# Grand Lake St Marys Crappie Bite



## zaraspook

GLSM is not as muddy as previous weekend but remains muddy, high, and clarity less than 8". Shore fishing tubes for crappies Fri evening (3-18) produced only one small crappie but 8 bluegills. Saturday AM (3-19) changed tube color producing 2 crappies and 13 gills. Sat afternoon changed to 2" twister tail and crappies responded. In 90 minutes caught 12 crappies - no gills.

Crappie size follows the trend from last fall...only 10-15% legal, but bluegills are decent. Other fishermen were catching plenty of gills, but crappie bite tough. All fish caught 5-10' from bank in 4-5 feet of water tight to submerged brush with bait worked slowly and persistently to draw fish out.


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## trailbreaker

i hope to make it there depending on gas prices


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## zaraspook

Though weather was threatening Weds, I had an excuse to go to my lake place. Driving an hour from the south to GLSM around 4PM, temps dropped from 65 to 47 degrees by the time I got there. Fished for about 90 minutes as the temp continued to spiral downward to 41. 

In the first 40 minutes I caught 8 crappies before bite shutdown, including this one which was 11 1/4", fat, and full of eggs. Had plenty of hits but fish didn't hang on to jig/twister tail for long. Caught only one after someone turned off the bite.

Lake looked to be a couple inches higher than last Saturday. Clarity is improving but only to about 6". Fished from shore in water 3-5' but didn't take time to get water temp.


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## zaraspook

Fished Sat 26th starting at 11AM. Wind was howling from the east, 28 degree air temp, and expectations were low. 45 minutes later headed inside to thaw my fingers, but had a blast. Caught 26 crappies in action about as fast as a guy could ask for.

Fingers no longer numb after a 1/2 hour and a cup of coffee, I hit 'em again for another 40 minutes. Only caught 16 crappies in the 2nd session, but bite was just as lively as round #1. I just missed more of them.

41 crappies from shore in 85 minutes...........wish I could have hung around for more.


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## zaraspook

Cold and nasty yesterday(Weds 3-30) but I was in the mood to fish. Got to GLSM at 5:30PM and fished until 7:30PM to see if cold weather dampened the appetite of the crappies. Caught 37 crappies, 1 bluegill. I'm catching plenty of fish but size still disappointing compared to last year. No more than 1/2 dozen of the 37 were legal and largest were females in the 10-10.5" range. For the most part the bite was timid...fish would suck in the bait but not move very far with it.

In case you're wondering if the lake is green, water clarity is improving. Last week it was still muddy with appearance of coffee with cream in it. Yesterday appearance of water resembled strong tea, no cream. Clarity to maybe a foot and no green hue at all.


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## Spence88

Fished GLSM over the past weekend - from the bank on west and south sides. Had best luck on the south side channels, likely because we were out of the wind. Ended up with over 50 crappie. Almost all were small, but it was a blast to have success like that. Lots of guys fishing for walleye at the spillway with decent luck, at least so I was told. It was damn cold but always worth it.


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## zaraspook

Saturday 4-2 bite was decent, but had to work harder to find fish. First hour and a half had only 4 bites and one small crappie. Over the next 2 hours it changed dramatically for the better. Ended up catching 33 crappies and 7 bluegills for the day. Again, bluegills are robust.....most keeper size. Legal sized crappies are infrequent, but plenty of fun to be catching good numbers. I've caught at least 100 more crappies this year than at same time in 2010.

Stained water continues to improve........clarity a bit over a foot.


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## JamesWalshJr

Fished GLSM on Saturday 4/2/2011. Air temp in the high 40s. Fishing in the spillway beneath the dam, caught 9 crappies 1 keeper, 2 keeper bluegill in about 3 hours. Slow but steady bite. Fishing with waxworms under a bobber and pumpkin seed tube under a bobber.


