MyFishFinder Forum
MFF US Midwest => Indiana => Topic started by: bigr on Apr 03, 2017, 09:02 AM
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Water levels are now being brought back toward summer pool. Water color is muddy and rising quickly with a lot of rain expected this week. Cat fishing has been good using cut bait on bottom and I would expect that to continue even with the rising dirty water. Crappie fishing has been good in slack areas up river and that should only get better as the spawn gets closer and levels rise. Water color when fishing 12 inches deep using dark colors in slack areas where the fish are stacked doesn't make much difference. white bass are just starting to show themselves with little fish first. Action for white bass will pick up fast also with the rising water. I suggest night crawlers on bottom until water clears a bit then spinners and jigs. for those looking to get on the river with canoes or kayaks I suggest waiting a couple more weeks for the water flow and color to improve. The bite has just started and will last I think several weeks. I'll keep you all posted on river conditions and bite. Also the bite below the dam for crappie has been off and on depending on the discharge and area you fish. A few walleye mixed in. Good luck all.
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Thanks for the report. I appreciate it.
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Thanks for the report from upriver bigr. I just got back from the spillway and brought home 20 fish. Most were about 11 inches had a few 12s and 1 at 13. Was fishing when they dropped the water 2 feet and figured it would kill the bite. It deffinitely slowed it down and moved the fish but still picked away at em.
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Paid Missy a call Tuesday afternoon. I fished for about 2 1/2 hours and wound up with a couple of decent crappie and a small white bass
Peoria gauge said 800 cfs being released and the height was a tad over 3 feet. The water was very muddy below the dam. Lots of shad in
the water as well
fish on,
rivereddy
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Thanks guys. Cant wait to get there! Hope things get right with mother nature soon.
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Took advantage of a short window after work for some power fishing up the missinnawa river. I might have set a record. 25 crappie caught in 13 mins. Got to fish about 35 mins before lighting scared me off. Fish are really on the move now. Fish the slack areas with dark colors.
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Sounds like some great action. I need to get up that way when the weather and schedule allows. My best trip all year last year was upriver toward hogsback. Several 13 inch fish. Got to the point where me and my buddy were tossing back solid keepers due to the size of some we were catching. That was the first time we had fished up the river. The river looks like it has went up 4 foot or so overnight thanks to the rain. The same program has been working downstream from the spillway. Dark jigs or minnows fished a foot or 2 deep in slack water. I got 20 nice ones Monday and a dozen Tuesday. Also caught a really nice white bass on Tuesday.
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Do you guys think the fishing will be decent this weekend?
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yes but you'll have to do alittle work to find slack areas with fish. Below the dam should also be good.
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What is meant by "slack areas"? Can I get a boat in tomorrow? What is best bait to go after the crappies with this time of year?
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Black and green tube jigs under a Bobber and minnows
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Slack areas are just calmer pockets of water out of the main current. The water is up some now and the fish will stack in the calmer areas to get out of it. Im not sure about the boat question as ive never used a boat to fish over there. You can get one in the resi no problem though. I like to use double tube jigs on one line...always have one blk/chart and usually a pink/black or red/chart. Ive been using the darker color lately with the muddier water. I use mini tubes and if its not an agressive bite ill even cut some of the tail ends off of that.
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Thanks guys!
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I've not been to river in last few days but looking at corp site and seeing current level the hogs back area should be a good choice this week. Water in river is dropping and slowly clearing. Fish are in the area. for you boat fishermen all ramps should be usable now including Pearson mill. Watch for shallow areas if you travel upstream. Stay in river channel. Looks like we are going to have nice weather this week and into the Holiday weekend. Enjoy and remember the reason for the season.
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Went to the missy spillway yesterday morning bite was good until the raised the water. I left with 8 nice crappie. Did a lot of sorting and tho.
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Fished upstream as far as troyers bridge yesterday. Water was cleaner but still dirty. Level was dropping fast. Caught a few white bass. Dropped down river a couple miles to hogs back area, Water was a little high for shore fishing but from a boat would be good. Dropped a couple more miles down stream and found some crappie in a fishable slack area. Then the rains came. I expect river has changed yet again over night. The good news is when we get enough rain to make the Wabash river to rise the corp will shut down the discharge from dam for flood control. Some areas got a lot of rain and some got little. we'll have to wait and see today.
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what bait shops do you have down there? used to be one in huntington and then one at old gas station off 24 by missy. anymore around there?
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Below the dam at woodys camp and bait. Somerset off of hwy 13. those are two that I'm aware of on missy. Mega pet in Wabash at intersection of 13 and 24. On the sally I know of two. Peace pipe near the visitor center at lost bridge west and then another one a few miles west from there. It's a big general store with a big assortment of stuff. Sorry I cant think of name.
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The 2 bait shops i know of are Woodys which is right by the spillway and theres also one in Peru on Benton street. Both are on my way so i have used both of them before. I fished below the dam yesterday and as someone mentioned earlier the water was up 2 feet and my spots that i had been catching fish had too much current. I caught a few but no size and had to work hard for those. The bite was pretty good all week last week and i look for it to pick right back up whenever they drop the water back down. I'm looking to get out sometime on Thursday hopefully the discharge is down some.
