Lathem Lately?

[RamblinWreck]

Had an epic morning with new JDM rod. Got on a flat near the main channel and found some crappie stacked up, and wore 'em out, as they say. When they finally quit biting I had no more room in my cooler and was releasing them. All fish kept were over 11", and biggest was a 15.5" 2lb 4oz fish, my new PB crappie. Don't have a count Kept 17 slabs, which filled up a big Igloo Playmate cooler so full I had to dump the ice.

Most fish were caught on a trout magnet on a 1.5g Daiwa Gekkabijin JDM jig, later I used a Moonshine Jigs (Perry Pippinger) "Elmo" color 1/32 hand-tied jig. The big fish hit the Perry jig.

Never even got around to the 'crackers today.

 

[hopper]

Slaba Dabba Doo. Gotta post the final product in the paymasters cooking forum. Good job Buddy

 

[dank1296]

Nice had lathem on my mind might hit it tomorrow

 

[weagle]

Awesome catch.

 

[JC33]

Anyone been to Lathem Hollis recently? finaly got my house done and moved in. Gonna have some fish time now. Thinking of headed over there this weekend and next week.

Hi there...I'm new on the board here, although I've been poking around many times in the past! Since I was planning to be in the general area yesterday, I went to Latham for the first time yesterday afternoon...it was about 3pm by the time I could get on the water and since they still close at 5pm (until next weekend), I only had about an hour and a half to fish. I did catch one decent bass...right up near the bank on a wacky rig senko. Missed another nice strike on a jerk bait before leaving, but that was about it. Really nice lake...I'm looking forward to visiting again with more time!

 

[RamblinWreck]

@JC33 : I saw you miss that fish - maybe; were you in a black Denali? I was taking out.. Not a shore-friendly lake, really. A kayak, jon, or electric-only boat of any kind would be advantageous, to say the least.

Went back first thing this morning and the crappie were still there; I put a bunch more in the cooler, yes sir, I did. Slap full of SLABS.

Then I decided to try to find another flat with the same characteristics and see if I could get on some other spawning crappie; I didn't want to decimate this spawn site any more. I tried several similar spots, but only caught a couple small bass, which are fun on the Japanese UL rod with 2 lb test, and one medium sized (2 foot dia) snapping turtle, on a red wiggler. He had the hook in his front foot, and it took some finesse with 4 lb test Mr Crappie line to get him to the boat, whereupon he began striking the side of my yak. I eased him up and caught the hook in my long nose pliers and set him free. He seemed to know I was unhooking him and stayed chill - my hand was closer than I liked to his mouth, for sure.

On the way to the take out I tried one more spot - bingo. Caught a slab crappie on the second cast. Wind was kicking up and I was tired, with a bunch of fish to filet, so I marked a waypoint for a return engagement - soon!

The trout magnet again ruled the day. Did not locate any shellcrackers. Yet. Saw dank in the solo skiff and gave him one of the JDM 1.5g jigs with a few trout magnets to try. That TM is no joke; grab some next time you are at Walmart. I went home and cleaned all the fish. Then I cleaned myself, and had a well-deserved sammich and a cold one. Cheers!

 

[jocko755]

Wow - way to go.

I'd just cut the line on that snapper! he'd be able to get it out on his own.

 

[dank1296]

Glad to see ramblingwreck out yesterday. Thanks for the 2 jigs you gave me ended up catching 2 crappie and one spot on the troll with them. Got the crappie back i caught in Feb. that was over 2 lbs my biggest. Nice mount attached to piece of wood found on pond in warren county. Be back out next week early after weekend crowd dies down.

 

[RamblinWreck]

Great looking mount.

I am holding out for a 3lb+, since I ate my 2lb'er!

 

[weagle]

When does the closing time change?

 

[RamblinWreck]

Today, May 4.

http://ccwsa.com/reservoir/

 

[dank1296]

Shhh dont tell anyone bout our crappie hole

 

[weagle]

Today, May 4.

http://ccwsa.com/reservoir/

Cool, Thanks.