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## zaraspook

JamesWalshJr said:


> Fished GLSM on Saturday 4/2/2011. Air temp in the high 40s. Fishing in the spillway beneath the dam, caught 9 crappies 1 keeper, 2 keeper bluegill in about 3 hours. Slow but steady bite. Fishing with waxworms under a bobber and pumpkin seed tube under a bobber.


JWJr........While your were fishing below spillway, did you see/hear of any walleye caught? Every year we hear of "stories" of walleye taken below spillway, but never any confirmation by a person who actually caught a walleye or witnessed it. The typical rumors are again floating this year, but as usual no first-hand witnesses. I did see photo and talk to witness for a 9.4 lb walleye last spring, but it was caught in lake, not spillway.

Sounds like your day was similar to mine. Nothing spectacular but enough bite to keep you interested. I started fishing tubes (produced more bluegills) but switched to grubs with twister tails (more crappies and fewer gills).


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## JamesWalshJr

Z,
No, I didn't see any walleye or much of anything other than panfish while we were there. 
One guy did pull a decent sized largemouth out of the spill way, fairly close to the dam but pretty much everything else was crappies and bluegills. 

There were guys throwing about every kind of bait/lure you can imagine over the course of a few hours we were there.


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## zaraspook

Pretty much the same pattern this weekend at GLSM. Fished Friday (8th) evening for about 2 hours catching 19 crappies. I started using a 2" chartreuse twister tail under a float with some success but switched to a Southern Pro Triple Tip (black body with chartreuse flaked tail). Bites were twice as fast with the Triple Tail.

On Saturday 9th I fished 3 more sessions 60-90 minutes each in the morning, mid-day, then in the evening. Still using the Triple Tip (black/chartreuse) I caught 45 crappies and 4 bluegills. Best crappie was 11.4" and belly was swollen like it swallowed 4 golf balls........full of eggs. 

Water clarity was a foot or so. Water temp right at 50 Saturday. If you choose to go after bluegills instead of crappies, switch to crappie tubes......gills won't leave the 1.5" tubes alone. Photo is the biggest crappie but need to give up on the cell phone camera.


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## zaraspook

Fished from shore 6:30Pm until about dark Thurs evening (14th). Crappie bite was not as active, but still caught 15 in an hour and half. First fish was legal but short of 10"......the rest were dinks. Thought I had on a Fish Ohio crappie but quickly figured out the fight was better than a crappie could give. It was a 12" LM bass.

Not sure how accurate my thermometer is, but water temp registered 56.....that's a good temp for crappies as well as other species. Lake dropped another 4" since last weekend but GLSM figures to get 1-2" of rain Fri-Saturday and lake will rise again. Water clarity improving and looked good, better than a foot visibility. Fished with a Triple tail grub on submerged brush. Wind was howling from NE.

I talked to 2 boats from a Thursday evening bass club.....neither team reported much cooperation from the bass.


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## spfldbassguy

Hey Zara glad to see you posting that you're still catching them up there at GLSM. Keep those reports coming(atleast til the toxic algae takes over again). It's always good to see people posting positive things from that lake.


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## zaraspook

spfldbassguy said:


> Hey Zara glad to see you posting that you're still catching them up there at GLSM. Keep those reports coming(atleast til the toxic algae takes over again). It's always good to see people posting positive things from that lake.


spfldbassguy..............we aim to please! 

My neighbors at GLSM drafted me to throw a bash at the lake. It will be my way of supporting the local community which could certainly use the business. We'll buy all supplies and secure all menu items locally. Neighbors suggest I supply the meat for the event. With my rod and reel prowess, the menu will be fresh GLSM sushi (crappies and bluegills). Can we count on you to dine with us? (Hope this drew a chuckle from you.)

On a serious note, did you see the rough fish netting started this week at GLSM? First 2 days yielded 3000 pounds of carp and quillbacks. Celina Daily Standard story is here www.dailystandard.com/archive/story_single.php?rec_id=14661


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## zaraspook

Hit GLSM Saturday about 3PM and fished on and off thru Sunday 3PM. Planned to put in the boat and explore other areas but wind and waves changed my mind. Downright nasty out there.

