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Post by cambygsp on Mar 20, 2007 5:10:07 GMT -5
My son, myself and a buddy are going to Reelfoot Lake 03/29/2007 to 04/01/2007.
Anyone ever been around this time of the year?, what can I expect in weather?
We are taking my 1995 17 ft runabout, I know the lake is full of stumps, but I can keep the motor shallow and go slow. We are staying at The Reelfoot Inn.
we are primary fishing for crappie but hope to also pick up some nice gills and a few bass.
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Post by kyle on Mar 20, 2007 6:15:11 GMT -5
I have been down there three times and the best luck we had was when you are going. Is you boat fiberglass? We also stayed at the reelfoot in a couple of years. Weather can be tricky it will be windy one day and nice the next you never know.
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Post by Adam Brown (BGGoosekiller) on Mar 20, 2007 17:37:28 GMT -5
If your runabout isn't alumnium I wouldn't take it.
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Post by cambygsp on Mar 21, 2007 1:25:37 GMT -5
I have a 17ft ,1995 Bayliner Capri w/ a 120hp Force outboard motor. I've jerry rigged a trolling motor and fishing set up in it. We bought th boat new in 1995 but it only gets used for fishing now. I've also read where they reccomend aluminum boats, but I aint got one, if I put a hole in it it's insured!
Really, we won't be zipping around the lake on it, most of our fishing will be drifting till we find a school and then tie off or ancor. I am fully aware of all the stick ups and some that are submerged, we will be very carefull!
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Post by steiny on Mar 21, 2007 19:48:10 GMT -5
Most of those places will give you a jon boat and motor to use as part of your package, or you can rent one dirt cheap. If you've not been there, you aint seen stumps like this before. The whole 40,000 acre lake doesn't have much water deeper than about 5'. You need a 14' - 16' aluminum boat with a 10-20 HP motor on that lake. I wouldn't drag that big barge down there, it may be more trouble than it's worth.
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Post by bschwein on Mar 22, 2007 9:20:16 GMT -5
I've been down there several times ranging from now to Memorial day. My family is going the week after Easter. I'm missing this trip as I'll be in Nebraska after Turkeys. We always fish up towards the north end of the lake and stay at Grays. If you want to catch the gills, forget your spinning rod/reel and take a long fly rod/crappie pole and try to find the warmest water and start jigging around the cypress trees. The crappies still may be schooled in some of the channels. Dirfing works well or slow trolling jigs. I wouldn't worry to much about your boat as long as you go slow. I see lots of people in bass boats all the time down there. Black/chartuese works well on the crappies down there. Good luck
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Post by kyle on Mar 22, 2007 10:27:42 GMT -5
Most of those places will give you a jon boat and motor to use as part of your package, or you can rent one dirt cheap. If you've not been there, you aint seen stumps like this before. The whole 40,000 acre lake doesn't have much water deeper than about 5'. You need a 14' - 16' aluminum boat with a 10-20 HP motor on that lake. I wouldn't drag that big barge down there, it may be more trouble than it's worth. I agree I will never forget how many stumps we hit.
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Post by dougburris on Mar 23, 2007 7:54:44 GMT -5
please do yourself a favor and take an extra prop i bent one down there and the dealerships have different pricing for out of state boat owners
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Post by catdaddy75 on Mar 26, 2007 20:35:10 GMT -5
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Post by catdaddy75 on Mar 26, 2007 20:37:05 GMT -5
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Post by catdaddy75 on Mar 26, 2007 20:40:03 GMT -5
good luck camby,we had a good time.we fished the deep end,drifting in about 8 feet of water using minnows.if you stay down on the deep end you wont have any issues with stumps.feel free to p.m. me ill tell ya all i know
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Post by JohnSmiles on Mar 26, 2007 21:02:17 GMT -5
Did I ever mention I love crappie . . . . ))drool((
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Post by cambygsp on Mar 27, 2007 11:58:45 GMT -5
good luck camby,we had a good time.we fished the deep end,drifting in about 8 feet of water using minnows.if you stay down on the deep end you wont have any issues with stumps.feel free to p.m. me ill tell ya all i know Where's the deep end? we are staying at Reelfoot Inn in Tiptonville.
