Lake Talquin 5/21/14

[Poopong McPlop]

Today was supposed to be a good day to fish with 3 daytime feeding times and two major feeds at the beginning and end of the day. The main lake started out at 75 and reached mid 80s by the end of the day. There was almost no wind today. We got out a little late and missed the morning feed so I cant report on how good it was or wasnt. The morning was slow, tons of little breams everywhere, but no nice ones, and none on bed in the open water of coves as far as we could see. We covered 2-3 miles of the main lake one poling with a pole drifting out the back as well and had next to zero luck. We headed to some spots where we have found them on bed before and only got sunburnt in the process. At this point we realized the big ones weren't quite on beds yet. I forgot the feeding times for the day and I only knew them approximately so we had to watch other people catching to determine the start of the feed. Around 11 we saw people catching fish so we moved inshore and caught some smaller bream and warmouths and managed a nice 15" Crappie on a slow sinking crank bait. At this point we felt defeated with only a crappie and some small foul hooked bream to show for our efforts. We thought Talquin was going to crush us once again, but determined, we went looking for some Crappie holes. We drifted around continuing to one pole and picked up a few warmouths and some smaller breams. Our luck changed around mid afternoon when we located an area of the lake that was 10 degrees cooler. We found a steep drop off next to the shallows with blowdown and decided to anchor and wait for the feed to begin. It seemed to start an hour early and ended an hour early where we were. Possibly due to the huge temperature swing. We ended up catching about 15-20 Crappies , 3 huge channel cats (and tons of small channels) and some bream from this one spot. I spooked them out of the spot with the messy landing of a 13.5" Crappie and they were gone for good so we one poled the last 30 minutes with our last 2-3 minnows and a managed a few more before running out of minnows. I'm starting to put the pieces together, but this lake still owns me sometimes. Another confusing but successful day at Talquin!

[fishinfool]

Mmmmm...Crappie nuggets.

[SS-342]

An I thought you never had a bad day! Hum……but it turned out to be a good day after all. Some of my bad days are the ones I learn the most.

Thanks for the good honest report!

[Poopong McPlop]

An I thought you never had a bad day! Hum……but it turned out to be a good day after all. Some of my bad days are the ones I learn the most.

Thanks for the good honest report!

I have had tons and tons of bad days. We took my 35' boat out at St Marks, fished the outgoing tide at 4 mile creek and caught nothing but rays and hardheads just last week. The bad days are getting fewer and fewer and further in between. Bad days always have a lesson in addition to a spanking. For one, you know the fish werent where you were, and thats lesson number 1. Most of my bad days happen at reservoirs like Talquin, but this year I've spent time and paid my dues and ran tons of sonar hard while watching the serious guys in the all weld boats. I always consult fellow fishermen at the dock about what they caught, what time they caught them, the depth they caught them and what part of the lake. Most of the time I know their spot, so when they give me the rest of the information, I can begin to put another piece of the puzzle in place. The Talquin puzzle is slowly turning into a picture, but its not quite there yet. I still dont know where giant shell crackers and blue gill are at Talquin in the winter, but I suspect theyre on the channel ledges near the bottom closest to the feeding grounds (coves). This year I want to learn crappie summer patterns at Talquin. I have theories, and I will put them to the test this summer. The hardwork is paying off at Talquin, and journaling these reports has really helped me out a lot. (hopefully its been helping you guys too) A couple weeks ago I had the honor of taking out a writer for Florida Sportsman magazine, the conditions were terrible, but I was able to take him around call spots, and deliver fish and teach him about shell cracker patterns in prairie lakes for his RES article. A year ago, I was not the right man for this task.

[Danibeth]

Looks like a good day of fishing to me. Nice mess of fish in your cooler there.

Good luck figuring that place out even more

[crappielimits]

Anytime you need advice on crappie, shoot me a PM. Especially, on Talquin. I been fishing it for over 20 years and can catch a limit of crappie most days of the year. Summer crappie patterns are in 12 to 18 foot flats adjacent to the creeks. Early morning and late afternoon in the spring fed creeks. The daytime fish will be where shad are and the feeders will be suspended, while the bulk are tight to cover. Main lake points are good. Summertime is a great time for the night bite also.

Winter bream and shell crackers are best in the Little River and up main river. They love those green worms.

I love your reports and hope I can help. Unfortunately, I do not use fishing forecasts in my patterns. Though, I can steer you in the location, depth, bait etc... To start you in the right direction. Those big bream and shellies can be caught right now,drifting the little river flats with worms near bottom. Check Mews creek too! The males will start fanning on new moon. This is my favorite time up until the day before the full moon.

[Poopong McPlop]

Anytime you need advice on crappie, shoot me a PM. Especially, on Talquin. I been fishing it for over 20 years and can catch a limit of crappie most days of the year. Summer crappie patterns are in 12 to 18 foot flats adjacent to the creeks. Early morning and late afternoon in the spring fed creeks. The daytime fish will be where shad are and the feeders will be suspended, while the bulk are tight to cover. Main lake points are good. Summertime is a great time for the night bite also.

Winter bream and shell crackers are best in the Little River and up main river. They love those green worms.

I love your reports and hope I can help. Unfortunately, I do not use fishing forecasts in my patterns. Though, I can steer you in the location, depth, bait etc... To start you in the right direction. Those big bream and shellies can be caught right now,drifting the little river flats with worms near bottom. Check Mews creek too! The males will start fanning on new moon. This is my favorite time up until the day before the full moon.

Thank you for the advice, I learned a bit reading your post, and we actually caught all our crappie on one of the above mentioned spots! Were heading to Talquin tommorrow and I hope it goes well!

[SS-342]

Wow….this is something! McPlop and Crappielimits hooking up together could produce an awesome team.

Kind of odd how two expert fishermen uses different methods to produce excellent results.

You two could make a ton writing a book or doing a fishing show together.

Hope to read more reports in the future.

McPlop you are right on about finding/catching fish. One has to find fish to catch them. I'm just beginning to learn how to catch speckled trout on the flats and use some of both methods as you and crappielimits. Often times I find fish and can't understand why they are there. Then I figure it is my like of understanding and was just blind luck I found the fish. They are always where they are for some reason. I'm beginning to see a seasonal/location pattern and am slowly beginning to put the "why's" together to see a clearer picture.

About the time I'm feeling more confident that I "know" the bomb falls and we catch nothing! Or my nephew goes without a gps, map study or any knowledge and catches the limit.

Ain't fishing FUN!