Fishing from shore I found the crappie bite tough to come by. Covered a lot of ground and changed baits several times but never did find a good recipe. It was slow, fewer fish caught but size was better than at any time this year. Of the 25 crappies I caught, 6-7 were legal and most of those 10-11" fish. Plus, we saw greater numbers in the 8-8.5" range.

Water clarity slightly improved over last week......didn't check water temp.


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## trailbreaker

zaraspook said:


> Hit GLSM Saturday about 3PM and fished on and off thru Sunday 3PM. Planned to put in the boat and explore other areas but wind and waves changed my mind. Downright nasty out there.
> 
> Fishing from shore I found the crappie bite tough to come by. Covered a lot of ground and changed baits several times but never did find a good recipe. It was slow, fewer fish caught but size was better than at any time this year. Of the 25 crappies I caught, 6-7 were legal and most of those 10-11" fish. Plus, we saw greater numbers in the 8-8.5" range.
> 
> Water clarity slightly improved over last week......didn't check water temp.



other than bayview sun and snow marina where else can you access the lake.. last time i was there i saw tables this was back in 08


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## zaraspook

trailbreaker.......Are you asking where to access/launch a boat, or where you can fish from shore/bank?


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## trailbreaker

zaraspook said:


> trailbreaker.......Are you asking where to access/launch a boat, or where you can fish from shore/bank?


shore/bank.. i think you can where the marina is


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## Spence88

GLSM is one of the most bank fishing friendly lakes that I have ever fished. There are more access areas to fish than you have time for in a day. West bank, east bank around the state park, south side channels, northern inlets...The list grows.


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## zaraspook

Excellent point, Spence88. Fishing access is about as good as it gets at GLSM. From Celina down West Bank is all public. Montezuma has a small state area. Windy Point is a huge State/public area.......the long rip-rap point there extends the length of 2.5 football fields out into the lake. Toward the SE corner of lake is Harmon's Landing that is wide open and some state controlled areas. Entire East Bank and NE corner of GLSM is state park or public. State continues to construct new and lengthen existing rip-rap fishing points at several locations on north side of lake. All of the lake side marinas and restaurants allow fishing.


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## zaraspook

Saturday 4-23 I fished off and on while doing some painting. Found the crappie bite slow again like the previous weekend, but when they hit there was no messing around. I changed bait color and type 5 times, finally switching to a chartreuse 2" twister-tail. The twister tail produced the last 10 of the 14 crappies I caught. Crappie size is definitely improving.....5 were legal size +.

Water clarity was not as good as previous week but better than expected after rain nearly every day. I didn't check water temp but one of three bass boats working my channel told me water temp was 49......it's going wrong direction.


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## zaraspook

Fished for crappies for about 3 hours Sunday 5-15, rain falling non-stop. Water remains high and all creek-fed channels are extremely muddy. Otherwise, channels and main lake are green, high chlorophyll count I'm told, much greener than this time last year. But, torrential rains came late May and into June last year.

Crappie bite was very slow....still pre-spawn despite water temp 70-71. Two of us caught 23 with some very nice 11" fish.........males. Fish are still out from the bank, not in close. We jigged tubes and grubs, lots of colors and styles, occasionally tipped with waxworms.......but more fish taken on grubs without the meat.

The channels were beaten by bass tourneys both Saturday and Sunday. I heard Saturday's large 60 boat bass tourney was won with 11+ pounds. Haven't heard a report on winning total for Sunday. One bass boat complained about slow bite then on consecutive casts into my crappie cover off my seawall, they pulled in bass. Maybe I should have been bassin'?

With good sized males slowly showing up, I think we're close to very good crappie action. Anytime in the next 10-14 days the crappie bite should be fast, furious, and fun.


