Rathbun has some pretty nice crappie this year. Got on the water around 7:00am and had my 20 keepers by 11:30am. Then went looking for new-to-me places with structure.
Man, this lake is hurting for good crappie structure. It’s just not there in large numbers, and what I found in years past is pretty much rotted away or silted over now.
Sunday was a repeat of the day before as far as getting my limit of fish was concerned. What I found interesting though was the fact that all the females I cleaned still had eggs in them, although it looked like they were being absorbed by the host fish and some of the males I cleaned were still in their darker spawning shade of color. None of these fish were caught on the banks, but were all taken from depths of 12′ to 18′ of water, either inside or on top of underwater brush.
I never tried any walleye fishing, but most of the guys I saw trying weren’t doing to hot. They did say the bite was better from 1:00pm on into the afternoon.
That is a big problem at Rathbun on a weekend in the summer. If you want to fish for anything at those times, forget it. Seems they open the idiot hatch around noon and don’t call them home till dark. Jet skiers, water skiers, joy riders and people with more boat than brains to operate them are on the loose. The DNR could write tickets all afternoon, but I never saw them once all weekend. There definately is a lack of knowledge of water safety laws and common sense etiquette.
My son offered to let me take his paintball gun with me next time. I may take him up on it. Might be fun. 
June 29, 2004 at 2:42 pm
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