• You do not need to register if you are not going to pay the yearly fee to post. If you register please click here or log in go to "settings" then "my account" then "User Upgrades" and you can renew.

HuskerMax readers can save 50% on  Omaha Steaks .

Tailgate Fish Fry

We'll be hitting a smaller lake tomorrow that's supposed to be loaded with crappie. Nothing biting here for the last 3 weeks.
 



Walleye aren't cooperating with my fishing plans now - catching too many that are less than 15", hence returning them. I may have to bring some smoked salmon instead, which I hope is acceptable. I'll be in Homer, Alaska in mid August so I hope the silver salmon runs are good at that time and I can bring some fresh salmon back to NE. for the fish fry.
I love Salmon.
 
We'll be hitting a smaller lake tomorrow that's supposed to be loaded with crappie. Nothing biting here for the last 3 weeks.
I can't remember the last time that I kept and cleaned a crappie. How small do you keep? Do you fillet them like a walleye or scale them and cook them whole? There are some crappie ponds nearby where I take my kids, but it's rare that we catch any bigger than 10-11 inches.
 



I can't remember the last time that I kept and cleaned a crappie. How small do you keep? Do you fillet them like a walleye or scale them and cook them whole? There are some crappie ponds nearby where I take my kids, but it's rare that we catch any bigger than 10-11 inches.
I fillet them like a walleye, size depends on the body of water that were fishing. Some lakes we can catch 100 in a couple of hours but rarely over 11". Last year we kept about 450 that were 12"-16" out of Milford. I even had to convince @Nostradumbass that they were actually crappie. We went today but had minimal luck.
 



No it sucked, couldn't find what they wanted to get them up out of the grass. Caught a few, tried jigging vertical, slip bobbers, and small crank baits.
Did you have/try any small leeches? I don't know the body of water, but do you know what food would be located in that particular patch of grass? Damselfly nymphs patrol the edges of grass beds, looking for other nymphs to eat, and dragonfly nymphs will do the same and get right into the thick stuff. Baby leeches are often in the deepest grass, but they don't come out if sunlight is getting through to their depth. All it takes is temporary cloud cover for them to come out to feed. That's honestly a great situation to use flies, even on conventional tackle. You can put some size 14-18 nymphs on droppers off of a mainline and then put a drop-shot weight below it to match the depth where you're seeing them. Marabou tails on jigs are often doing the same thing. If you have gizzard shad, their young of the year often hang out in deep grass beds, too.

Did you catch any fish? If so, did you check their stomach contents? If you can show me a picture of what they're eating, I can tie something that will reasonably look like it for you.
 
Last edited:

Did you have/try any small leeches? I don't know the body of water, but do you know what food would be located in that particular patch of grass? Damselfly nymphs patrol the edges of grass beds, looking other nymphs to eat, and dragonfly nymphs will do the same and get right into the thick stuff. Baby leeches are often in the deepest grass, but they don't come out if sunlight is getting through to their depth. All it takes is temporary cloud cover for them to come out to feed. That's honestly a great situation to use flies, even on conventional tackle. You can put some size 14-18 nymphs on droppers off of a mainline and then put a drop-shot weight below it to match the depth where you're seeing them. Marabou tails on jigs are often doing the same thing. If you have gizzard shad, their young of the year often hang out in deep grass beds, too.

Did you catch any fish? If so, did you check their stomach contents? If you can show me a picture of what they're eating, I can tie something that will reasonably look like it for you.
I did fillet any we just threw them back. Not much for may flies which is a hit for crappies around here. We did use small sassy shads, 1.5" to mimic baby shad as they were everywhere. Our small crank baits were also baby shad. We fished a small lake that I don't typically fish.

Milford is dumping 12,000 cfs , and Tuttle is at 24,000 I believe so hard to find them right now.
 

GET TICKETS


Get 50% off on Omaha Steaks

Back
Top