# 3-10-13 East Fork Report



## TRAILGATOR (Jul 3, 2011)

My buddy called me and asked if I wanted to go Crappie fishing with him out on his boat, so naturally I said YES!
Got out on the water about 11:30 and really had a tough time finding somewhere that wasn't windy. Between 3 guys we pulled 13 Crappie, nobody got skunked. 10 were White Crappie under 8". 3 were Black Crappie, 2 under 8" & 1 that was a fat 11" (caught by me ). 

Eventhough we didn't catch a whole lot in the 4.5 hours it was just fun to get out on the boat, clean it up for the summer and make sure it is running nice for the GOOD TIMES this year!

PS: The guy at the bait shop is full of crap. He said that there were a bunch of guys limiting out all day on Saturday... I also think I heard him say to watch out for Copperheads. :woot:


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## Legend killer (Apr 20, 2011)

What was the water temps?


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## TRAILGATOR (Jul 3, 2011)

Legend killer said:


> What was the water temps?


Between 41 & 44


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## flintlock (May 30, 2006)

I slid out there SUnday and managed about 12-15 smaller sized white crappie w/3 keepers. Pretty dang slow.


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## ARReflections (Jan 7, 2011)

TRAILGATOR said:


> PS: The guy at the bait shop... He said that there were a bunch of guys limiting out all day on Saturday... I also think I heard him say to watch out for Copperheads. :woot:


Ya should have been here yesterday!

I know a guy that ...

We were killing them using ....


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## Roscoe (Jul 22, 2007)

Perfect temps for early Muskies.40-45 degrees.Go get 'um!




Roscoe


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## mkl (Apr 17, 2011)

Last year, EF did not produce very much in the way of size IMO. Most crappie I caught were smaller. I went exactly once to Acton last year and my dad caught an 10.5 inch white crappie. That was bigger than any crappie I pulled out of EF all last year (and we caught quite a few).

I'm hoping that was just bad luck and there are some good size crappie in there this year.


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## TRAILGATOR (Jul 3, 2011)

mkl said:


> Last year, EF did not produce very much in the way of size IMO. Most crappie I caught were smaller. I went exactly once to Acton last year and my dad caught an 10.5 inch white crappie. That was bigger than any crappie I pulled out of EF all last year (and we caught quite a few).
> 
> I'm hoping that was just bad luck and there are some good size crappie in there this year.


I am going to go with bad luck because these were the keepers from one of our 4 hour trips last year. We caught 65 total.







That was some GOOD EATIN'!


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## Captain Failboat (Jul 10, 2011)

I feel like we need to further discuss the accusations of Copperheads


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## catcrazed (Jan 15, 2008)

TRAILGATOR said:


> PS: The guy at the bait shop is full of crap. He said that there were a bunch of guys limiting out all day on Saturday... I also think I heard him say to watch out for Copperheads. :woot:



I was there Sat, Sun, Manday.

Saturday, HOLLY CRAP, tough bite caught several short fish but was one of the worse trips there in a long time.

Sunday started out crazy slow. We were thinking about leaving and we decided to try something different and BAM! We werent counting but I figure we caught 60+ black crappie between 10-12". all fish released

Monday I wake up and its raining, load boat up head to water and Didnt catch 1 fish in the same spots from the day before. Searched and searched caught a handful of fish and took off because I under dressed. Its amazing how even when the temp is decent you add a little rain and wind and it feels like its below freezing outside. Here is a pic of one of the black crappie from the other day (Saturday). We caught a bunch this size. 

EF is a weird lake for sure. My partner and I prefished for a trounament 2 weeks ago on a saturday and only caught 6 keepers over 9" all day. I didnt even want to fish the tournament the next day because we couldnt find fish. My partner conned me into it and we went and fished the tourney and caught the hell out of fish and wound up being the first loser in the tournament!!!!!!!! 1st place had 7 fish weighed 6.54lbs and we had our best 7 fish at 6.48lbs..... That lake is weird and a very hard lake to "pattern" because it changes faster than any other lake ive ever fished......