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## Spence88

We too were on the hunt for crappies this past Thursday thru Saturday with good success at GLSM. Thursday afternoon and all of Friday proved to be the best days of fishing. Literally caught over a hundred with maybe a dozen being keepers on Friday - We did have three 10 inchers and one that went just over 12". Beautiful blacks! Mix into that a couple good sized bluegills and it made for a great day. Like Zaraspook did, we tried all colors and ended up using 1.5" tube in blue/white as the most successful color. Black/chartreuse was next. We had the best luck jigging right up on the rocks and riprap at 12-15" deep. Crappies didn't seem to care whether tipped with meat or not.

Saturday was slightly less impressive than Friday but still good. The morning started out slow, afternoon was OK, and by early evening the bite was on. It was the kind of bite where you dropped your cork in and it went down immediately. Sometimes I was taking a fish off, toss my line back in, and had another one on before I even tossed the fish back into the water! One after another until the Mayflies got bad enough to chase us away. Probably caught another dozen keepers all at the 9" size within two hours on Sat. nite. Also caught a 15" LM and several channel cats while jigging. 

The cold front and rain kept us from fishing Sunday but that was fine. The previous couple days were all that was needed. Even though the size wasn't there, catching a couple hundred crappies over a 3 day weekend was all the medicine I needed. Honestly, the best spring crappie fishing I've seen here in years. 

I also witnessed several bass tourny guys being dissatisfied about the bite, then one boat proceeded to catch two 3 pounders within a 30 minute period in the same cove. 

I also heard the age old rumor of people catching walleye at the spillway, but I did not see it myself nor did anyone else.


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## zaraspook

Spence88.......you wore out the crappies, got some bluegills, throw in a 15" bass, and top it off with some channel cats! Great report and fun for you.

Speaking of that Saturday bass tournament, it turns out the winning basket was 2 pounds heavier for GLSM tourney than the previous event the Mega Bass guys had at Buckeye Lake. Top 2 bass at Buckeye were 3 pounders - top 2 bass at GLSM Saturday were 4+ pound fish. Buckeye tournament produced 2 fish over 3 pounds. GLSM tourney Saturday produced more than a dozen fish topping 3 pounds. While Buckeye gave up more fish to the Mega bass guys, average bass weight at GLSM was almost 1/2 better. People are quick to bad-mouth GLSM, but it's surprising as a fishery and due more credit. If we can just keep the algae from going nuts..........

By the way, have you picked up on the rough fish netting reports? Walleyes are being taken in the nets.......


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## zaraspook

Fished for crappies off and on during weekend, but never did find a pattern or fish in numbers. Caught 15, biggest 10.5", mostly black crappies but a few whites. Only one fish was swollen with eggs. Water temp 64-68 range, color very green. Friday evening saw some top-water scum from algae bloom, but none the rest of weekend.


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## trailbreaker

are the fish safe to eat


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## triton189

trailbreaker said:


> are the fish safe to eat


I don't know about safe... But you should see the glow you put off at night if you eat a few of these!


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## zaraspook

Last year's "do not eat" advisory at GLSM was a precautionary advisory while study was conducted regarding long term toxin effects to fish flesh. GLSM advisory was lifted early this year when results were completed.

Ohio fish consumption advisories are at link below. Approximately 112 Ohio lakes/rivers are listed with consumption advisories of some form. GLSM advisory says don't eat St Mary's largemouth bass more than twice per week for mercury. Personally, I'm not a good enough bass fisherman to eat LM bass twice a week. While on the topic of consumption advisories, Indian Lake has more advisories against consumption than GLSM. It also says not to eat more than 2 meals per week of walleye from CJ Brown for mercury. At Buckeye, saugeye and black crappie shouldn't be eaten more than twice per week due to mercury. Not trying to bad mouth the other lakes, but suggesting most waters present some risk if you eat enough fish. Here's the link http://epa.ohio.gov/dsw/fishadvisory/limitmeals.aspx


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## zaraspook

GLSM alum treatment to begin June 2 and run thru June 22. Two boats to apply 2.6 mil gallons of aluminum sulfate and sodium aluminate cocktail to 4900 acres in center of lake. Celina Daily Standard report is at this link http://dailystandard.com/archive/sto...p?rec_id=15021

GLSM is plenty green right now from 3 months of rains and endless runoff. Lake is ripe for a nasty summer. Hoping the treatment is enough to stave off, at least minimize, a major algae event.


