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Bonny 05/22 & 05/23

1497 Views 11 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Zman
Hot weather! Hot fishing! It would have been considered (maxed out) but the camping party was big. 9 license holders, 6 of the 9 were the hardcore fishermen who needs help for their addictions (including myself). The other three were rookies, but had a blast, plus they were our main cooks (my lady included).

Fished the dam. It was a mad house in the morning, but everyone had dissapointing results and left by noon. Some anglers had only 2 to 3 on their stringers (average sized white bass). Most were jigging and working out the legs rock hopping the length of the dam (FRIKKIN MOTIVATED ANGLERS!). We fished the north corner. We were lucky. We had minnows under bobbers and stayed put as the waves of bites turned on and off up until like 10:30am when it slowed. Apparently they (the fish) wanted nothing but minnows under bobbers. That morning we totaled like 40 crappie which ranged from 10 inches to about 13 inches (not bad). Lost about half as many. I was glad there were many of us because hauling the catch up the dam was a pain. Got to camp, cooked about 10 of em, ate, drank a few cold ones and napped.

The afternoon was fun. It was hot and the wind was howlin. My cousin and I threw on lifejackets and floated out to the middle of the little cove next to the East Beach campground (with wind blowing towards shore) and casted Rattlin-Rapalas (red crayfish color and silver/green glass color). We caught a few cigar walleyes and a couple bigger ones. Even caught a whole bunch of little drum. Man, the drum hit the lipless cranks pretty hard! Fun lil guys. They went back to the water. The cigars and the drum at least.

Late afternoon into sundown: went back and caught a few more crappies, but this time the whitebass were hitting. Jackpot! Not many (like 1 to 3 a person), but enough to satisfy the knotches on my belt for the year. My lady caught one whitebass on a minnow below bobber that was almost the size of the one and only wiper I saw caught by another fellow fishermen out there. I'm still confused cause it was hard to tell the difference, but I'm leaning towards calling it a whitebass. Lighter, smaller horizontal stripes compared to the 'official' wiper which took a crayfish. The fellow fisherman's wiper had the deep dark stripes compared to my lady's. His was 17 inches while her (whitebass in question) was 15. One member of the group did the bottom and nightcrawlers deal and had the opportunity to nail a couple nice 18 to 22 inch catfish and like a billion drum which were all released except for the hook swallowers.

The next morning, three of the guys went out and did one last round and ended up catching about only 20 crappie between the 3 of them. Mixed bag of crappies and whitebass. I slept in preperation for the drive home and what I caught the day before satisfied my crave anyways.

Overall it was a good trip. Got some to eat for the next to 2 weeks and that's if it even lasts that long (Don't worry fellas, we didn't come anywhere near our group total limit). Think SOUTH REPUBLICAN BAG LIMITS. "Oh yeah, now I remember..."

I'm burnt, exhausted and ultimately, satisfied. This will probably be my 1st and last time out there for the year. My return may be when the duck season opens, but I'm sure my other waterfowling spots will keep me too busy to go back. Some of y'all will probably be relieved that this is my camp's last fishing trip out there  ;D. It's ok, those some of y'all I'm talkin bout' only feel so with good intentions so I don't blame ya. Truthfully, I respect your concerns.

I will post pictures later on when developed. Good luck to everyone.

HAPPY FISHING FELLAS!!
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Good job Dude. Which side of the dam. Man some many lakes i want to go to so little time. When your off and u wanna get some fishing in let me know we'll go kick it at mcintosh.
HookNLine said:
Good job Dude. Which side of the dam. Man some many lakes i want to go to so little time. When your off and u wanna get some fishing in let me know we'll go kick it at mcintosh.
WERD!! So many lakes, so little time. We'll have to do this sometimes, bro.
what part of the dam did u catch the crappie i was there 2 weeks ago but i only caught wiper and catfish and those drum
CatfishKing & HookNLine,

I was on the end of the dam where you have to walk down the rocks. The end that is next to the East Beach Campground is just too crowded, however, I believe that end provides just as good of fishing.

