What happen to the crappie?

fisher32 · Jul 21, 2005

Does any one know where the crappies have gone to? This year is so slow. John Martin used to be a great crappie fishery, but due to lack of water, this year stinks like all them cats there (yummy).

hooknline · Jul 21, 2005

Thats a very good question man. I caught 3 this year, that is very lame. I know where some are just not going to go that far, they are in Kansas LOL.

fishing3o3 · Jul 22, 2005

im thinking its too hot, ive caught around five this summer and this was at night fall.

Neal/CO · Jul 22, 2005

They like to suspend above the drop into the channel this time of the year.

I grew up in eastern kansas and never ralized how great I had it there! It was nothing to catch 100 a day!

1eyered · Jul 22, 2005

I didn't get any good reports (word of mouth) from John Martin at all this year. I'm guessing they might have gone down the river too? Blue Lake by far was the best, but the drought in that area was just too killer. I'm still sad about that :'(. Nee Noshe was another good crappie lake.. Well, it WAS :'(. Brush Hollow coughed up a few to a few forum members during early Spring, as I recall. Bonny, well... Tell you what.. I'm thinking I'm one of the few that got crappie at Bonny this year and even reported. I'm sure a handful of other anglers out there got into the crappie there, but kept it quiet. Only that one trip though and the rest of the guys I went with didn't want to go back. They said that trip was enough.

Got to be honest though, didn't really target crappie all too often this year. Actually, only that one Bonny trip and the fat crappie lady sang. The rest of the time, I was just fartin around catching whatever was biting. Oh well.. Maybe next year. My best guess is if y'all want crappie, I'd try probing the many smaller waters around the front range. But if you're looking for crappie of real decent size, there's no place like a very very far drive east... Hopefully in the future, our old known crappie fisheries come back.

1eyeReD

Neal/CO · Jul 22, 2005

I was one of the guys that fished Bonny early this year and got into them! Caught about a dozen, but they were just barely big enough to bother with.

NeWcS · Jul 22, 2005

We used to hammer them @ CC too. And have only got one this year and that was early in the year.

Good to see you 1eyered! Where you been?

[me=Jay_In_Parker] [/me]

Guest · Jul 22, 2005

Neal/CO said:
I grew up in eastern kansas and never ralized how great I had it there! It was nothing to catch 100 a day!

Me, too, Neal ! Man, I miss that great crappie fishing.

Guest · Jul 22, 2005

the only place ive ever had a good crappie bite was a private lake(lake carrol anne) Ive heard they are really really good to eat ....maybe coloradofisherman.com will get big enough to buy some land with a lake and sell leases .....that way we'll know everyone will treat it right ...

Rip Lip · Jul 22, 2005

I don't fish for Slab Crappie (I love saying that), but do know that Harvey Gap reservoir near rifle is stacked with them. If you have never been it is a small reservoir that fills in the spring and is drawn down way low by fall (below half pool). When I go pike fishin there in the fall I see people catchin stringers of crappie. Just a suggestion if you are headin West. Harvey is restricted to 15 horse motors or less, no pleasure boaters, simply great fishing if you hit it right. There are also Smallies, trout, catfish, and I've heard of Tiger Muskies in there.

scorpion_bsk · Jul 25, 2005

Horseshoe Lake in Loveland has some great crappie fishing at times.

TroutFishingBear · Jul 25, 2005

rip lip said:
I don't fish for Slab Crappie (I love saying that), but do know that Harvey Gap reservoir near rifle is stacked with them. If you have never been it is a small reservoir that fills in the spring and is drawn down way low by fall (below half pool). When I go pike fishin there in the fall I see people catchin stringers of crappie. Just a suggestion if you are headin West. Harvey is restricted to 15 horse motors or less, no pleasure boaters, simply great fishing if you hit it right. There are also Smallies, trout, catfish, and I've heard of Tiger Muskies in there.

You're right about harvey. It is not worth it to fish for pike there though because of the no bag limit bs and the drought hurt that fishery as well. There used to be bunches of big largemouths in there too, as well as brown trout. Both of those fisheries have come and gone though. The tiger muskies were the only ones ever stocked on the west slope to my knowledge but they stopped in either 2000 or 2001, and they never stocked many. There are also good bluegill and yellow perch in there as well. Every year I like to icefish harvey at least once and get a nice mixed bag of panfish; we've had a couple days there where we walked with a limit of yellow perch, crappie, and nice bluegill around 8". Fed us for a good amount of the winter. It is good to nightfish along the dam and during the day the west side of the lake can be pretty good if you get into a school of them.

monkies_butt · Jul 25, 2005

Good Question man. We fished up at Bonny EARLY EARLY this year. A few weeks before it was the hot spot. We managed I think 5 well over 12 inches. 14 inches might have been the biggest. But right now. I have no idea where they move on to.

Steve

fishingkats · Jul 25, 2005

yea every year i would hear how good the fishing was at
j-martin but not a thing this year

1eyered · Jul 25, 2005

Jay_In_Parker said:
We used to hammer them @ CC too. And have only got one this year and that was early in the year.

Good to see you 1eyered! Where you been?

[me=Jay_In_Parker] [/me]

Been busy lately. Taking care of business, I guess. I'm going through the transition from my spring/summer outdoor activities to my fall/winter so I've been doing a lot of research for my fall season. Thanks for asking.

1eyeReD

1eyered · Jul 25, 2005

scorpion_bsk said:
Horseshoe Lake in Loveland has some great crappie fishing at times.

I'm still kicking myself for missing out on that.

1eyeReD

wiper_stalker · Jul 26, 2005

Getting ready for dove season aren't you, 1eyered? Me too!

Guest · Jul 26, 2005

where's horshoe lake? Is it next to Boyd?

1eyered · Jul 26, 2005

tbmanivong said:
where's horshoe lake? Is it next to Boyd?

Right across the street. It's private, but there are certain parts where it's ok to fish from shore.

kirbydog · Jul 26, 2005

This time of year the crappie are DEEP. And hard to find but they're in big schools so once you find them you can catch a bunch. I don't really fish for them but I think the drought meant they had less shoreline type cover to spawn in so I think that has hurt they're numbers the past few years. With higher water levels and more submerged brush this spring they should have had a good spawn on most lakes. Ed

What happen to the crappie?

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