Crappie Fishing Central Ohio

Peak time Delaware Lake, is giving up alot of 10-12 incher with few dinks.I caught 40 Friday and only had 4 dinks the entire 5 hours!I know folks have alot of methods 9ft rods in deeper water with minnows(They are now in full spawn)Jigs and Tubes save your time, little bobber, buy Bass Minnows, attach a swivel and a hook and fish the timber it doesnt get any easier then it is right now.Does a big Crappie, prefer a dinky crappie minnow over a Bass minnow?Set the bobber about 3ft minnow will swim up and has some room to run nows the time good luck! C.B

Are the crappies in the wood near shore or out suspended? Hey Coach, have you ever trolled for suspended crappies? This is a fun way to catch them with tiny cranks, and the new spider rigging tactics seem to work quite well, as I see guys catching crappies this way a lot at Caesar Creek.

Lastly, why is it that the crappies are relatively small here in Ohio versus other states north or south? A big crappie up north is a 14" to 16" black crappie and I know the white crappies down south get real big. Do you think it is overharvest? Thanks for the report!

Tom, Most of the fish are now in 5ft or less in trees,stumps and rocks.Delaware lake has an incredible shad population was once stocked with Musky, but do to the high volume of water, that gets let out it was discontinued and I understand the logic.I fished a Tournament 3 weeks ago, and we had our limit of 12 fish 9-11 inches and didnt come close to the $$ $It took 7lbs to finish in the top 4 places.2 years ago I saw a 17 incher a 15incher alot of 14 inchers and most Crappie tournaments are won by the spider guys.Hats off to the OGF Tournament guys who had a catch and release format after the tournament!The Tournament directors 2 years ago I may be wrong but I think it was Crappie U.S.A had the guys throwing the fish in a cooler after weighing and sad to say the 17 incher along with the 15 and many 14inch class were gone forever.I dont take 14 inchers and I dont understand if you have 30-40 9-12 Crappie why you need to take away the larger gene pool.I took home 40 a week ago and thats all I will take for the entire year ,when I hear about reports of those who take that many out daily it depresses me, but then again no laws broken, you can take as many as you can any day of the week on Delaware, as long as they are 9 inches and up sooner or later it will get tough especially since the smaller class doesnt seem to be around in numbers like they were. J.B

My brother-in-law (Bassbbum) took this picture of me holding these fish. They both measured 16-1/4 inches, and I was bass fishing a Central Ohio public lake. LOL!

Maybe if I start crappie fishing I'll catch more bass? I think I've got some left over chewing tobacco on my right k-9 in this picture. LOL! I'm sure if I were taking a picture of Bassbum, I wouldn't tell him about something like that either. LOL!

http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/commu...1&d=1243395956

http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/commu...d.php?t=120869

Tom, you asked about large crappie in Ohio... Check out this one from the OGF site.

http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/commu...1&d=1243875767

Curious as I am were those fish released? C.B