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Clearwater Reports


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Fished Gills today in 18' of water. Had to do alot of sorting, but did manage 15 nice ones. Some of them you really had to force them to bite, but that is why they call it fishing! What perfect weather day for ice fishing, 25 degrees with NO WIND! grin.gif

[This message has been edited by Skeets (edited 02-13-2003).]

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  • LakeCenterRefugee

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Fished gills on Sunday from noon till 6:00 in 7 feet of water. Caught well over 100 fish, but had to do some sorting for the ones I kept for dinner. Biggest was 8 1/2, so there are some nice ones out there. For some of the bigger fish, I upgraded my hook to a crappie size jig, so I wouldn't catch all the smaller ones. It also seemed to atract some of the bigger ones better. Good luck!

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  • 1 month later...

I figured we should bring this one back to the top....so anyone been out here yet...thinking either Clearwater, Ceder, or Sugar on Satuerday...any ideas? , Reports?

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Not much to report...yet. Maybe by this weekend I will have a chance to spend more time on the water. Anyone else have any reports? Nav

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A guy at work says he's getting small crapps in bays on west side of lake by B.J.'s but no bigger ones yet. My dad's got a place on east side by launch on 24. I might take the row boat out this weekend. I'll let ya know how i do.

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fish were being taken on clearwater in the smaal bays .. this past weeks weather has shut them down thou .

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Anyone know if the warmer weather the last couple of days has pushed the crappies back into the little bays for us?

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Iceman Not yet. Was out yesterday from 1-8 2 small bass in the bays. Did manage to get 6 crappies in 15-20' all 12-14.5" kept 2 for dinner. The water temp was 49. I did manage to find 53.5 in a few bays but no fish. Couple more days. good luck

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Iceman Not yet. Was out yesterday from 1-8 2 small bass in the bays. Did manage to get 6 crappies in 15-20' all 12-14.5" kept 2 for dinner. The water temp was 49. I did manage to find 53.5 in a few bays but no fish. Couple more days. good luck

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Pretty much the same thing to report on Pleasant lake. The water temp was 50 yesterday and the only thing I caught was a few small bass and sunnies. Nav

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Put the docks in Sat. didn't get time to fish but heard from 3 different people that the Crappies are in the shallows. I'm gonna try to get out early this week. I'll post results.

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Did not get out on Clearwater this weekend (putting in the dock), but saw lots of bait fish schooling in the shallows, and that is good news! Hopefully, we can get out and get some after the tourney.

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Made it out on Saturday and did pretty well on crappies and sunfish. They were in the back bays hugging the shoreline, particularly in the brush. Lots of boats and crowded at times.

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Thanks for the info. I'm hoping to get out on Thursday, weather depending. I fished Tonka and caught a few 12"ers and a bunch of 10-11"ers, but not with the consistency that I get on Clearwater when they are hot. I'll let you know how I do.

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I went out on friday and couldnt find a single crappie. All of my traditional hot spots didn't produce a fish and everyone I talked to had the same results as me, sunnies, bass, and dog fish.

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Hello everyone,

My neighbor and I were out on Clearwater Saturday. We were fortunate to locate the crappies in traditional shallow bay areas.

There were quite a few boats out on the lake that day, and those around me appeared not to be having the luck that we were. This may be a result of just being on fish, but I think it has more to do with the presentation used.

I noticed that almost everyone was using a jig and minnow setups. We also tried this initially, to no avail. We then switched to a small #8 octopus hook and a minnow hooked thru the tail. This definetely was the winning combination. we ended up catching upwards of a 150 crappies. Some spots produced 8 to 9 inchers, while other areas produced 10 to 12 inchers and one 14. The key to our presentation was a basic refinement, use the most active minnows you have in the bucket, and change them frequently.

Give it a try, it is a simple method we have used on this lake (and others) this year, with very good results.

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I was out on Thursday, and fishing was poor. I did manage to boat around 15 fish. The size of the fish were much smaller today as well. Most were 8" with three registering over 10".

There were a few people I spoke to, that managed to find some action, but most everyone I spoke to, on the lake was experiencing a slow bite.

Quite a difference from last Saturday!

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I was out there sat. from 2:30 till 5 and between my wife and I we caught our limits of 1/2 to 1 pound crappies. Most were around 3/4 with a few smaller and a few in the pound range. What a fun time she had and me. She caught the biggest one so she was happy. We were fishing a bay that was 62f. Hope to get back out once more before the op-ener if weather permits.

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Adict: Have not seen any carp in the shallows, but we have not been out since Saturday. Fished lots of shallows...no carp. Did I hear that 16lbs. won the BJ's tourney? We did not enter the tourney, but I was out with my daughter early on Saturday, and heard judges talking with registered boats...who were catching zip....where did someone find 16lbs? Wow.

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lakecenter ,
you are correct about the winning total ,,, info i got is the came out of augusta . i do know that i was fishing near some few boats in the contest and they went in with a decent total also off clearwater itself .. i live on the lake also ,, maybe we can hook up some time /

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Rock: Thanks for the info. We are kind of new to Clearwater, but really love it. We have always done well on bass and sunnies, but not much luck with walleye, but I am hoping as we get more familiar with the lake that will change. We are out most every weekend, so maybe we can set something up. Tight Lines!

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lake center , here is my email address,,,[email protected],,,,, mail me there so we can try to get something set up . in summer i am very busy thou so it may be hard

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if anyone is interested, we bowfished today out on Clearwater and fished crappie some.... biggest carp we got was 22 lb. 12 oz., biggest crappie 1 lb. 4 oz. - 13.25".

carp are early in the spawn - mostly prespawn activity, but many in the shallows... crappie appear about done spawning, still some in the shallows, but not many on the beds... tons of pike in the shallows spawning, which is pretty abnormal for this time of year... I don't ever remember the crappie being done while the pike are still in spawning.. of course tons of bass in the shallows prespawn/spawn.

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anyone else see walleyes in the shallows? with the clarity so good, we saw a large school of walleyes along a weed edge this past weekend... pretty cool, but we couldn't stay on top of them for long... water clarity is as good as I've ever seen it, 10+ feet easy visiblity...

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Hello all. I have heard a couple rumors that the walleye have been in deep water this spring, 30+ feet. Can anyone confirm? Seems a little strange to me, but maybe with the clear water they have moved deep?

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we see them every year while bowfishing along the weed edges (shallow enough to see - 8-15')... I'm sure some fish are deeper, but there is really no reason for them to be that deep yet with the cool temps and all of the bait fish in the shallows... 2 years ago we saw them in 2 ft. of water stacked the week before opener... didn't make it back out at opener to see if they were still around...

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So where are the Crappies hitting?
Anyone fish the Big part of the lake?
I haven't been able to check in for a long time. ( 2 Weeks at least )

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Has anyone been out on Clearwater this weekend? If so, how did you do and where/what? I've got a friend without a boat in Buffalo that would like to go out there and I would like to make it a productive trip if possible.
Thanks

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we fished Clearwater yesterday... mainly for bass and bowfishing for carp. We did stop and fish some crappie/gills. Some crappie in on the reeds, but most outside the deep weed edges. some real nice sized gills this year, if you don't mind sorting...

Bass fishing very good. Tons of small fish, but enough decent size fish to keep it interesting...

It would be tough not to catch fish on clearwater right now. Fish are everywhere right now and very active.

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