[caf4]

Went crappie fishing on the Osage arm of Truman this past Friday thru Sunday.

Here are the gory details....

Friday, April 28th - Decided to spend my birthday chasing crappie around the lake. Fished in the pouring rain for 4 hours and caught 4 10-13" crappie. Guy I was with caught 3. We spent the first couple of hours fishing for spawning fish and trying to rewire my motor, batteries, etc. since one was acting up. Finally found fish in 10-14 foot of water. Went to clean them and my 12 volt fillet knife didn't work. Cleaned them by hand....in the pouring rain. The females we cleaned still had lots of eggs that were not mushy. Hard to believe the spawn is over...

Saturday, April 29th - Fished for 4 more hours in the middle of the day and left when we had drained both batteries. Good thing since we got out just before the rain hit. Caught 7 more 10-13" crappie between us and probably another 30-40 4-9+" crappie. Never seen this many short fish at Truman before. Could have sworn I was at MTL. Went to Walmart in Clinton and had the battery checked. The hand held dillybobber said it was fine....I don't THINK so... Went to the famous outdoors shop kitty korner to Wally world (the name slips me at the moment) and bought a 110 volt knife (no 12 volts in stock). Made short work of those 7 once back at the motel.

Sunday, April 30th - Fished for 3.5 hours in the morning and scraped up another 4 10-12" crappie. Guy I was with wasn't much help as he only managed 1. Caught another 30-40 dinky crappie again. Can't figure this out.

All in all, not a bad weekend. Could have been a lot worse if it would have rained on Saturday and Sunday like they said. The wind kept me from fishing my best spots and I really don't think the spawn is done. I will be back...

 

[Osagehunter]

I have never fished Truman but would like to. Would you be interested in giving a helpful hint on location for crappie? How long of a drive is Truman lake from St. Louis? I live a little farther west than you but not much. I ususally fish LOZ, which was cleared when built. I've heard there are a lot of under water stumps in Truman to be aware of, is that true?

 

[caf4]

Osagehunter....we fish the far SW corner of Truman Lake. Takes us around 4 hours to drive there. You could get to the NE corner (by Warsaw) in around 3.

Yes, there is lots of stumps, stickups, etc. in that lake. Same as in Mark Twain, Stockton, Pomme De Terre. Bad for boating...great for locating fish.

I am by no means an expert crappie fisherman. I seem to have my best luck at Truman fishing in 10-14 feet of water drifting along with jigs. I'll usually have one pole that I flip the jig up next to any stickup and let it fall. This technique works really well in the heat of the summer. I also seem to have more luck fishing areas with few stickup vs. areas with tons of stickups. Don't know why but maybe it is because there is less places for the fish to chose to hang around or maybe it is because less fishermen bother those places.

 

[Osagehunter]

Thanks Caf4! Is it a bad idea to use a glass boat on Truman? I assume a lot of people do with caution. Man I would hate to punch a hole in my boat.

 

[xx75]

That's about the same luck we had friday-sunday. We only caught 9 keepers all together. But we had several short ones probably 50-60 all together. We were up by the dam. Good luck fishing and hunting. xx75-Billy Bridge