LOZ crappie

[bassripn]

I fished for about 2 hours each of the last two days. Struggled to catch 16 keepers. Only 1 or 2 fish per brush pile. Weather must be too nice!

[kp crane]

Thanks for the report David,...keep bringin em'!

[steve1206]

I went down last Tuesday and REALLY struggled. I can't remember a tougher crappie day on the water....can't remember the last "non-limit(s)" trip, for that matter...Finally gave up and caught about 10 bass in 2 hours with 3 keepers.

[Nick H]

Most of December was lights out for crappie, but on my last trip, 12/28, the fish were still spotted on the electronics suspended in the same places, but they seemed somewhat disinterested. Then again when I've kept 15 - 30 crappies from each school, what can I expect? None of my fish were connected with brush so I don't know about that situation.
One more thing, I didn't catch a single crappie on a jerkbait last Wednesday either.

[steve1206]

Many of my winter crappie spots are not brush related either and have been found throughout the years by jerkbait fishing. The fish tend to go there year after year. To say they were dead would be an understatement. I did have a couple of deep places that had been producing for others, an they were dead as well. Like nick said, the fish were on the graph but all I could catch was the brush itself. I would accept that is was just tough but as we arrived at Coffman at 8:30-- late start due to traffic and black ice on 54 ( which was insane because it was 37 degrees)-- there were 2 guys already pulling the boat out. I asked if they had limits an they said they'd been culling crappie for an hour! That made my bad day even worse.

[ranger1976]

we went out saturday morning in the Glaize. First dock, 5 or 6 keepers...next two docks, a couple keepers a piece. Then the 4th dock had'em...finished out with 45. Were scattered from 10 feet right on the bottom out to suspended over 35 feet of water.

[tracy shannon]

you guys know they were running water out of truman til wesday might have had something to due with it

[steve1206]

I know the rising water killed the bite in the Niangua..Mye buddy's dad (lives there) had been crushing them til the water started coming up. It was defiitley on the rise. When we took out of Coffman to go home, the dock walkway was underwater by a few inches....was dry in the morning. Funny thing is, the water is still CLEAR. I need some kind of excuse...

[tracy shannon]

the last day they ran water they let it out at 32,000 that will bring it up quick

[Nick H]

When the Niangua flows backwards as it can when lots of water is running through the Osage, the bite turns off dramatically. That's probably what happened. A guy who lives there has been testing this idea out for years. He drops a crappie jig striaght down from his dockand when the jig and line move upstream, the bite is always bad.