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Discharge should be way down by Thursday. Looking at corp site they will be at the level they want sometime today so they will now be holding water to slowly continue the rise. Below the dam should be very good the next few days with no rain in forecast.
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I think so too big r, they actually slowed discharge yesterday afternoon a little bit. I couldn't go yesterday but my cousin went over last evening and caught about a dozen good ones he said with the slower flow.
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I went to Missy last Saturday with a buddy and did pretty good at the spillway. I appreciate you guys posting the reports on here, it definitely helped us get a nice mess!He went back Sunday and he said they increased the discharge which killed the bite. So, what is the hogs back area?
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The Flats, Hogs Back, Reenactment are all Names we fishermen have used to describe areas most fish as the water begins to fill back up from winter pool to summer pool on the Missinnawa. During the winter pool time these areas are just the former river. As water is held back in resi the river slowly comes up until the river channel itself is under water. The flats is the 1st effected by the rise and is also the first to see a push of migrating fish, White Bass, Crappie, Walleye. When water level reaches summer pool water will have backed up to as far as the reenactment area. That normally occurs around 1st of May which is also the peak of the spawn time for fish. The fish move much faster upstream during high water events so they typically start showing up anytime from late Feb to end of May. I love the chase when late winter and early spring begins. This year the chase has been very good since early Febuary when we had that warm up. It really got them going and they haven't left. Conditions in all the popular areas are quickly improving and would expect the fishermen to really start showing up.
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is this the time of the year when the walleye should be bitting well?
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I fished the dam yesterday , from 12 to 530 and me my son and my fiance ended up with 39 crapie and gills . And 6 stripers alot of sorting ! Didn't see much action water has slowed down and very stained . No cats and no eyes seen caught as far as I know all in all had a good day and good eats
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Spillway is too low for my liking now and too many people now that the weather got warm. Decided today to make the longer drive up river for the first time this year. We were not dissapointed. Lots of nice fish and only 3 or 4 other people there fishing. Me and my buddy kept a one man limit all 11-13 inchers. We caught a lot of nice fish that we released simply because we didn't feel like cleaning 2 limits.
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good job bherr...I stopped and fished at least 5 different places this weekend between 13 to all the way up by the battlefield and didnt manage 1 single keeper...bite was extremely slow for me. Figured the fishing would have been fairly good but left disappointed
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drine i had 2 friends go there this last weekend. they did the same as you. the crappie they did catch were small. said they mite have caught 1- 11"er the rest were 7"-8". probably the muddy water.
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Drine i was upriver from 13 but not as far as the battlefield. The fish were in the same holes that we found them in last year when we had our best day of the season with several fish at 13 inches. The bite was every cast for the first half hour yesterday. We only had one 13 yesterday but several 11 and 12s. Most of the fish were males too, only a few females. The water color is not that bad, i had been catching them in the spillway for the last month is worse looking water then what i fished yesterday. Also caught 5 white bass and 6 drum. I can't go today but my buddy is planning on going i will post how he does if he gets out.
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Thanks for the report's... made it up river and caught supper. A couple 12-13, but the 11's and 10's are the best eaters.
Great day out on the bank's.
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Good to hear Bobber watcher. My cousin went to the same spot today and said he caught a ton of em but not as much size to them today. Another friend of mine went to the spillway though and limited out on some decent eaters. I was unable to get over there today but made it out to the eel river here in logansport tonight for a quick outing after dinner and caught my personal best smallie of 4.5 pounds, so it was a good day.
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With everyone taking home the big crappies and not releasing them to spawn why would one expect to catch bigger ones next time at a spot?
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That's a great smallie bherr24! I got a 4 lber outta lake michigan 2 weeks ago
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true crusher34, i am sure you can fish it down as you suggest, but they do move around and grow a next generations. has it been a free for all down there lately?
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great smallie bherr24! congrats! you caught it on what?
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I caught it on a 3 inch white power grub on a 1/8th oz head. I will try to get a pic of it up later. I released the fish as i believe the eel has a bigger one in it somewhere but i did contemplate putting the pretty thing on the wall. Crusher we released an easy limit of nice fish sunday and there were nice fish caught yesterday by other guys in the same area. Spare me your bs i seem to recall u filling u ur sink a few years ago with big crappie, no??
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From my many many years of fishing Missy it has never been over fished or has taking larger fish reduced the number next generation fish. My opinion is if the fish are not taken out in large numbers we would soon see another Sally, Partook, Monroe. A billion little fish with nothing to eat. That's not to say they don't produce some large fish but the avg is terrible compared to Missy. Missy crappie grow fast and fat. I haven't even seen much of the cycling that tends to go along with crappie. Even tough it may seem there is more fishing pressure I can tell you, now doesn't compare to the days when people were fishing for food and the fishing now is atleast as good if not better than then. The exact opposite can be said about the other Resi's. I hope people continue to catch and keep when they can be had.
