Arizona Crappie Association

Lake Reports => All Other Lakes => Topic started by: Tacoma Guy on May 22, 2013, 10:37 AM

Title: Lake Mary
Post by: Tacoma Guy on May 22, 2013, 10:37 AM
Headed up to Lake Mary tomorrow morning for a few days.  Caught 2 crappie last summer on crank baits (not targeting them).  Will try for pike during the day and switch to crappie fishing at night.  Will try throwing some lights out and see how we do.  With the water temp. being colder up there, I'm curious to see if there are any still in the spawning mode.  I will let everyone know how we do when we get back.
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: Piscolli on May 23, 2013, 06:11 AM
IAMMAC knows that lake for Crappie.
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: AZfisherdude on May 23, 2013, 08:30 AM
I was up there a couple weeks ago fishing for pike. Talked to several crappie fisherman on the shore who said it was slow and still a bit early for them but they were catching a couple of nice slabs a day.
Just an fyi - they also all reported catching walleye on crappie jigs under a bobber and the occasional pike. Good luck!
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: Crowbait on May 23, 2013, 09:51 AM
Back in the day,90's we used to throw BBC or JDG on slip bobbers just slow rolling them. Lower lake filled up after great snow and rain storm. The fish grew fast.  In upper lake, near dam the first and second little coves (if water level is high enough) produced crappie and walley
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: IAMMAC on May 24, 2013, 03:19 AM
This was back in Oct of 11, haven't really fished it since, but I trolled jigs by the dam and laoded up on the Crappie.  Didn't seem to matter what color jig I was using, most were 1-1 3/4 lbs with a few over 2 mixed in. 
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: Fishless on May 24, 2013, 03:23 PM
And ever farther "back in the day" I use to fish the lower lake at first ice off with whole smelt under bobbers for the hungry big pike.  My best was 17 pounds, but we also caught good channels and in the afternoons a few 2 lb crappie on road runners from shore.  That was in the late 70's when the lower lake was awesome!

those were the good old days heck Mormon lake had perennial water and the pike in there were huge, we used to catch them with the red devil lures duck reproduction on Mormon was near 0 as the pike feasted on ducklings for dinner. Even before Mac got into the crappie at Mary few years before that we would cast for them along shore up near the upper launch and submerged trees and do well. with no shad or much in the way of minnows always wondered what the crappie survived on in that lake food wise :dontknow:
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: IAMMAC on May 24, 2013, 11:23 PM
And ever farther "back in the day" I use to fish the lower lake at first ice off with whole smelt under bobbers for the hungry big pike.  My best was 17 pounds, but we also caught good channels and in the afternoons a few 2 lb crappie on road runners from shore.  That was in the late 70's when the lower lake was awesome!

those were the good old days heck Mormon lake had perennial water and the pike in there were huge, we used to catch them with the red devil lures duck reproduction on Mormon was near 0 as the pike feasted on ducklings for dinner. Even before Mac got into the crappie at Mary few years before that we would cast for them along shore up near the upper launch and submerged trees and do well. with no shad or much in the way of minnows always wondered what the crappie survived on in that lake food wise :dontknow:

Kind of sucks you can't use minnows up there!
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: Tacoma Guy on May 27, 2013, 10:12 PM
Well had a great few days up at Mary with the family.  A lil' cold at night and bummer on the fire restrictions, but had a lot of fun. 

First night we set out lights at the mouth of a cove adjacent to the dam.  Graphed fish anywhere from 4-8 ft. over 10-12 ft. of water.  Found a group bunched up tightly like crappie after trolling around for 30 min.  There was a lot of fish on the graph.  Anchors out, and we had 4 poles with JD, BBC, Fire Tiger, and Wally jigs.  Full moon didn't help the light situation (used with lights) nor did the muddy water, but we did have a few small fish(looked different from shad in the desert lakes) show up to play.  We tried for 3 hrs. before the kids were tired and all we caught was 1 small walleye.

Day 2 we used crank baits since that is what I caught crappie on last year.  We did well with the other species on the lake, but no slabs.  Night fishing only produced a couple small channel cats.  Tried going a bit deeper in the same spot as night before.

Day 3 finally saw two other guys on a boat catch a nice crappie right in front of our camp across from the Narrows.  He was using a Panther Martin.  Talked to 8 different boats over those 3 days and those were the only guys to catch a crappie.  I'm thinking the water needs to warm up some more.  The fish I graphed I'm convinced were crappie and we were trying different colors and depths.  Also FWIW I spoke with the Lake Mary store owner who said they aren't getting many reports on crappie success right now. 

Will definitely head back up there in July maybe even squeeze in a 2 day trip in mid-late June. 
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: sparkchaser on May 28, 2013, 09:24 AM
Great report, and glad you got out on the lake. I was planning on a weekend trip to Blue Ridge, but the wind scared me off. We opted for a nice 2 day raod trip through Sedona with a stay in Flag up to the Grand Canyon back to Flag, then a nice trip back down here through highway 3 and 87. We stopped at Lake Mary, which looks exactly as it did last year. Blue Ridge seems about the same level, but color is not so green. First time I have ever seen water in Mormon Lake. Tons of elk running around up along the south rim of the canyon. Didn't see any deer coming through the Kaibab. Great road trip though.....
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: ArZFisher on May 28, 2013, 08:34 PM
Thx for report. I need to get up their too. I have never fished or been to the lake before. Did you by chance get a water temp?? Would be useful to determine what the slabs should be doing up north
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: DTurner on July 10, 2013, 07:31 PM
Can you fish from Shore on Lake Mary?  Can you catch Crappie from Shore on Lake Mary.  Any info is good info
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: on the rocks on July 11, 2013, 10:56 AM
About this time last year I was shore fishing at Lake Mary I did not catch any crappie but I did catch 2 walleyes and 2 pike the biggest walleye was 7.2 lb. and I only fished for a little over an hour cuz I really went up there to relax never dreamed I would catch a big walleye and had to leave to get him on ice. I was fishing with a night crawler under a bobber about 2 ft.
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: DTurner on July 12, 2013, 11:25 AM
Awesome.  Great catch. Well I think I will head that way soon. I love crappie but walleye is nothing to pout about. Thanks for the heads up!
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: malex81 on August 22, 2013, 12:29 PM
Anybody doin any good shore fishing for crappie now?  I was gonna bring the boat but I am just going for the morning and afternoon.  Want to get my 2 year old daughter a taste of fishing :D  What about trout at lake mary?
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: sparkchaser on August 23, 2013, 11:20 AM
When we were up there last time, we had pretty good luck with the walleyes, and of course clams. Can't say much for trout. We drug around crawler harnesses in 5 to 10 feet of water. Bouncing the whole time, you knew when it was a hook up though. Best setup for me was a 3/8oz slip weight with this in sunrise color http://www.northlandtackle.com/Category/main.taf?cat=102
There was no doubt when the fish was on. It went from bouncing to steady hook up. Trolling about .8 to 1 mph
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: Fishless on August 23, 2013, 04:42 PM
game and fish stocked about 10,000 trout in upper lake mary last year late summer when water conditions were to bad at other area lakes, if they have not become pike food there are probably some nice hold over trout to fish for :dontknow:
Title: Re: Lake Mary
Post by: malex81 on August 27, 2013, 11:55 AM
Will we went there on saturday and no bueno! I talked to the camp hosts there and they said that people that have been fishing for crappie are only catching 1-2 a day, but they have been around the 12-13 inch range.  Other than that if you wanna go pike fishing that would be the lake to go too.  At least the daughter was able to throw a line in the water
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