As for the guy at the bait shop, it seems to be how that works!!! The guy that owns the bait shop by paint creek will tell you ppl are catching hundreds of fish from boat even when the lake is frozen over. There not gonna sell bait telling ppl nobodys catching fish!!! LOL


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## jeepguyjames (Sep 24, 2008)

I think the evil musky ate all the crappie.........trash fish


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## catcrazed (Jan 15, 2008)

jeepguyjames said:


> I think the evil musky ate all the crappie.........trash fish


Hahahahahah, hey jeepy, I gots a story for ya about that!!!!!!!

First off, ill be the first to say I don't think musky are gonna affect the crappie population... To many shad in that lake and shad are like swimming hamburgers BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My fishing partner went this past fall. I wasnt with him this day but hes not a lieing fisherman. He calls me up and says do I have a story for you..... He was in gold mind fishing, hooks up on a crappie and thinks that it got him wrapped up in a tree or something. He thought it was just a branch as it was slowly coming in but just dead weight. to his surprise it was in fact a musky with his crappie in its mouth. He said he pulled slowly until the 2 fish were pretty much surfaced then the musky let go and swam off. He said the crappie was just about 9" but there was no way the crappie was gonna live. 

There opportunists and if there is any fish distressed they will smoke them I feel but I don't think the musky are gonna just go on a crappie feeding frenzy........ Just my .02 though! Hell they might eat them all. By the way, he figured that musky was between 35-40" long. Said it didnt have any girth but was long and slender...........

I had one hooked a few months ago using jig n cork. Was prolly 30"s. got off at boat which is fine with me. Those things stink worse than any other fish ive ever handled!!!


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## AEFISHING (Apr 25, 2004)

Glad we weren't the only boat that thought that last Saturday stunk. I still can't wait to catch my first musky so I can see what fried musky tastes like.


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## catcrazed (Jan 15, 2008)

AEFISHING said:


> Glad we weren't the only boat that thought that last Saturday stunk. I still can't wait to catch my first musky so I can see what fried musky tastes like.


Yeah it was terrible for us!!!!!!!!! From what I understand, musky isnt very good to eat when compared to panfish like crappie, bluegill etc.


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## catcrazed (Jan 15, 2008)

catcrazed said:


> I was there Sat, Sun, Manday.
> 
> Saturday, HOLLY CRAP, tough bite caught several short fish but was one of the worse trips there in a long time.
> 
> ...



By the way, I see I screwed up this post above. The fish in pic was caught on sunday along with many others. Saturday sucked!


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## Mason52 (Aug 21, 2009)

I always find it amusing when people post time after time how they filled their freezer with crappies and then when their lakes crappie bite is off it's because the muskies ate them all. Why not say the wipers are eating all the crappie. I'm sure they eat a few too.


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## catcrazed (Jan 15, 2008)

Mason52 said:


> I always find it amusing when people post time after time how they filled their freezer with crappies and then when their lakes crappie bite is off it's because the muskies ate them all. Why not say the wipers are eating all the crappie. I'm sure they eat a few too.


Jeepguy is just playin hes just got an ongoin joke he plays with when ppl dont catch them he saids musky ate em all....... the one thing i can assure you is jeepguy can fill a freezer full of crappie every trip if he wanted.... that dude and his son can flat crappie fish..... to many shad in ef for musky to hurt crappie population imo........ 

Im gonna head out tomarrow and hoefully the musky have lefte some feeeeesh!!!!


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

AEFISHING said:


> Glad we weren't the only boat that thought that last Saturday stunk. I still can't wait to catch my first musky so I can see what fried musky tastes like.


I can only imagine what kind of smell that would make. fried musky lol..... yuko for sure.



Mason52 said:


> I always find it amusing when people post time after time how they filled their freezer with crappies and then when their lakes crappie bite is off it's because the muskies ate them all. Why not say the wipers are eating all the crappie. I'm sure they eat a few too.


Jeepguy is our local musky authority (@crappie.com). He knows the evil species well, they are devil fish for sure.


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## AEFISHING (Apr 25, 2004)

Bobby Garland (Aka: JGJ) loves those muskies. He is a closet muskie fisherman with those purple worms he uses.


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## jeepguyjames (Sep 24, 2008)

In all honesty I LOVE musky......they taste great.....the bigger the better.....now if I could just figure out how to catch crappie I hear they taste almost as good......


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