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Leland Lake Report
Jefferson County, WA

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04/24/2010
Bottom Fishing From Boat
Crappie
Jig
Evening
04/25/2010
3
971

My son wanted to go shoot on Sunday, and I wanted to get some time in on the water, so I decided to head to the lake after work regardless of weather, my son and the dogs wanted to go along, so away we went. Did not hit a rain drop until we got to the lake at about 430pm, fired off the electronics and first thing I noted was all the new fish in town, so obviously the state planted Leland over this past week with trout. Took about 5 minutes to find some Crappie schooled up, by this time the rain is upon us, I wanted to try a couple of the new colors I brought in for my product, (Dons Dandy Crappie Jig), and we put some Crappie Gravy on the hook and fished the heck out of the schools. We could not get any serious bites, just sniffers and nibbles and then the wind started to blow so I positioned us over a good looking school and anchored. As we would swing through the school and get on the edge just as the Vexilar was losing contacts, BANG hogs on, real nice fish that were just outside the major group were hitting with conviction. In the next hour or so and through the miserable rain and wind we netted a dozen or so Slabs all of which were 13-14 inch and just beautiful as could be, but I have a strict 10" keeper slot limit that I adhere too and so not a fish came home with us for dinner. We fished till last light and put em to bed and headed home wet, cold, but wiser in the ways of the "Speckeled Perch" ie.. Crappie. Water temp is inching up each trip, it was 55.3 degrees, the new colors that worked the best was perch orange and chartruse and purple and white combos. Klahowya!


Comments

jbball50
4/25/2010 11:17:00 AM
That's a fatty fish, I was thinking of possibly making some structure and maybe dropping it into Leland because my friend has some trees he needs to cut from his house, kind of wondering if it would worsen the problem of that water though. Do you know if alders are good crappie structure, seems like they'd work well.
BMGW
4/25/2010 12:00:00 PM
Alders are NOT the stuff to use, as it will not last at all, use swamp willow and make sure it's no higher than 4' or it will not hold up well to wave action or snagging gear. If you do make "brushpiles" keep them somewhat small I would say 3'x3' would be perfect. Willow will give you about a 5 year use, do not drop them in the shallow parts of the lake, nothing but trouble for other fishermen after bass and surface trolling for trout. Find any natural structure on the bottom in 20' of water or so and plant close by the natural structure and gps your drops, be environmentally sensative about what you use for weighing down the brush and make sure you use enough weight or amazingly you will find your pile will migrate... Brushpiles have been proven to provide not only cover for juvinile fish but more importantly the surface area up off the bottom allows for a growing surface for micro zoo plankton species that feed the fry, that attract bigger fish, and ultimately creates a very healthy fishery. That said however does not lessen the need for self regulating the need to keep every fish as some are known to do. Return of the largest catch will reap more benefits than any other means. I believe there are 16" and possibly larger slabs in this lake and at present time the fishery is in an upward and healthy trend. On the other hand I have noticed over the past decade that there is something that has gotten into the flesh of the perch, I believe there is a connection with the blue green algea phenomanon that started to appear about the same time ago. If you fillet out a perch from this lake note the silvery speckles in the flesh, the Crappie do not have this and not all the Perch have it either but the majority of them do, so I believe it is something they are eating. I have been fishing this lake for near 30 years and have seen a lot of change, most for the worse, but the introduction of Crappie has been a wonder to behold. Klahowya!
jbball50
4/25/2010 12:37:00 PM
Yeah if I was going to drop them I was going to do it in the 20-30' of water probably towards some grass I've seen on the fishfinder if I can find it again, I need to bring the GPS out and mark these areas. Guess I won't do it though, I was just going to do it since he had a bunch of alders, not any willows or any kind of brushy stuff around that I saw yesterday. Like you said though about some people keeping every fish, it might hurt the crappie fishery if someone found it and fished it everyday taking fish from it.
Jay K
9/5/2010 11:29:00 PM
BMGW- When you say you have a strict 10" keeper slot, but was catching 13-14"-ers and releasing 'em, are you saying you keep fish 10" and under or right at 10"? You let the "bigger" ones go, so to speak?
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Available Guide

Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service

Phone: (509) 687-0709