Resi draw down update

[bigr]

The Roush and Salamonie are well under way. Follow the crop site for daily updates. The Missinnawa is schedule for draw down to start on the 15th. The first few days and feet tend to shut down the bite as those that fished the Slab master on the sally experienced last Saturday. From midway to winter pool always seems to be the best of the year. Theirs good fish and numbers in both sally and missinnawa. You wouldn't believe it after last weekends results but I know I'm excited about what i'll catch from them this fall and winter. Stay tuned.

[tater140]

I would be curious to hear about the size of the fish you find in Sally.  This summer I finally started seeing a few more keepers come out of there.  For me it's been a place to catch hundreds of shorts with just a handful of keepers scattered in the past 3-4 years. 

[billyex99]

bigr, How much does the drawdown affect the Wabash? Didn't work out for us to fish it earlier but were hoping to get down there for this fall.

[bherr24]

Wabash is up a foot and a half to 2 feet now.  I fished  last night near where 2 rivers come together and did good on walleye. No keepers, but had 3 at 15 inches and lost a monster on my first cast. All this was in about a half hour of fishing time.  Hoping to get back this evening with more time to fish. I'm glad to see the drawdown start as i prefer the higher water level of the wabash in this particular spot.   

[bigr]

To answer the first question, the avg size is a lot better from all those that fish it more than I do. I haven't been on the sally in a while but good buddies have and are telling me that this fall and winter will be great for good healthy size fish. With the numbers it has you should expect to have fun.  2nd question, like bherr24 said it can be very good just like in the spring. I prefer to wade so discharge rates over 300cfu's is alittle more than I like. If your planning a float the current is moving but just slow down in the better looking hole. You won't have to get out to make it down the river but alittle more caution is advised due to the rocks just under the surface. As the corp gets the levels down a bit more they will lower the discharge amounts and that will make fishing even better all the way up to freeze up. Start watching the corp site and get a feel for what's happening on a daily bases.

[bigr]

i see them the same as freeman and Shaffer reservoirs, but with the draw downs.  millions of people surround these reservoirs and they get enormous pressure. you just don't hear or see coolers full of 13+" from there, like you do other places. all these reservoirs are chock full of shad, so they should grow tons of big crappie. combine the pressure with draw down,to consolidate the fish, and they get picked over pretty good I'm betting.  if they would stay full of water, all year, the fishing would be way better.  imagine what it would be like if fishing were ban, for 2-3 years, without draw down. 


i had one guy tell me, he thought the fish all went down river when they opened the gates.  now, i dont know if i buy that. lol  im sure some flow on down but seems most would swim up stream.  would be interesting to know how many went though.

I have to respectfully disagree. The three upper reservoirs get very little pressure for their size in the fall. The fish size from my many years of fishing these bodies of water are more affected by feed than any pressure. The Salamonie has had for the last several years literally millions of fish the same size it seems. At the same time has had a very low amount of shad compared to the Missinnawa which has had more fishing pressure than the others but every year puts out good quality fish with what seems to be very little cycling. The tournaments that were held on the sally this year has shown a big jump in size and also from what I'm hearing is showing a big jump in shad. I've been fishing these waters since the 60's and the avg size and numbers on the missinnawa hasn't been better because people are keeping more from it. The fishing pressure is at the same time much much less than back in the early days. I remember ice fishing the sally with maybe a thousand other guys at a time and all would be catching fish. This is just my opinion from many years of fishing this area. A lot of fish do flow out the dam which in turn make the rivers good fishing. As far as coolers full of larger fish it is happening at times on all the resi's just not every time out anytime of the year, but who needs that many every time. I'm fortunate to live only a few miles from sally and miss so I get out often all year round and I can tell you the 2nd best time is coming.  CPE-catch,photo,eat.     

[Jig_Head]

Anyone been by mississinewa or sally lately? Is sally all the way down yet? How long does it take to get down to winter pool? Is missy under way now?

[crappiecrusher34]

U can check water levels. Sally is way down. Missy is down only a little bit. It will take a month at missy to draw all the way down. We need cold weather to get the fish going. Warm weather last week has slow process a little. We need water temps under 60. Fish will them know winter's coming and start gorging them selfs.

[Jig_Head]

Ok thanks, I'm just ready now haha have fun at Kentucky lake

[tater140]

I was at missy last night and did a little shore fishing. Lake is very near summer pool and a little stained.  Their pulling quite a bit of water through the dam.  The river is up a ways.  We only caught a dozen or so dinks.  im not sure what the water temps are as i didnt have my boat.  We were fishing tube jigs ona 1/16 oz head, fished slow. I didnt see very many boats on the lake, but there was a few.

[crappiecrusher34]

Hoping to catch a few😉Thanks. I believe missy is turning over. I experience the same thing about a week ago water is cloudy now. Bite should be good in week or so. Fish will adjust and come to usually spots soon.

[Gaddabout]

Missy is still showing summer pool levels

http://lrl-apps.lrl.usace.army.mil/wc/reports/lkreport.html

The big crappie are hitting. I've cleaned 40, 11 in. to 14 in. also got several smaller ones, in 2 last weeks. They hit on jigs. Caught them 4 ft deep to 22 ft deep. You got to hunt them down tho. If you get into dinks, that means they are hitting. Move Move Move.
I've been fishing Missy for 30 yrs. I spider rig and cast jigs. It depends on what they want. Good Luck!