# Fall crappie bite - delayed



## Crappie/Eyes (Mar 10, 2007)

Went to O'Shay and Delaware today and had a nice boat ride on both but no crappies. Not only no crappies but no bites. While the sky was as cloud free as one could ask for, we got zip, nada, nothing at either lake. The winds were much stronger than expected but we couldn't entice the first crappie to bite. 

The water levels at O'Shay have dropped 2-3 feet very recently which may have been a factor at that location while Delaware seemed normal. Water temperatures were in the mid 60s.

I've been skunked before but never this bad. I hope that the fish are just waiting for colder temperatures since the fish sonar was showing fish everywhere!
'


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## JayBird77 (May 14, 2012)

I hit Delaware on Monday and had similar results. Only one dink crappie and a 14" largemouth with three of us fishing. Blamed it on the cold front. Hopefully picks up soon.


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## B Ron 11 (Jul 14, 2012)

Same with us. One small crappie. They started to bite after dark.


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## FrostyFishing (Oct 3, 2017)

i tagged one in a cast net in about 6 feet of water earlier this week. so they should start to move shallow soon


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## deerfarmer (Apr 21, 2012)

COCC classic tournament is on Delaware this Saturday. Weight in will be around 4:30 feel free to stop by and watch weigh in. We pre fished today and caught fish. Sorry no reports this close to tournament.


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## deerfarmer (Apr 21, 2012)

The COCC classic was won today by me and my partner. The winning weight was 6.74 lb for 8 fish. There were 21 boats and 20 of them caught a 8 fish limit for a total weigh in weight of 115.56 lb of crappie. We were slow trolling today in 10 to 12 fow. We were able to find lots of quality fish today. We started to day with over a pound of minnows and only had a couple doz left. Never counted how many we caught today but if I had to guess 80 to 100.


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## Crappie/Eyes (Mar 10, 2007)

deerfarmer said:


> COCC classic tournament is on Delaware this Saturday. Weight in will be around 4:30 feel free to stop by and watch weigh in. We pre fished today and caught fish. Sorry no reports this close to tournament.





deerfarmer said:


> The COCC classic was won today by me and my partner. The winning weight was 6.74 lb for 8 fish. There were 21 boats and 20 of them caught a 8 fish limit for a total weigh in weight of 115.56 lb of crappie. We were slow trolling today in 10 to 12 fow. We were able to find lots of quality fish today. We started to day with over a pound of minnows and only had a couple doz left. Never counted how many we caught today but if I had to guess 80 to 100.


Thanks for your report. Sounds like you guys did well. One question regarding your minnows: regular crappie minnows or bass?


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## my vise (Jun 12, 2011)

deerfarmer said:


> The COCC classic was won today by me and my partner. The winning weight was 6.74 lb for 8 fish. There were 21 boats and 20 of them caught a 8 fish limit for a total weigh in weight of 115.56 lb of crappie. We were slow trolling today in 10 to 12 fow. We were able to find lots of quality fish today. We started to day with over a pound of minnows and only had a couple doz left. Never counted how many we caught today but if I had to guess 80 to 100.


Nice work! What was the largest size?


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## deerfarmer (Apr 21, 2012)

We use bass minnows that we buy by the pound from fishermen warehouse. 14.99 a pound and you get an average of 30 doz. The large fish of the tournament was a large black that weighed 1.4lb. We had 6 fish that weighed .8 1 that weighed .9 and 1 that weighed .95


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Fishslim and I had similar catch results in the tournament yesterday but did not have the quality of fish that Deerfarmer had. We ended up 4th with 6.44 lbs. We caught at least 60-70 keeper size crappie with the majority being blacks in 9-12 FOW

Congratulations to Steve and Mark on beating the other 20 teams that qualified to fish the Classic!


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## OrangeMilk (Oct 13, 2012)

I passed a couple of boats I recognized heading that way yesterday morning on my way up to the Wild Life area to hunt ducks. I was wondering why they had passed Alum Creek, I guess I know now.


