Knapp: Fish warming up with the weather at Crooked Creek, Arthur and Keystone lakes
The sudden change in weather patterns of the past two weeks, coupled with longer periods of daylight, did a remarkable job of ridding area waters of ice cover.
Happily, I found cooperative fish during visits to three of them.
The ice had only been off the lake for a couple days when Deron Eck and I eased out onto the murky waters of Crooked Creek Lake.
In the past, I’ve found crappies — which were the target species — in the lower, deeper end of the lake during ice out trips, fish that were relating to submerged trees, or portions thereof, embedded in the lake bottom. There is a lot of that in Crooked Creek, not surprising given its role as a flood control reservoir.
Crappies tend to stand out when scanning deep wood cover, especially if there are many present. The first few “brushpiles,” as I call them, didn’t show much. But when I hovered over an offshore pile in 20-off feet of water, the display lit up, well, like a tree covered with crappies.
The fish weren’t overly aggressive in the chilled water, but by the time I put the boat back on the trailer in the late afternoon we’d boated 30 crappies and one big yellow perch. Despite having tried several other similar spots, nearly all of the fish came from that single brushpile.
Butler County’s Lake Arthur was the next venue. I was anxious to return there as the lake had provided excellent crappie fishing prior to freezing over.
The section of the lake I was fishing has both brushpiles and cribs. The cribs are found in a variety of spots in depths from 12 to well over 20 feet of water. The brushpiles are in 20-plus feet of water. The most productive ones tend to be located along the old Muddy Creek channel.
With my Plott hound, Bella, holding down the front of the boat, I began scoping out the deep wood cover. Fish appeared to be thick around the first network of cribs. It didn’t take long for one to suck in the 1 1/2-inch soft plastic jig I lowered down, a nice yellow perch. Three more came in quick succession.
When the action slowed, I continued my reconnaissance effort. Unlike Crooked Creek, where only one spot seemed to have fish, nearly every brushpile or network of cribs showed fish. Perhaps it was in response to the continuing warming trend, but they were quite cooperative. Some places held crappies, others seemed dominated more by perch. Regardless, the action was steady before a restless dog signified the end of the outing.
Art Hamley joined me the next day on Keystone Lake. Again, the target was crappies on deep wood spots. We didn’t find crappies, but we did bass. By the end of the outing we’d landed 16 bass, 15 largemouth and one smallmouth. All were in the 12- to 15-inch range. These fish hit both crappie-sized jigs and ¼-ounce blade baits.
In my experience, this isn’t uncommon for Keystone. Many times I’ve found bass on deep brushpiles and cribs after ice out. Just last year, Sid Brown and I took over 20 bass from one deep tree without moving the boat.
It’s likely these deep wood spots will continue to be productive for crappies and bass over the next two to four weeks depending on the weather. As things warm up, there will be a movement to shallower water.
Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle