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## zaraspook

Fishing was a smorgasbord this weekend at GLSM. Mostly fishing Sunday, but also a bit Memorial Day in the morning, we caught 60 crappies, 6 bass, 1 cat, 4-5 bluegills, and 24"+ carp. Crappie spawn is definitely going on but can't say if spawn is in the beginning, the middle, or the end. Water temps cracked the 70 mark for first time in 3 weeks. Largest crappie was a chunky 12"......another was 11.5" and maybe 8-9 fish in the 9-10" range. Biggest bass was just under 13"......1/2 the bass were sporting bulging guts, eggs I guess and were laying within 2' of the bank. Two of the bluegills were very nice specimens.

The crazy carp took a crappie tube and 1/16 oz jig on my fly rod. After a lengthy battle, the fish was battling while I just hung on, I worked the carp to the bank. I'm amazed my 6# line, all knots, and tiny hook held together thru the ordeal.


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## zaraspook

Only had time to fish for two hours Saturday AM (6/4). May have located fish if I'd had more time, but only managed 9 crappies. One was legal size. Bite was definitely slower than Memorial Day weekend. Also, caught a couple bluegills.


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## zaraspook

Poked around for 2-3 hours Saturday AM at GLSM......bank fishing. Sadly was shut out by the crappies. Did manage two LM bass, biggest 12", one midget bluegill, and an 18" channel cat. If the crappies are still biting, it wasn't happening where I fished.

Channels fed by creeks were muddy from a few thunderstorms earlier last week. Other channels are normal green.......we all assume the lake benefits by ongoing alum treatments, but you won't see any visible results.


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## socdad

"normal green" When did it become normal for wather to be green?


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## zaraspook

socdad said:


> "normal green" When did it become normal for wather to be green?


Since GLSM has been the waste collector for local ag runoff, green is unfortunately our "norm". Actually, I get asked if GLSM water color and clarity has changed with the partial lake alum treatment going on. The "normal" green comment was for those who want to know..........no noticeable change. Color and clarity are about the same as recent years.


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## zaraspook

Fished GLSM Saturday 6-26 for just a short time in between doing some chores. Caught just one bluegill and one crappie in 30-40 minutes. 

Some positive news regarding water clarity and color, however. Usually clarity and color degrade from mid-May thru September. Three weekends ago clarity in my channel was poor, 2" at best, and it wasn't due to mud/rain but organic particulates boosting the color to a cloudy green. Saturday, however, clarity was in the 8-10" range......a new experience for this time of year. The "green" color had backed off a bit from a few weeks earlier.

Only reasonable explanation is the alum treatment going on for 3+ weeks now in center of the lake. The alum treated water(better clarity) mixes and gets distributed throughout the lake....even into channels to lessen the concentration of organic stuff. Don't know how long it will last but a it's hopeful indication of what we will see if we can control the flow of phosphorus into the lake. Alum treatment isn't a cure.....only a stopgap measure.


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## Lowell H Turner

Hang in there, sir; everyday we get 1 day closer to the expiration of the accursed "grace period" and the END of the `pollute the public lake all you want with no consequences (or HUGE whopping fines) for FREE` era; VERY shortly the "eye in the sky" will show 1 and all , WHO, WHAT, from WHERE, WHEN, and HOW MUCH...and if the local politicans EVEN "suggest" not prosecuting them (or giving them ANOTHER "grace period") you`re NUTS to RE ELECT them and MAKE THAT VERY CLEAR to them ENMASS; obviously, they would have to be either VERY STUPID or "on the take" from the farmers...would VERY publicily DEMAND prosecutions to the fullest extent of the law OR new candidates who WILL...democracy WORKS, and at least on Nov 8th, WE RULE....