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## fishslim (Apr 28, 2005)

y
Yep Congrats Steve and Mark on the win we were busy pretty much all day hitting fish. the big girls just did not like the south east wind. was a great day of fishing though


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## kfi (Nov 11, 2013)

I fished tourney also and somehow I managed to kill off most of my minnows in the first couple hours (my theory is my wife must've used bucket to wash car and a bunch of soap residue was left in bucket...). Anyhow, I had to switch gears and switch to artificial baits. Went with double jig rigs with black/chartreuse, white/char, and chartreuse glitter swim baits taking fish. I had to be moving faster (around 1 mph). A lot of fish came on erratic movements (turns, etc..). Didn't get near the quality/quantity of most other teams but was able to put plenty of keeper size fish in the boat. So, artificials were taking fish but I do typically do better with the real thing.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Do you think your wife left the soap residue by mistake??????????? You were still being punished


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## kfi (Nov 11, 2013)

Lundy said:


> Do you think your wife left the soap residue by mistake??????????? You were still being punished


Lots of conspiracy theories going thru my head... Lol

The good part was that it forced me to catch some fish with all the artificial baits I've acquired over the last few years!


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## slowtroller (Sep 28, 2011)

Congrats to the winners. Got a little bad news just before outing that changed my focus. My best bite was my shirt late in the day. John had a great day but no help. Congrats to all the winners and to the cutest little girl we have fishing with us on her best outing. Steve did a great job on posting all year long as well.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Darcie,

We fished close to her and her dad for much of the day and she keeping us entertained with her enthusiasm for sure. She ended up with some nice prizes to take home, I gave her the reel I won in the raffle and others gave her items also. I really enjoy seeing young ones participating with all of us old people


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## slowtroller (Sep 28, 2011)

I also gave her my prize along with so other items from the truck. Big Bob also helped her out. She is a joy to have around that is for sure and getting better with each outing.


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## JayBird77 (May 14, 2012)

Thanks guys, Meredith and I have had a ball fishing with COCC this past season. Everyone had been super nice and encouraging to me and my daughter and we will definitely be seeing you guys in the spring. I would encourage anyone in OGF to give the COCC a try if they were ever interested in crappie tourneys. We have learned a lot and can't wait for next season.


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## Snyd (May 5, 2004)

Sounds like an awesome day for you guys - Also sounds like you ran into some bigger fish then I did at Alum. Congrats!


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## rutty (Feb 5, 2007)

We had a similar day as others, we probably caught over 150 keeper size crappie but we could not get the "fat chicks" to bite that day. They bit the day before, just not when the wind switched to the southeast. They did not like that at all. We were trolling minnows in 8-15 fow, it really didn't matter where we went the fish were all over the place.


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## Crappie/Eyes (Mar 10, 2007)

Seems like the southeast wind must be the secret to getting skunked....again...well almost. Went back to Delaware yesterday and managed to catch 4 keepers in 4 hours. Decided to run down to O'Shay for a a couple of hours and landed 1. The fish were all over the place but only one taker. To top off the day, one of the bunks feel off the trailer as we were trying to load the boat. Had to hand tie the bunk on to mounting brackets or we'd still be there.


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## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Crappie/Eyes said:


> Seems like the southeast wind must be the secret to getting skunked....again...well almost. Went back to Delaware yesterday and managed to catch 4 keepers in 4 hours. Decided to run down to O'Shay for a a couple of hours and landed 1. The fish were all over the place but only one taker. To top off the day, one of the bunks feel off the trailer as we were trying to load the boat. Had to hand tie the bunk on to mounting brackets or we'd still be there.


Bummer about the mishap and slow day.... we started carying a small spool of coated steel wire for wuick fixes on stuff like that. It came in handy a few times for the boat and trailer!


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

We are having a charity benefit tournament at Delaware on Sunday Nov 12. You should come and join us. There should be a bunch of nice crappie caught if it is like last year and the proceeds go to a great cause.

This will be a low key, low pressure, have fun event. The more kids fishing with us the better. Product raffles. You will learn a lot from other participants.


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## Snyd (May 5, 2004)

Awesome Job Rutty - That 15ft seems to be the key for me as well - I didn't make it out this past weekend but the last three before that I was out and hit them pretty good - I am hoping to make it out tomorrow. Then heading to the Ohio River to do some sauger fishing with my brother on Sunday.


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