Author Topic: Kaibab Lake - 5/26  (Read 3692 times)

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Offline PhishingPhreek

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Kaibab Lake - 5/26
« on: May 29, 2019, 03:47 PM »
First off, yes... there are crappie in Kaibab Lake. Secondly, no, they don't have any size to them.  :ecomcity:

With the weather in all kinds of emotional distress over the weekend, I canceled the family camping trip I was planning, and opted to get in at least one day of fishing over Memorial Day weekend. Having gone to Dogtown a few weeks prior and getting skunked and hearing that Kaibab was producing fish, I decided Kaibab was the lake for me. Plus, I've had a decent history with crappie at this lake.

Since Kaibab is electric motor only, I brought my little 12' boat that holds 3 people uncomfortably. And because the only way to catch crappie at this lake is in the boat, I spent all day on there.

I set up both my rods to troll with crappie gear and didn't get my first crappie until 4 hours of being on the boat! I ended up catching 4 crappie and my brother caught 1. All no bigger than the size of my palm. No point in keeping something that small, so we threw them all back. I caught them on 3 different lures I was dragging behind the boat. 1 was with a worm on a single snelled hook with a gold blade, 1 was on a Joe's Fly Spinner tipped with a worm (See attached image), and the 2 others were on a chartreuse roadrunner, equipped with a "Green Weenie" jig. The one my brother caught was on the single snelled spinner with a worm.



While it wasn't the greatest of trips for crappie, and I'm happy I was able to get into any, it was an incredible trip for trout! With my gear all set up for crappie, I still managed to catch 15 trout, lose 5 bringing them into the boat, and literally missed 2 million hits!  :P

I even submitted my report to Game and Fish and they shared it on their report blog.
Angler Report: Kaibab Lake – 2 year old catches first trout

Offline OneBlade

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Re: Kaibab Lake - 5/26
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2019, 05:03 PM »
Nice job and way to stay motivated after 4 hours of no crappie.

Offline Tweeder

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Re: Kaibab Lake - 5/26
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2019, 10:27 PM »
Nice work Phreek, love to see reports from not "normal" crappie lakes too.  Also way to stay with it after a million strikes.  Had a few of those days that pushed me to my breaking point.  Wonder if a minnow stocking program or different type of feeder fish would benefit some of those high country lakes with stunted crappie size. 

Offline PhishingPhreek

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Re: Kaibab Lake - 5/26
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2019, 10:47 PM »
I'm not sure what would help the crappie size and population at these northern lakes. I can't imagine they eat too many of crawdads since they're generally upward feeders. I do catch a lot of crappie up there off worms, so maybe they eat those somehow.
Would be interesting if we could stock a bait fish in one of these lakes to see what happens with the population.

Offline FishMan

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Re: Kaibab Lake - 5/26
« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2019, 10:04 AM »
You had me at “Greenie Weenie”.
When in doubt, set the hook!

Tom

Offline Fishless

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Re: Kaibab Lake - 5/26
« Reply #5 on: May 31, 2019, 04:42 PM »
I believe that g and f sunk a bunch of habitat (bundles of juniper trees from a clearing project by the FS) in Kaibab last year? wonder if they have GPS coordinates for it like at Rosy?

Would be nice if they could get a cold water bait fish that would survive the winters as forage for the crappie. Bass can eat the heck out of crawdads but a bait fish for crappie would be neat. The crappie back east grow slowly but do get to eatable size eventually wander what bait fish are in the lakes back east?
« Last Edit: May 31, 2019, 04:44 PM by Fishless »
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them." John Bernard Books

Offline PhishingPhreek

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Re: Kaibab Lake - 5/26
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2019, 05:50 PM »
I don't know if they added anything new to Kaibab last year, but there have always been some huge trees along the shoreline across the boat ramp. I graphed lots of big trees all over back there several years ago and marked them on my GPS. Those are the trees I've always trolled over when trying to catch crappie.

I know last year or 2 years ago they added a bunch of trees to Dogtown Lake that hadn't been there. I graphed all of them and marked them on my Google Maps :-D I haven't caught any crappie over those trees though.

I was curious what kind of bait fish would survive cold waters and looked it up. Google searches sucked because it just returned results on "what bait to use to catch fish in cold water".
Stupid Google....

Offline craigm

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Re: Kaibab Lake - 5/26
« Reply #7 on: May 31, 2019, 08:21 PM »
I don't know if they added anything new to Kaibab last year, but there have always been some huge trees along the shoreline across the boat ramp. I graphed lots of big trees all over back there several years ago and marked them on my GPS. Those are the trees I've always trolled over when trying to catch crappie.

I know last year or 2 years ago they added a bunch of trees to Dogtown Lake that hadn't been there. I graphed all of them and marked them on my Google Maps :-D I haven't caught any crappie over those trees though.

I was curious what kind of bait fish would survive cold waters and looked it up. Google searches sucked because it just returned results on "what bait to use to catch fish in cold water".
Stupid Google....
  I am currently up north, just got back from Tutts Bait in Garrison Minnesota, getting bait for my Grandson and I to fish the Minnesota adult and teen challenge charity tournament tomorrow, these are minnows trapped here locally ,Fatheads the same as you purchase at local Az bait shops , Spottail shiner's, golden shiners, emerald shiners , sucker minnows these are ones that grow here in Minnesota . I do not think it gets as cold as here anywhere in Arizona. I had a thought looking at the fish you caught maybe they need to be kept and thinned out when to many sunfish or crappies are present here they become stunted , The Minn DNR says stunting cn occur when you keep all the big ones the Gene to grow large disappears , maybe its a cold water phenomena , so maybe new brood stock would help . What does AZ Fish and Game have to say about it ?

Offline Fishless

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Re: Kaibab Lake - 5/26
« Reply #8 on: June 01, 2019, 06:04 AM »
Interesting the bait fish available back east thanks for the info, fat head minnows would be great for Kaibab. I don't think it is over population of crappie in those lakes just no forage for the fish to eat and grow? Same thing happens at Lake Mary not an over population of crappie due to pike and walleye the ones that survive do grow to decent size just takes forever again I think due to lack of forage bait for the crappie? Crappie were illegally introduced at a lot of the northern lakes which or supposed to be trout lakes I think g and f just tolerates their presence but I doubt they will support much effort? (of course unless people start to pester them about it?)

Good post Louis on the g and f weekly fishing report :headbang:
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them." John Bernard Books

 

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