The Crappie Killer - Fall 2001
 

Ray Roberts Lake, Texas
September 29, 2001

No heavy weights today. Just a nice limit of keepers. Largest fish weighed just under a pound. All of the fish today came on minnows. I fished all new spots today. Dylan and I spent a lot of our time looking for new brush piles in 20 - 30 feet of water on the main channel. We found three new Corp. of Engineers brush piles this morning. Each produced fish. With the cooler weather and high winds, the fish were a bit picky. They were holding very tight to the brush. Dropping the bait until it hit the top of the structure and letting it dangle right at it was the key. I talked to four other Crappie Fishermen this morning and the most any of them had was six fish. There were a lot of people fishing in the standing timber and under the bridges. I'm sure both places produced a few fish. My money is on main channel brush piles right now. Try all of the places mentioned though, all should produce fish on through December.

Ray Roberts Lake, Texas
September 22, 2001

Video games, movies, cartoons, Pokemon all pale in comparison to a kid catching a fish. Nothing gets a toothless smile from a six year faster than a big fat Crappie pulling on the end of his Snoopy rod. Gives 'ole dad a pretty good feeling as well.

Ray Roberts gave up 35 nice fat Crappies to Walt, Adam, Dylan and the killer on Saturday. We fished for about four hours over brush piles in 24 - 30 feet of water with minnows. The fish were 8 - 14 feet deep early. They moved a little deeper when the wind quit and the sun came out.

Today was for the boys. We took our time and let them catch fish. The wind was down and it was cool. Just a perfect day to have them along. If you have never seen the look on a kids face after boating a nice fat Crappie you are missing out on one of life's great gifts. Do yourself and some lucky kid a favor, go fishing.

The fishing on Ray Roberts is fantastic right now. If you can find time to make a trip, DO IT NOW MISTER! You will not regret it.

Ray Roberts Lake, Texas
September 1, 2001

With the threat of severe thunderstorms looming over our heads, Walt and I made the 60 mile trip to the Northern end of Lake Ray Roberts on Saturday. It rained for about the first 30 miles, then tapered off and quit. Or as my father would say "it's started to stop". We were floating by 7:30 am, a quick trip at 65mph down the lake and we were fishing before 7:45am.

A quick cruise across the length of a huge brush pile in 30 feet of water showed the fish stacked on top of the pile. Suspended about 14 - 16 feet down. Long lines through the Lowrance screen above the brush showed the fish were feeding. If you see very well defined arches on your screen, this usually means the fish stayed in the transducer cone, and were pretty much motionless.

Experience has taught me that these are generally inactive fish. So when I saw big balls of shad and lots of lines zipping through and around them on my screen, near this big piece of structure, I got excited. Within seconds Walt and I both had fish flopping in the bottom of the boat.

The red glitter and chartreuse jig produced some fish today, but the minnows out did it five to one. After catching 20 nice fish on this hole, we put 8 in the box, released the rest and moved on. Walt and I fished 3 more spots this day, catching at least 50 - 60 more fish. The key today was the weather and boat position. With the storms moving in the fish were on the move. With  the cloud cover the low light conditions positioned the fish on top of the structure, suspended 8 - 16 feet down.

Dangling a lively minnow or a jig in that range resulted in a strike in seconds. The sun peaked out for about 45 minutes and drove the fish down. They were harder to catch after that, but they were still biting when we quit at noon. We ended the day with 38 keepers in the box. Big ten weighed in at 11 lbs plus. Biggest fish was 1 3/4 lbs. The freezer was empty so these boys were welcome at the ole killa's house.

We are off to NC next week for the NACA Kerr Lake event. I'll be fishing with Mike Ritter in the pro division. I'll post the results as soon as they are available.