat on a 9 1/2" crappie but I agree they need thinning out bad.
I believe @woodyard caught in excess of 60 crappie last year in one day and all but a few were short.
I am wondering where all those fish are now. I swear it seems like the just quit growing.
Also, of the fish I threw back Saturday, they were THICK which also leads me to believe there are just too many in there.

Another thing I don't get is at Carroll Lake there is no limit and no size restriction on crappie. :confused:
Click to expand...
My best day in the fall was 75 with 10 keepers and the next was 72 with 13 keepers. Most every short was over 91/2.
There are only 244 crappie in Garrett now. Lol we been plucking them out all fall and winter. been catching the same fish over and over. The bigs ones are scattered by their selves mostly now and relating to one stick or weed on the bottom. The smaller ones are still hanging together. They will all be back together about July.

With the two days of sun and the warm temps this weekend, the water should be warm enough for the spawn to begin. Steve McAdams says most of them have been struggling on the big lake with all the fronts. Spider riggers been having to cover a lot of water. It should be getting better everywhere this week. I may have to get back to fishing with those 20 mph sw winds like I used to. Might have to put me some hand hold ropes on the boat though. Lol

I have watched the fish guys shocking on Garrett two different years and the majority of the time they are running where the majority of the crappie are not at for that time of year. They basically followed the same patterns both years. That may give them good info on the bass,bg and the golden shiners but not exactly on the crappie.
 
Bass spawn could bust wide open by this weekend. All this rain though may make it very hard to see them.
 

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