Anyone have a report on what is going on?

As we see the crappie spawn wind down, shell crackers are next.

Jig man...I am very interesting in some shell cracker information. I have never fished for them at Barkley or Ky lakes. How do you find them? What do you use to catch them? Bait, I mean. Someone should have some information about them. Let us in on the secrets. Thanks.

Where I catch them is in the backs of coves in somewhat shallow water. Once you find a bed, you can catch several. Prefered bait is worms or crickets. You need to take plenty when they are biting. You will use lots of bait but you are subject to catching lots of fish.

If you have never fished for them, they are lots of fun especially for kids. I like to take at least two to three kids and let them fish while I bait the hooks. They have a great time and so do I.

Hopefully we can get more postings on the shell cracker activity. It is a lot of fun.

Well when I usually go for bream I usually run into a few sheelcrackers with them. I mostly find shellcrackers in wooded areas like brush or fallen logs. I always use crickets, but I've heard shellcrakers love gravel but I've always found them in fallen timber.

I actually plan on going for bream this tuesday, the 26th so I'll post to let yall know if they started bedding yet. This cold front just came in tonight so it might have delayed them an extra week, but they should be there within the next week or two, but who knows....

Thanks for the report Lance. I will be waiting for any info you have on the bream and shellcrackers. I bet this cold weather has messed up some fishing for some folks.

Lance,

I would also like to thank you for the info. I look forward to hearing back from you also. I'm ready for the kids to get into some great action here in the next few weeks.

we went this morning about 10:00 to see if we could find a cracker bed or two...didnt even take no crappie gear..havent heard anything good this week about the crappie..surface temps for the most part had cooled to 63 degrees...we covered most all of the shoreline in the west sandy and found a few spots that were 70...of course thats where we caught the better fish..and they seemed to be staying on the beds to spite the slightly high water...the most productive beds were in 3 foot of water where the warm pockets were...we kept 18 nice redears and 25-30 big bull gills...i think as the water warms back up it will really turn on...i have a few good beds i'll be keeping a check on if i can get away after work...at least till the post spawn scatter over and the crappie pull back togather...good luck all...the next few weeks should be real good..

hey old man....isnt that my post from a week ago...sure seems familiar?

It is a repost some how. On several of the forums it looks like I have. Sorry for all that but I didn't do it.

My report should be for monday and now tuesday of this week.
Monday we caught 80 shellcrackers on worms in about 3 feet of water out from the bank , not where they ususlly are this time of year. Most of the females still full of eggs.

Tuesday we caught about the same didn't do a count.

Filleted out about 15/18 pound from both days.

sounds like a couple good days...nows the time to catch em..just wish i could get away to go..