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Grand Lake St. Mary's Crappie Bite

634K views 6K replies 193 participants last post by  zaraspook 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I fished from shore on Saturday, 10/1, in the afternoon and evening between doing chores and watching as much of the Buckeyes as I could swallow. The first 90 minutes caught only three crappies and one bluegill, but 2 of the crappies were 10.5 and 11.25. Those fish were caught on triple-tip grubs.

I figured the bite was slow, so the next session started to play with fishing depth and cycled thru 3 different baits and six different colour combinations. Once located depth and tube colour, the bite was very active, with both crappies and bluegills willing to play the game. By the end of the day Saturday, the catch was 23 crappies, 18 bluegills, and one 10" bass. I don't tip with wax worms, but many GLSM fishermen do.

GLSM has an exceptional class of crappies. Sixteen of the crappies were legal.....very few short fish. 11.25 was the biggest, with most 10.25-10.5". Bulk of fish were white crappies, although just before dark, I found some fast action for black crappies in the 9.5-10" range.

More than 1/2 the bluegills were keeper size, thick, 7-8". When I arrived Saturday around noon, my neighbour was quitting.....in a bucket; he had 13 great-looking gills to clean. He said he kept 18 earlier in the week, and he and a friend stopped at 50 gills the previous weekend.

I fished for an hour and a half Sunday morning. The bite was slower but caught six crappies, four bluegills, and another small bass. Four of these crappies were 10+, including one at 11.75. 70% of my crappies were legal......impressive, and it said something about the impact of the state's 9" size limit.

The real key to catching fish was depth. Fish were holding around brush/cover, but right off the bottom. They weren't aggressive and required you to hit them in the nose fishing within a few inches of the base. The Water temp was 57 degrees (earlier in the week, I was at Brookville, and the water temp there was 67 degrees......big difference).

Below is a pic of an 11.25-inch crappie caught Sunday by my nephew.
 
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#3 ·
Saturday 10-8 fished about 2 hours for crappies at daybreak.....bite was s l o w. Just two crappies and a single bluegill. But the crappie size is till holding up. One was 1/2 inch short and the other 10". A couple times thru the day I tried again for 15-20 minutes each time with only a gill to show for it. Just before quitting my chores to go home at 6:15pm tried again for 20 minutes. Caught 4 quick crappies with 2 a bit over 10". Went home. Watched the Buckeyes fold.......shoulda kept fishing.
 
#4 ·
Pan fish bite at GLSM was very active Saturday, but not for the crappies I targeted. Fished for about 3 hours Saturday and only managed 4 crappies, two were legal. Bluegills on the other hand were much more cooperative. Caught 23, more than 1/2 were hand sized. That's a good sign for the crappies......when the big gills are in the channels, the bigger crappies are usually not far behind.

Water temp was 58 Saturday, warmer than the air when I was fishing in the morning. Cool days and cold nights this week should be a catalyst for the fall bite to shift into gear.
 
#5 ·
Fished a little over two hours Saturday morning and found a better crappie bite than previous weekend. Caught 11 crappies, 6 were legal size and a few bluegills. Three hours more fishing on Sunday produced 19 crappies with 12 over the 9" minimum. For the two outings 18 of 30 fish legal size......that's a great ratio and consistent with the fall class of fish. Most are 9.5-10.5 length. Biggest one this weekend was 11.25.

It was a subtle bite........fish would take the grub and barely move, very slowly if at all. The majority of fish were taken on a triple tip grub.....color called "motor oil". When the bite slowed down on Sunday I up-sized baits after noticing the guys throwing really small baits weren't catching much. About 10 of the 19 were caught on a Southern Pro "hot grub", which is a a bit larger than the triple tips. The color I used was ugly.....I think called June bug/acid rain.
 
#3,713 ·
Ho

How's the lake look
Fished from shore Saturday 10/1 in the afternoon and evening in between doing chores and watching as much of the Buckeyes as I could swallow. In the first 90 minutes caught only 3 crappies and 1 bluegill, but 2 of the crappies were 10.5 and 11.25. Those fish were caught on triple tip grubs.

I figured the bite was slow so next session started to play with fishing depth and cycled thru 3 different baits and 6 different color combinations. Once locating depth and tube color, the bite was very active with both crappies and bluegills willing to play the game. By the end of the day Saturday, catch was 23 crappies, 18 bluegills, and one 10" bass. I don't tip with wax worms but many GLSM fishermen do.

GLSM has a very impressive class of crappies. 16 of the crappies were legal.....very few short fish. 11.25 was biggest, most 10.25-10.5". Bulk of fish were white crappies although just before dark I found some fast action for black crappies in the 9.5-10" range.