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off topic but here is my smallie from last evening (https://www.myfishfinder.com/fishing_forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi151.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fs146%2Fbherr88%2Fbig20smallie.jpg&hash=0301713790312e4ac24761dc6ed3e839) (http://s151.photobucket.com/user/bherr88/media/big20smallie.jpg.html)
Big r i agee with you. I havent fished there as long as you but i can only recall one down year in the 15 years or so that i have fished that place.
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Bherr24 its just a little food for thought. Nothing against anyone. Thats a really nice smallie u caught.
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I get what you were trying to say i just dont think it applies much to Missy. I caught solid fish everytime i went for almost a month straight out of the same hole below the spillway. The only thing that shut them off was major changes in the water level. Rarely if ever do i keep a limit by myself either. I don't mind cleaning them but it's not my favorite thing to do either so i'd rather keep a dozen or so nice fish instead of a limit of dinks to clean. The limit we kept Sunday was the two of us combined so we actually only kept about 12 a piece. I hear people complain all the time over there about people keeping dinks, then i hear some that complain that people arent releasing the big fish. Impossible to make everyone happy, i do what makes me happy. Thanks on the smallie, it was a nice one and was a heck of a fight on light line in swift current. Just hope i can catch a bigger one in there someday.
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Conditions and bite are very good now in the river systems of both resi's. Canoes or kayak will get you in areas shore fishing aren't getting into easy. Water color won't get much better or lower. Fish are concentrated in the backed up areas with white bass just starting to make there move further up stream. Corp of Eng is slowly bringing resi level back up and as level rise fish will also move up. If rain hits and river comes up fish will move quickly further up river.
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Launched at Miami SRA ramp yesterday for the first time in about 20 years. Pretty windy and it was coming straight down the lake toward the dam. Found lots of crappie in the 8' to 20' depths. Caught about 25 from several spots, keeping 10 for some fish tacos. Best depth was around 10' on a break. All fish were caught on Chartreuse curly tails.
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Out today and 2 limits in 90 minutes on the whites. All nice size. I like to keep the smaller ones but had to keep some bigger ones today.
Were you out in the canoe again or on the shore? They getting them on the shore?
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I have not been back since all the rain. Spoke to bigr a couple days ago and he said things dont look good.
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Work the rip rap on front of Dam. Fish are spawning in the rocks. Closer to sure the clearer the water. Wigglers for gils and jigs/minnows for crappie.
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This may be a dumb question but what do you guys think the chances of catching a walleye at the spillways are?
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This may be a dumb question but what do you guys think the chances of catching a walleye at the spillways are?
I was there today , drove two hours to basically turn around and come home water is way up ! And moved fast our of the spillway tank is completely unfishable .... Did see a few crapie caught in the slack waters but wasn't much size to them
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Fished Missy sat and sun with my 9 year old son. Decided to try after some bluegill off the bank. Did decent on saturday and excellent on sunday. We left them biting last evening i already had more then i wanted to clean. No giants but a lot of solid keeper 8 inch fish and a couple 9s. Was using red worms as bait, also caught a couple bass and a drum. Threw a twister tail for some crappie late in the evening as they usually run minnows in close late in the day, but had no luck. Was my first trip to Missy since before easter thanks to all the flooding. First time in a long time i did not fish the crappie spawn over there. Water is close to summer pool now and clarity was good. My son enjoyed it most importantly.
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The missy will surprise you when it comes to the gils. Nice stocky fish. Did you fish the rip rap? I would like to get my dad out this week. Glad to hear you had a good time with your son.
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The missy will surprise you when it comes to the gils. Nice stocky fish. Did you fish the rip rap? I would like to get my dad out this week. Glad to hear you had a good time with your son.
Yes, the rip rap. Found one area that seemed to be better then others after some searching. Found the spot late Saturday and returned on Sunday and it was slow to start. West winds were making the water very choppy and at times nearly unfishable. Combined with the waves from boats it was tough. As the day went on and the boat traffic left though it really turned on. Every cast for a time. Nice sized males the majority of the catch. Fishing bout 4 foot deep and only out about 10 to 12 feet off the bank. Was going to head over again this evening but they just scheduled ball practice for my boys all star team and since i help coach i cannot miss. I may be able to swing over there tomorrow evening before baseball fills up the rest of my week and weekend
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Your priorities are right. Fish will always be there but kids grow up to fast. Thanks for the info and might see down that way some time.
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Just got back from the tailrace. They must have known I was coming because they dropped the discharge from 6.5 to 2.5 last night/this morning.
I drove up anyway, picked up a dozen minnows at Woody's and had at it. There were probably 15-20 people fishing the chute - all on the east side.
There were gar everywhere, and a school of shad so large and thick that they darkened the water. I saw all of the usual big river fish caught except
walleye or stripers. I caught a bunch of crappie - mostly small- with a few nice ones tossed in and an 18 inch largemouth. Almost all were caught
dead drifting a live minnow through the current seams. When I ran out of minnows, I tossed a 1/4 oz ball head jig with a 2.5 " white twister tail. This
caught larger crappie than the minnows did.
Got in a solid 3 hours of fishin'
fish on,
rivereddy
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Nice report ! My favorite place to fish !!