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Post by catdaddy75 on Mar 27, 2007 20:13:54 GMT -5
down by the blue bank resort.you'll find it no problem
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Post by cambygsp on Mar 28, 2007 4:39:51 GMT -5
ok thanks !
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rosie
New Member
Posts: 23
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Post by rosie on Apr 4, 2007 0:18:30 GMT -5
How was the fishing trip? I'm heading down in May. I've heard the snakes are awful ,is this true? Any other tips or tricks for a first timer. Thanks
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Post by dougburris on Apr 5, 2007 14:58:09 GMT -5
reelfoot is fantastic in may if you are fishing for gills and catfish! crappie are scattered and tough to find. fish cypress tree knuckles (roots) and go deep in the pads and fish openings with maggotts and you will do well ! take long poles 16 is best and be ready cats will tear you up! don't worry about snakes they are there but stay alert when in the trees. push pole comes in handy if you have the room Good luck!
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Post by cambygsp on Apr 6, 2007 5:08:39 GMT -5
A bad day of fishing BEATS a good day of work!
We arrived on Thursday evening, checked into The Reelfoot Lake Inn and then went fishing. We didn't catch a fish Thursday Evening, but we did have all you can eat catfish, slaw, oinion rings, french fries and white beans ay Boyettes Dinning Room when we got done fishing Thursday.
Friday morning we were up at 5:00am and on the lake by 6:00am. Fishing was slow again Friday as a front was moving through. We caught about 24-30 fish, but we fished ALL DAY Friday. We hit a stump and bent the prop (slightly) sometime Friday, actually we hit so many stumps I don't know when we bent the prop! We had a Quail Dinner at the Lakeview Friday evening.
Saturday was BAD! We woke up at 5:00am and the wind was blowing what seemed like gale force. Lots of the fellas at the hotel said they were not going to attempt it, but we did! We got the boat launched and took off from the ramp. You couldnt keep the boat in one place the wind was blowing so hard. It was white caps and they were splashing up and over the side of the boat. We were on the lake for about two hours and then gave up, it was horrible! When we got off the lake we looked at a map and found a water shed lake that was close to Reelfoot so off we went to that place. The water shed lake was situated down somewhat, and had some nice coves to get out of the wind. The bluegill were biting good on the watershed lake and we caught about 20-30 decent keepers before the rain started. We actually fished ourselves out of bait. We got off the lake just as the rain was really starting to pick up.
We had a real good fried chicken dinner at Blue Bank Restaurant Saturday evening. We ate lunch at the BBQ joint Saturday afternoon and was not impressed, the food LACKED any smoke flavor!
Sunday morning was very clear and calm, but our fishing license expired on Saturday, so we didn't fish. Loaded up and headed back north. We stopped at Bass Pro Shop just as we came back into Indiana. I bought one of those electrict filet knives, as I was tired of useing the one we slice turkey and ham with...lol
We were back home by 3:00pm on Sunday.
Would I go back?....YES! we were just not lucky with the weather. The fish we caught were nice ones, we just didn't catch that many of them. The lake is VERY shallow and was a bit different fishing. We went for long stretches without even seeing any fish on the fish finder, but when we did find them on the finder, there were lots of em!
There were no rhime or reason to how we caught our fish, we caught some deep and some shallow. We did catch several nice channel cats and our biggest crappie was about 1 pound.
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rosie
New Member
Posts: 23
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Post by rosie on Apr 7, 2007 1:26:02 GMT -5
Thanks for the info everyone and the resturant reviews. How was the Reelfoot Inn? We are staying at the Eaglesnest resort and plan on hitting the gills and cats.
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