More than 1/2 the bluegills were keeper size, thick 7-8". When I arrived Saturday around noon my neighbor was just quitting.....in a bucket he had 13 great looking gills to clean. He said he kept 18 earlier in the week and he and a friend quit at 50 gills the prior weekend.

I fished for an hour and half Sunday morning. Bite was slower but caught 6 crappies, 4 bluegills, and another small bass. 4 of these crappies were 10+ including one 11.75. 70% of my crappies were legal......impressive and says something for the impact of the state's 9" size limit.

The real key to catching fish was depth. Fish were holding around brush/cover, but right off the bottom. They weren't aggressive and required you pretty much hit them in the nose fishing within a few inches of the bottom. Water temp was 57 degrees (earlier in the week I was at Brookville and water temp there 67 degrees......big difference).

Below is a pic of an 11.25 inch crappie caught Sunday by my nephew.
How's the lake look
 
#6 ·
Sunday 10-30 bite was better.......water temp down to 48.3. Fished on and off between noon and 5PM while cutting grass and playing the fall battle with leaves. Crappie bite was better noon to 3pm......bluegills better later in the day as the crappies seemed to slow down. Caught 25 crappies but more of a mix across the size spectrum......some were as short as 5" with 11 fish at 9" or better. Largest was 11 1/4. All fish 10" or better were very chunky black crappies.

Also caught 17 bluegills of which very few were dinks. All the gills and crappies were caught on plastics......grubs, although I switched size and colors a couple times when bite would slow. The 25th crappie took more than an hour to catch.......crappie bite really fell off as the afternoon progressed. Ran into one other angler who had 20 big gills in a bucket but only 5 crappies. He was using a smaller plastic but tipped with meat (wax worms) and said he only kept about 1/2 his bluegill catch. I don't use meat unless I'm desperate for a bite.
 
#8 ·
LHT.......Local food proprietors and bait stores would love to see some shoulder-to-shoulder action. I'm selfishly content with the present day status of only sparse competition fro crappies.

GLSM still needs another species of game fish to bring in the anglers. The bass guys know our largemouth population is more than respectable. Cat fisherman are well aware the channel cat concentration is attractive. Crappies have been steady the last few years and the 9" size limit is a positive boost in my opinion. With the good class of 10-11" crappies currently, next year we could see 13-14" fish with regularity. Saugeye could be the catalyst for GLSM if the DNR would make a sustained commitment. Battelle Institute brainiacs more than once recommended another gamefish is needed, but DNR is dragging their feet.
 
#9 ·
Got to GLSM at 8:30AM Saturday morning. Air temp on my thermometer was 28 degrees. Gotta say this was one my best crappie days in recent years at Grand Lake. By 9:30 I took a break to make some sausage an eggs. Caught 13 in that first session......damage could have been more severe but lost an unusual number of lip-hooked slabs lifting them from water to bank. Fish were too heavy for those paper mouths.

Went back to fishing about 11am. I was bouncing between two spots about 75 yards apart and fishing a bit shallower than I had since September. Odd that even though cover was similar, one spot produced all black crappies, the other was mostly whites by a ratio of 3:1. Stopped at noon to watch the Buckeyes. Crappie count was up to 29 now. Fished during 1/2 time and had to shift a little deeper when the bite slowed a bit.

With the Buckeye game over it was back to serious fishing (and catching). Stayed a one spot 'til 4:30 and at one point caught 9 consecutive blacks between 9.5-10.5". Tally was now 50, a good number to quit on, so stopped to do dishes and straighten up my place before heading home. Car loaded, decided to take one more shot at it and grabbed my crappie rig for a final 20 minutes. Six more crappies before leaving. Water temp was 48.3 degrees Saturday.

Of the 56 crappies 4 were 11"+......33 were legal size and most of those right around the 10" mark. Great fun it was.....all fish caught on twister tail grubs. Each time the fishing slowed I fished a bit deeper and the bite picked up. I didn't tip the grub....no meat. Also caught 8 nice bluegills.

Great class of fish at St. Mary's.......next year could be awesome for 12"+ slabs.
 
#4,392 ·
Got to GLSM at 8:30AM Saturday morning. Air temp on my thermometer was 28 degrees. Gotta say this was one my best crappie days in recent years at Grand Lake. By 9:30 I took a break to make some sausage an eggs. Caught 13 in that first session......damage could have been more severe but lost an unusual number of lip-hooked slabs lifting them from water to bank. Fish were too heavy for those paper mouths.

Went back to fishing about 11am. I was bouncing between two spots about 75 yards apart and fishing a bit shallower than I had since September. Odd that even though cover was similar, one spot produced all black crappies, the other was mostly whites by a ratio of 3:1. Stopped at noon to watch the Buckeyes. Crappie count was up to 29 now. Fished during 1/2 time and had to shift a little deeper when the bite slowed a bit.

With the Buckeye game over it was back to serious fishing (and catching). Stayed a one spot 'til 4:30 and at one point caught 9 consecutive blacks between 9.5-10.5". Tally was now 50, a good number to quit on, so stopped to do dishes and straighten up my place before heading home. Car loaded, decided to take one more shot at it and grabbed my crappie rig for a final 20 minutes. Six more crappies before leaving. Water temp was 48.3 degrees Saturday.

Of the 56 crappies 4 were 11"+......33 were legal size and most of those right around the 10" mark. Great fun it was.....all fish caught on twister tail grubs. Each time the fishing slowed I fished a bit deeper and the bite picked up. I didn't tip the grub....no meat. Also caught 8 nice bluegills.

Great class of fish at St. Mary's.......next year could be awesome for 12"+ slabs.
Have you tried cickle hooks yet. I started using them a few years ago, now I won't use anything else catch to lose ratio improved by 75% especially on larger fish.
 
#12 ·
Made it to GLSM for a quick two hours of crappie fishing Weds evening. Was hoping with the full moon and low pressure system barreling thru, the hot bite from last Saturday would still be on. It was 62 degrees when I arrived. 20 minutes into it and just a single timid bite gave me the answer........the bite sucked.

Caught 9 during the 2 hours but most were well short of legal. Only 2 fish were better than the 9" mark. Majority of fish were black crappies. I switched soft plastics a number of times, varied presentation, moved to other types of cover but never found a recipe.

Last Saturday water temp was 48. Incredibly, surface temp Weds was 53 in my channel. I know the nights have been warm all weekend and thru Tuesday, but a +5 rise in water temp is hard to believe. Hope water temp is back down to upper 40's this weekend. When I departed for home the air temp had fallen from 62 earlier to a nippy 46.
 
#13 ·
Sunday 13th fished GLSM from 9AM to Noon. With water temps back into the upper 40's, the crappie bite was back on track. Caught 35 crappies and 7 gills. 17 of those crappies came in the first hour but only 4 of those legal size. I upsized baits and the pace dropped off but size improved substantially. Of the last 18 crappies 9 were legal and most fish in the 10-11" class. For the day, 3/4 of the keepers were black crappies.

My neighbor reported crappies were on fire Friday and Saturday...............said he caught 150+ crappies and more than 40 keeper bluegills and appreciated my tip last week to fish deeper than normal for GLSM.

Using my thermal probe, water temp Sunday was 47.3 after climbing to 53 on Weds. Key at GLSM for bank fishing now is jigging on or just off the bottom, usually in water only 3-5 ft (that's most of the lake). Majority of fish are pretty tight to submerged brush/logs/wood at those depths. The bite is subtle and fish don't move fast or far with the bait. I like to see night time lows remaining in the 30-40's to keep water temp in 40's. Also noticed a minor improvement in water clarity. Lake still has plenty of chlorophyll matter in it, but thinning somewhat. Lots of good crappie fishing yet to come!
 
#15 ·
Used a twister tail grub called a Triple Tip by Southern Pro on a 1/16 oz red grub style jig head. It was a color called "motor oil". When I up-sized the bait I stayed with same jig head, but used bait by Southern Pro called a Hot Grub. It's thicker and longer than Triple Tip. Body is 1/2 white, other half yellow, and twister tail is purple fleck. Official color is called Acid rain/Junebug and it is butt ugly to me. Crappies don't care about my opinion....they like to eat it.

Though many tip the bait with wax worms, I don't. Can't keep the bluegills away.
 
#17 ·
GLSM crappie bite continues solid. Saturday 19th fished from 10:30-1:30PM. Pulled in 29 crappies of which 9 were legal. Most of keepers were black crappies 9.5-10.5 inches with largest 11.75 (a white crappie).

Again, bigger baits were more productive than smaller ones and color was a factor. My neighbor was fishing 20' from me in the same kind of cover, but using a very small stinger type plastic only an inch in length. He tipped with wax worms. During the 1.5 hours we fished together, he caught 4 crappies (one keeper) and 10-11 bluegills. I caught 16 crappies, one jumbo gill, using a Hot Grub which I think are 2.5-3 inches in length. When my June Bug/Acid Rain color grub got beat up, switched to same bait but different color. It produced one bite and no fish in 30 minutes. Switched back to the June Bug/Acid Rain and bite was once again lively.

Water temp is 46.5.......down a couple degrees from prior weekend. Water clarity is improving, maybe 10-12" which is clarity we haven't seen since early May. As stated before, we have a great class of 9.5-10.5" crappies. Good chances next year will produce solid numbers of 11-13" slabs. Crappie tournaments at GLSM next spring may take a big bag to win..
 
#19 ·
Got in a 90 minute crappie session late afternoon on Weds before Thanksgiving. Changed baits 3 times and finally got it going. Caught 13, only 3 keepers but they were each 11"+. That ugly June Bug/Acid Rain "hot grub" is still the best ticket. More than 1/2 the fish and all the biguns fell to it. Water was 46.5 but very stained to downright muddy. I'm wondering how much longer the bite will last from shore. Guess I'll find out.
 
#21 ·
If we skip the hardwater stuff this year it's ok with me.

Like many lakes in Ohio, GLSM is high from all the rain in Oct and Nov. Levels are about where they were in May. According to the Battelle Institute report one of lake's chronic problems is lack of flow, lack of changeover of the water volume in the lake. It takes 1.6 years for the outflow of GLSM to equal it's typical volume. The Oct-Nov rains could be a plus in that regard, pushing algae and phosphorus laden liquid over the spillway and down the few creeks that exit the lake.

Of course any benefit from increased outflow is offset by new contaminants entering into the lake from agricultural heavy watershed. As long as the rains are not sudden downpours, washing manure concentrate from fields in the watershed, I think more bad stuff is going out than coming in. This is an area where the farmers in watershed have been disappointing. Few if any fields near creeks show any increase in the size/width of natural buffers. It's legal of course, but over the last 2 months fields are getting tons of manure. Driving thru the watershed the aroma of fresh hog manure can be overwhelming.
 
#22 ·
Zaraspook you definitely are having some fun catching all those crappies and gills with a few little largemouths thrown in for good measure. You're absolutely correct when you say that the buffers could be bigger (as they should be everywhere in the state) and that the outflow could compensate for the influx of bad stuff. I hope for the sake of everyone that lives close by and those that fish it that the lake does indeed improve and these problems go by the wayside.
 
#23 ·
As have previosly stated sir, the accursed 'grace period' for those REQUIRED improvements is FAST approaching. And the "guilty parties" are WELL AWARE that with the continuious satalite recon/ photography capability they WILL NOT be able to hide or deny their then criminal culprability. The days of "pollute the lake for free' are RAPIDLY coming to their conclusion. And just a "suggestion"- if the politicans and local gov`t officials WON`T prosecute them VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE. ELECT someone who WILL! The future of the lake and surrounding area is too IMPORTANT to allow a few to RUIN it for ALL, requiring that the WHOLE state PAYS to allow them to continue their IRRESPONSIBLE livestock practices. Plainly put- hope they FIX IT or get FINED out of the livestock business. The choice is THEIRS.
 
#24 ·
spfldbassguy.......you're spot-on that it's been a great fall at GLSM for the panfish. Bluegill size and numbers have been good for several years. Last year crappie numbers were impressive, size was disturbingly small. The dink crappies of last year and this spring turned into a super class of 9-11" fish this fall. Landed only about a dozen 12"+ crappies this year....that's disappointing but this great class of 9-11" fish should produce a bumper crop of 12-13" fish, maybe bigger, for 2012.

Our bass population seems to hold steady. My biggest was 3.5# but I rarely fish for bass. I'm usually good for 3-4 small pike each year but caught none this year. We need another game fish.....Battelle Institute report speaks to that issue. But our biggest Christmas wish at GLSM is manure in the lake.....no mas, please!
 
#25 ·
Are there any Zebra mussels in the lake now??? If there are not, I wonder if they would help to clean up the water problem?
We have had them in C C for years now and I think they have been a huge help cleaning up the water like they did Lake Erie.
I know that the problem is more than muddy water but it was just a question about if they would help or not.
I would be shocked if they were not there all ready in large numbers.
 
#26 ·
taxiecab, am not sure they would be of much actual help, sir. The lakes`s biggest problems are #1: of course the excessive livestock "by products' that are being allowed to migrate into the lake by way of drainage ditches and several small streams. Once into it, it settles and provides excess food for the algae, which LOVE it, and therefore "bloom" during the warmer months. #2: Although the lake was origionally 6-12 fow when constructed in the late 1820`s to early 30`s much of it has sedimentated to where now it`s average depth is less than 5 fow; although a very LARGE lake there is little in flow or outflow, tending to cause stagnation during warmer months. #3: To top things off, many decades of household laundry wash run off went into the lake (this no longer occurs as municiple sewage systems now ring the lake, thankfully) and fertilizer from farm fields upstream also still enters the lake. These last 2 are particularly BAD, because they BOTH contain phosphates which is a long lasting form of plant and algae food. While it settles eventually into the sediment, it CAN be easily put back into suspension by storms, wave action, and high thrust modern boat propellers. Hence the dredging operations to A restore depth to the lake and B remove the majority of the built up phosphate. When deepened, the lake will not "heat up" as much and the deeper the remaining phosphate is, the less of it that`s likely to get back into suspension.
 
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