[AZfisherdude]

I had posted a report here before I did on the other site but for some reason I can't find it so here is a copy of my other report....... Maybe I hit preview and forgot to post afterwards? Anyway, here it is.

We went out to the lake at around 6pm to see what we do for bass at dusk. Had a tough time with it. We only managed 4. So we went in search of some shad and some flathead bait. After a while we set up shop and started fishing for crappie and flats. No luck on the flatheads but after moving around a bit and making some adjustments, we got the crappie bite to turn on red hot! It was around 2 am and we just couldn't bring ourselves to leave so we stayed on it until the sun came up. Ended up killing my start battery because I had forgotten to bring a battery for the submersibles so we trolled back to the ramp. That was fun. The water temps were about 80 on the surface and the lake is super high. Really beautiful lake when full
of water. Big slab was almost 16 inches, had a couple of ten inchers and most were 11-13 inches.

[ArZFisher]

Dang mang nice catch. Thx for report my buddy and I are thinking about going out tonight. Hope we can get into them has well

[sandman]

Very nice haul.

[Papermouth]

That looks like one of those mini soda cans..

Just kidding, that's the best crappie harvest I've seen at Bartlett, you obviously made the right adjustments!

Great job.

[OneBlade]

Great job!

[AZfisherdude]

Thanks guys.

Great job!

Dude, you know what's funny about that is that I have many times considered doing it with a 3lb bass and claiming it was a monster and see how long it takes someone to realize it!

[sparkchaser]

Nice job, that looks like a San Carlos haul lol. Glad to see Bart is giving up some fish.

[Papermouth]

Dude, you know what's funny about that is that I have many times considered doing it with a 3lb bass and claiming it was a monster and see how long it takes someone to realize it!

Some people can't help but focus on the fish, while others focus on the elements around/and the fish!
Especially nowadays - damn photoshop - there were/are enough fisherman lies as it is!

sidenote-
I'm sure you would share if asked, but if you ever wanted to share any aspects/details of your "adjustments" that led to such a nice crappie harvest, the AZCA community appreciates it!

[AZfisherdude]

Great catch man, not sure I could have stayed awake and really enjoyed it after midnight but it goes to show how odd crappie fishing can be at Bartlett.  Would love to compare notes or fish together someday.
 

Definitely. I am always down for fishing with other people and learning new stuff.
Not sure if the giant bait balls just keep causing so much commotion that it brings more fish in from further or what but we have noticed it pick up later in the past as well. Of course, we have done trips where we got nothing more than a fish or two all night so wrong place, wrong time I guess.

[AZfisherdude]

Dude, you know what's funny about that is that I have many times considered doing it with a 3lb bass and claiming it was a monster and see how long it takes someone to realize it!

Some people can't help but focus on the fish, while others focus on the elements around/and the fish!
Especially nowadays - damn photoshop - there were/are enough fisherman lies as it is!

sidenote-
I'm sure you would share if asked, but if you ever wanted to share any aspects/details of your "adjustments" that led to such a nice crappie harvest, the AZCA community appreciates it!

Well, it really is just a combination of trying things and paying close attention to what's going on. My partner and I work really well with each other and both contribute to finding out what needs to be done. Set up location, how far, and when to move, bait selection and presentation, depth to drop the bait to. I am sure all of the variables are going to change in each outing. I am not comfortable sharing in an open forum contributions that he made but I will say that one thing I discovered that made a difference was how light the bite was. Insanely light. Even holding the rod in your hand you wouldn't feel it. Had to pay very close attention. Also, we just keep trying stuff until we get on something and then we switch over to whatever works best until it doesn't anymore and then try different stuff again. We almost never fish the same style until we find what's working. For example. I was dropping 2 grubs sometimes tipped with a minnow or shad, sometimes a crappie nibble, sometimes both. I would try on another rod an ice jig or spoon. He would be trying a bait on a bobber and one on a split shot. We just keep going back and forth and trying different stuff until we find the one thing they get most keyed on.
One thing that was cool was that crappie were busting the surface. We thought it was bass at first but then we started really watching and it was definitely crappie. When we saw that we made more changes. Some work and some don't.
I was really happy to see some quality fish coming out of Bartlett. Haven't been out crappie fishing for a while. Couple of the females had really small eggs in them but that was it. Don't know what that means for the spawn.
I hope this helps.