Yeah, I think the crappies will only be there for a few more days and they'll return to the depths for sure.

Some believe that Bonny is a fishery that's down the drain already, but that's a lil shortsighted to say so. These last couple of years of drought did hurt the lake and of course and the crowds are brutal too. But, I believe that if everyone just respects the limit and would just practice some selective harvest, the lake will be fine. I've fished this lake for over 10 years now since I was a kid. The population of fish did fall a little, but not as much as I expected. Call me crazy, but the whitebass and crappie populations might be self sustained there.
What about the boat ramps? I heard they are unusuable or you need 4wd.

Dan
DAN,

Boat ramps are far down. If you've got something tiny enought to offroad it up to the shoreline, you could try, but I wouldn't recommend it for it's still quite a ways down.

Where I checked was just where the ol' usual ramp was though. I didn't get to go past that so MAYBE the other side is a shorter distance to back up, but don't take my word for it.

However, I did see a guy tow in a lil 10' to 12' aluminum V-Hull with an electric trolling motor. I wonder where he went to put that in? Anyhow, I'm pretty butt-hurt about it because I was hoping it was good enough for me to back my lil 12 footer in.
Alrighty!! I finally developed the roll!! Here's a few pics from our most recent
outing to Bonny on the weekend of 05/21 and 05/22. You know, I just realized that I got the dates all wrong in the Topic. Oh well, only 1 day off. Sorry for being late.

<img src="http://tinypic.com/5duk4j" alt="Image hosted by TinyPic.com">
My lady with her 1st crappie over 10 inches.. This one was like 11" or 12".
Sorry, I have a knot on my stringer that represents the 10 inch mark and one that represents the 15 inch mark so I don't have exact measurements. This crappie was like an inch or two past the 10 inch mark.


<img src="http://tinypic.com/5dukaw" alt="Image hosted by TinyPic.com">
Another one of her crappies. This one she was proud of because this time, I didn't have to tell her that her bobber was missing.


<img src="http://tinypic.com/5duko8" alt="Image hosted by TinyPic.com">
My lady's 1st white bass. Biggest one we got. This one was about a good 15 inches.


<img src="http://tinypic.com/5dukw1" alt="Image hosted by TinyPic.com">
MY WHITE BASS!! Aint it huge?? ::) "She's still makin fun of me."


<img src="http://tinypic.com/5dul4k" alt="Image hosted by TinyPic.com">
Rookie of the Year. This is my buddy that goes by the nickname POWDER.
His 1st white bass.


<img src="http://tinypic.com/5dulgi" alt="Image hosted by TinyPic.com">
My cousin's girl which is my girl's cousin.... Peter Piper picked a pickel wha?
Her 1st catfish. This one came up to take a minnow beneath a bobber. We all thought it was going to be a huge crappie or at least a wiper. Oh well. Ya never know what you get. That's why fishing will be these newbies' new addictions!!

HAPPY FISHING FELLAS!!
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1eyeReD said:
My cousin and I threw on lifejackets and floated out to the middle of the little cove next to the East Beach campground
Dam and I thought my old belly boat was getto. You got me beat brother!!!!! :) :)

Nice pics man!!!!!


-Jay
Jay_In_Parker said:
1eyeReD said:
My cousin and I threw on lifejackets and floated out to the middle of the little cove next to the East Beach campground
Dam and I thought my old belly boat was getto. You got me beat brother!!!!! :) :)

Nice pics man!!!!!


-Jay
Hey thanks.. I liked your Chatfield pics too dawg. All you need now is a buddy to take the pics for you. PM me sometimes.
Nice pics 1eyeRed, looks like you had a great day and great company.

As usual I am green with envy!

Dan
Wow 1ER...I missed that the first time...donning life jackets and floating out...that is trolling the hardway...snapping turtles love these guys...floating hors duerves...they taste like chicken!!!

Now that is one serious fisherman...kudos!!!
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