Caught crappie all day long :o and just about everywhere I fished I lost count of how many fish I caught (heck got 15+ on one set of habitat). Only one small problem (all but 6 were the little guys) they are everywhere. Dragging a minnow or casting the BBC those little bastards are hungry, working submerged trees and plastic habitat was loaded with the smaller crappie, I caught and released a lot of educated little crappie so they are trained on what not to eat :thumbsup:. It was frustrating trying to find larger crappie but was refreshing to see so many little crappie back in that lake (there are two age classes) of smaller crappie and last two years spawn had to be fantastic with the lake full, don't think that will be the case this year unless the crappie can wait till SRP switches over to the salt side May 2nd you can actually see the lake drop during the day. Hunted for larger fish shallow on out but only got 1 and missed 1 till the late afternoon then got 5 more, had to leave at 3pm thinking the larger ones are coming alive later in the day :icon_scratch: Saw Whaler up there and he got a few while trolling then came over and fished trees with me for a while. Think next trip I will do the noon till dusk fishing, lake very quiet except for a couple wake board boats (man they are a pain when out on the main lake >:()
the SB cove ramp is just about out of water and the old dock that flipped and sank two years ago is laying across the ramp and has the new dock jammed where it can not go out into the water any farther thinking TNF will close that ramp within a week or so if that long(and they often don"t) put signs up letting you know it is closed when you turn off to drive up lake.
I'm thinking about camping up there this weekend (Thu-Fri nights). I usually camp near SB Cove area, but it sounds like the ramp is nearly unusable. I have a low clearance minivan that requires my back bumper be halfway in the water to get my boat deep enough to dock. And it's only front wheel drive. Do you SB Cove would still work for me and if that one is closed anyway, what alternative ramps will be usable for my case?
Anyone else going up there Thu/Fri? I haven't decided if I should do crappie there or Apache and get some bass.
Quote from: mrokusek on April 20, 2011, 07:58 AM
I haven't decided if I should do crappie there or Apache and get some bass.
That should be easy to decide :greengrin:
gots to decide where to go sat. alamo and camp? apache for eyes? and now this looks like a good test to see if im out in left feild like i feel lately or if i can bag 20+ at bartlett. what to do ? :dontknow:
it will be close I am thinking SB ramp will be closed by this weekend (only like 8' of dock is in the water) if you had 4x4 you could launch off the beach at the bowl area of sb cove but with the only two wheel drive don't think that will work, the other launch area is the main ramp which still has lots of water for depth but (you would need two people one to drive the boat up lake and then you bring the van up to SB and park) I normally don' fish fridays and it was getting busy on the SB beach area on friday.
good luck
if you launch at yellow cliffs watch out for old dock in the water it would be hard on the prop.
Jack, they pulled the old dock out of the water yesterday along with the new dock and the ramp is closing today
menrats, whatever you decide put your radio onto channel 7-0. With boat ramp issues, I'm thinking I'm doing Apache and will be up there all day Friday. I'll be at the Burnt Corral campground with my 2 boys. The crappie at Bartlett are quite tempting so I understand if you do that trip instead. I'm a one man job with docking so Bartlett be a pain especially if that lake is getting busy on Fridays. Also, my cell is 480-474-7955. Give me a call if you head up to Apache.
Quote from: mrokusek on April 21, 2011, 11:12 AM
I'm a one man job with docking so Bartlett be a pain especially if that lake is getting busy on Fridays.
I was at Bartlett last Saturday and launched at SB and it was a PAIN! I swear this is the ramp of choice my the Moron Association. When I was coming back up to the dock there was a guy who had his boat hooked up to end of the dock horizontally so it looked like a "T". I couldn't come in from the right side because I then took up the ramp area trying to even get to the dock and on the left side it looked too shallow to loop around him and park it. Just had to wait until he got to his boat (in which he had a boater in there) and pull away. Regardless... If that lake is down to 1 ramp for everyone, I'm not sure how pleasant it's going to be. :violent-smiley-007: