Crappie Bonanza San Carlos

[tjhunt2]

The video was awesome Brian. You and Dad know how to get it done that's for sure. Wished it would have worked out for the wife and I when we where there. I always enjoy your fishing reports and pictures. Thanks!

 

TJ

[CouesWhitetail]

That was an awesome video!! I thought it was cool when that second Heron went back into the water to wash the dirt off his dinner before trying to choke em' down! Maybe he was just getting him wet so he would slide down better? Very cool! JIM>

 

+1 I thought the same thing about the heron washing off the dirt and wetting it to slide down better.

 

cool video! Thanks for posting it! Those crappie and catfish were BIG!

[Coach]

Went out this morning with my dad. First hit must have been a big cat - took my drag like crazy but wasn't hooked well and eventually got off. You could feel the low pressure system moving in and it was mostly overcast but not windy. Shortly after losing the cat or whatever it was, the first few crappie went in the livewell. They were hitting, but were extremely finicky. You could see them making beds in 6" of water and cast at them over and over, and if you got the speed right and the angle right, they would hit. You had to be casting almost parallel to the bank and reeling just enough to get the roadrunner blades to spin. When you did it right, you'd get hit. Casting directly at the shore and reeling back almost never produced a hit. The jig had to be pretty much falling at a slow pace and right in front of their face.

 

I ended up with 22 crappie and my dad got 2 crappie and one cat. Funny part is, we were using the exact same setup. 1/16 oz roadrunner heads with BBC (Black/Blue/Chartreuse) 3" bodies. Nobody else on the lake was casting to the shore - all minnow fishing, and it looked pretty slow for that method.

 

The herons were all over the crappie. About 1/3 of the ones we filleted had either scars or recent punctures from the herons. I've never seen that before.

 

Overall, it was a fun day at the lake. I sure hope they don't let it die, but it is obviously in a bad state right now. We saw no balls of baitfish, there were huge, dead flatheads in the coves. I have a picture of one where the head was wider than a bud-light bottle I dug up next to it and used as reference.

[Snapshot]

I wonder what is going on with all the big dead catfish? Lack of water, food, old age?

[Coach]

I wonder what is going on with all the big dead catfish? Lack of water, food, old age?

 

I'm certainly not a biologist, but I would attribute it to low oxygen levels, and off-balance pH. The water is dense and murkey. The few female crappie we caught were "re-digesting" their eggs, for lack of a better term. The egg sacks were totally diminished, and resembled a "goo".

 

When the lake was healthy, the eggs looked a lot more like you would expect healthy fish eggs to look like. Full, round, larger than a BB, and filled with nutrients. The eggs we found were like like a gelatenous "creme of wheat" consistency.