2/23 El Cap

[Iceman]

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegallery/data/500/2-23turkeys.jpg

I had to see my son off to school and then made the short drive to El Capitan Res. These turkeys were along the way. Got there at 7 AM. A friend was gonna meet me, but found out later that work got in his way. Weather over all was pretty good although there was a bit of hail that came through:D I threw everything from crankbaits, spinnerbaits, dropshot, and crawdads por nada. They just were not biting. I talked to a few others and the best I heard was 2 fish for three guys. Took me back as I have not fished this particular lake since I first moved to Ca almost 20 years ago. Fun morning and I never had to rinse off the reels :D

Hopefully Otay will treat me better on Sunday.:paddleersmilie:

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegallery/data/500/2-23elcap.jpg

[Ryan The Sealion]

I'll have to show ya how to catch them greenbass sometime andy ;)

did you get a water temp..?

[zeelaagee]

anyone else here interested in hunting turkeys in a few weeks? i have the calls and decoys! archery or shotgunners fine by me.

[Shirack!]

Totally interested in turkey hunting. I am a bow hunter!

[wildcat]

Thanks for the report Andy...I bet that crappie bite in the spring would be a blast in the yak...C ya round..

Jim

[bigeye]

Andy, fished it last week and had ok fishing, but all the fish were dinks. Saw the board about LJ and realized I'd made a error on where to fish! Saw a guy trolling a rig that looked like a string of jerk baits with a small shiner at the end and he was nailing those huge El Cap crappie. he had one that was about three pounds! What about Cuyamaca? Cris

[Siebler]

Ill be turkey hunting very hard come the season opener. Shotgun and then bow to pick up those extra 2 weeks. Guess that the picture confirms rumors of the turkeys getting furthar west.

Ill get out there with you to catch some largemouth eventually Andy.

[Iceman]

CJ, ya I have heard Barona is thick with turkeys. Jim and Cris, I have been thinking hard about them black crappie. I was metering endless masses of them when I was crossing deep water. I think they would be a hoot!
I saw this stick up that looked like it had a rod tip on it,
so I started pulling it up, it was at least 20 feet long, like a fiberglass
crappie jack pole. I kept it:D

[blackcloud9]

Andy never thought of you as a crappie guy. I have spent a number of days targeting them at El Cap, Otay, Hodges the last couple years. They are fun on ultralite tackle.

This very recent link below has a great reply by RoyM, and pictures of the El Cap crappie spots. Pay close attention to his first two pics, N Point, and his info. RoyM is to Crappie what Iceman is to LJ Yellows. And he targets them year round, reporting stringers of 50.

http://www.sdfish.com/forums/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=121&topic_id=51595&mesg_id=51595&listing_type=search

Here's a couple of shots of mine, I like Otay, El Cap and Hodges in that order for crappie. I always rent a boat but the yak would be great too:


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/blackcloud9/Fishing/OtaySpringCrappieLoomis021806.jpg
http://www.larryl.com/images/2005Spring/ElCapitanCrappieLarryBig051305.jpg
http://www.larryl.com/images/2003Spring/HodgesCrappieLarryB052603.jpg

[Siebler]

That couldnt have bee put better. Both RoyM and RoyJ are crappie masters. I would definatly attend a crappiefest at el cap on the yaks. Last time i did such a thing was Crappiefest at hodges 4 years ago. Molbasser, Flatbadge, and others were present. I bet we could get a few of those guys to go. Last time when we got done fishing we had a shore lunch then many went back out. It was awsome Crappie (and catfish) tacos and a fun day.

I could in fact take the skiff and be Bait headquarters as it has a large capacity tank that we could fill with shinners. Maybe i could get my buddy to man it while i yak.

MBF style anyone?

[Iceman]

Larry, cool pics. I used to fish crappie a bit in the midwest, mostly walleye, never have here.

CJ I'd be in for the crapfest. Pick a date.:D

Ryan, my through hull temp looked like 59.

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegallery/data/500/IMG_0379.JPG

[Afran]

Thanks for the report. I'm going to El Cap next week. Dude the reports have been wackin em. Bad day I guess.... it was the weather, trust me.

[T-Rex]

Nice report. I used to take my kids crappie fishing when we lived back east & it was always a blast on ultralight tackle. It was all C&R until a friend talked me into into keeping a couple for the table. I was really surprised to learn how tasty they were!

I never knew there was a thriving crappie fishery in So Cal.
Gonna have to break out the ultralight stuff and give it a try! ;)

[Iceman]

Here is a great online resource for So-Cal lakes. This comes out every 2 weeks in FishRap.

http://thelog.com/news/newsview.asp?c=207072