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## zaraspook

Fished Mon evening at GLSM from 8-9PM. No crappies to report but did tie into a nice 17" largemouth. Got into another one, a bit smaller, but 2nd one came unzipped when it broke surface to dance.


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## I'll go in after it

Interesting note here about the water Quality . They have alway's had problem's there . The first modern sewage treatment plant in the country was developed there by my Grandfather . That was back around WW2 maybe a little bit earlier I am not exactly sure of the date but sure that the need to cleanup the lake was there that long ago . We went up every summer as kid's in the 60's and 70's and really whined about the drinking water as it had an after taste . We did not have a problem swimming or fishing though . I am going to stick my neck out and say the siltation is a major cause of the problem's we are having now . It was never a deep lake and really has nothing but runoff from the rich soil up there whenever it rain's hard . Modern fertilizing technique's with a heavy dose of liquid nitrogen etc. and then a hard rain can dump a lot of the wrong stuff in there . And the lake never get's a good flushing . One tiny spillway doesn't do much on what was the largest manmade lake in the world at one time. Hard to fix a bad design at this point . I know we are taking some positive step's but is it to little to late ? I hope that alum help's and whatever else the state will approve but dredging might be the only real solution


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## zaraspook

Over the weekend we witnessed GLSM water temps as high as 87-88.....not great news for fishing and not good news for algae. Last year the algae totally blew up when water temps got this high. Water clearly had more visible "stuff" in it to increase the green-look and decrease clarity. I fished once for crappies.....caught only 2 but both were 10" fish. Off and on over the period I fished mornings for bass. I caught 6 bass, none larger than 13", and lost a real hawg when it tied me up in some timber. Other visitors in my group caught 3 more bass, 1 crappie, 15-20 cats (largest was a nice channel cat) and about 8-10 bluegills.

No big ones to boast about, but a lot of people were entertained by rod and reel. Nice way to celebrate America's birthday!


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## trailbreaker

zara did you see my post about the algea bloom


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## Lowell H Turner

On the good side, the alum SEEMED to "stave off' the blooms most of the spring into summer, and WON`T say will have no further effect. Bad side is as was stated with higher surface temps and the boat traffic and even just the wind stirring up the sediment slightly more, am afraid the scales will tip the algae`s way. Again, any idea how many dredges are working and how much?


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## zaraspook

trailbreaker said:


> zara did you see my post about the algea bloom


Yes..........saw your post. That advisory was put out in May when all 3 monitored beaches tested between 20-24 ppb microcystins, above the World Health Org standard of 20 ppb for recreational water activities. If you look at the data since then, the beaches all tested below 20ppb, falling to as low as 3.3 ppb at same beaches. Last tests toward end of June showed one beach up to 20 ppb again, and others nearing that level. Last year at this time microcystins were testing in the 200's and even 2000+ ppb.

The heat and sun we're having now will likely continue to push readings higher, but alum treatments may have taken enough phosphorus out of water column to stave off another berserk bloom like last year. That is one of the points Lowell H Turner makes in his post. Also, this strain of algae is different than the one GLSM suffered through in 2010. Alum treatments were a stop gap measure to help lessen symptoms and only treated 18% of lake water. Alum isn't a cure. Gotta stop inflow of poop and DREDGE to remove phosphorus and other stuff to cure the GLSM's ailments.

We're far from the finish line......in fact can't even see the finish line yet. Believe me, GLSM is nothing like the 2010 mats of algae that looked like you could walk on surface of the lake. Sad when we equate progress to mean a summer without disastrous blooms, but that's where we are. Plenty of sun and heat yet to come so I'm knocking on wood things don't escalate from here.


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