 

[JC33]

@JC33 : I saw you miss that fish - maybe; were you in a black Denali? I was taking out.. Not a shore-friendly lake, really. A kayak, jon, or electric-only boat of any kind would be advantageous, to say the least.

Went back first thing this morning and the crappie were still there; I put a bunch more in the cooler, yes sir, I did. Slap full of SLABS.

Then I decided to try to find another flat with the same characteristics and see if I could get on some other spawning crappie; I didn't want to decimate this spawn site any more. I tried several similar spots, but only caught a couple small bass, which are fun on the Japanese UL rod with 2 lb test, and one medium sized (2 foot dia) snapping turtle, on a red wiggler. He had the hook in his front foot, and it took some finesse with 4 lb test Mr Crappie line to get him to the boat, whereupon he began striking the side of my yak. I eased him up and caught the hook in my long nose pliers and set him free. He seemed to know I was unhooking him and stayed chill - my hand was closer than I liked to his mouth, for sure.

On the way to the take out I tried one more spot - bingo. Caught a slab crappie on the second cast. Wind was kicking up and I was tired, with a bunch of fish to filet, so I marked a waypoint for a return engagement - soon!

The trout magnet again ruled the day. Did not locate any shellcrackers. Yet. Saw dank in the solo skiff and gave him one of the JDM 1.5g jigs with a few trout magnets to try. That TM is no joke; grab some next time you are at Walmart. I went home and cleaned all the fish. Then I cleaned myself, and had a well-deserved sammich and a cold one. Cheers!

View attachment 967496View attachment 967497View attachment 967498View attachment 967500

Might have been me on the water... I was about to takeout around 4:45pm. However, I have a silver Outback, not the Yukon. My boat was a tan Kay-noe (Old Town 119).

 

[RamblinWreck]

My bad; I'm wrong. It was someone else fishing from the bank.

 

[dank1296]

NIce day all bass action not one crappie today. Caught between 12-15 spots and LM. Most where real nice 2-4 lbs. Wreck ill think you will recognize the jig in the big basses mouth.

 

[RamblinWreck]

Awesome. I got one tied on for in the morning.

 

[RamblinWreck]

Shellcrackers were staging shallow pre-spawn, but not bedding yet IMO. Caught a bunch on wigglers and UL tackle, and kept 12 for the table. These were all at least 3/4 lb fish; biggest was 15.5 oz and 10.75". No crappie on the jigs today, just a couple bass - but, who cares when the big crackers are biting? Man, do they fight hard. I love them. Got some awesome thick filets of the best-eating fish in the lake. PS in the creek near the waterfall you can catch all the pan-sized channel cats you want. Very aggravating if you are looking for crackers!

 

[RamblinWreck]

I have not got on the crackers or bluegills even though the full moon came and went. I think they fooled me and most of the spawning happened in April while I was mostly fishing Oconee. I can't rub two big panfish together now, almost. I can catch a few here and there up on stumps, trees, etc close to the bank, but not numbers, but there are whopper shellcrackers here. They are here. Somewhere...

I did catch a big LM on 2 lb test, and some cooler-fulls of big crappie, but the bream have fooled me, or something.

 

[RamblinWreck]

Nice day today, but tough bite. Was fishing with the UL gear for bream and/or crappie, but couldn't find 'em. I did catch (and released) another nice LM bass on my JDM rod w/ 2 lb test; a 17" football about 3 lbs. Hit a red sparkle Charlie Brewer panfish mini slider grub on a Daiwa jig head. Had another even bigger one on, but she threw the hook. That was using a gold hand-tied 1/32 oz jig; if it was the Daiwa, she wouldn't have got off IMO.


In other news, the water dept guys installed a buoy line all the way across the creek about 50 yards from the waterfall. Said they were tired of having to help get grounded/stuck boats loose. Never mind that I could go all the way to the falls no problem in my kayak (with troll motor up) and have many times. Now I'm cut off from a good bream hole.
They also said they were soon going to be dredging the creek, which is pretty silted up from all the rain this year, to the tune of a million dollars. Hmmm.