Fishing Crotch Lake

[The Legend]

I hear lake powell is awesome lake, with some fantastic scenery...plus isnt there where pamela shot her now famous home video with tommy lee??
lol

[Joey Rat]

Hopefully the poor etiquette was restricted to the derby. I like the Crotch because of the lack of cottages and usually the lack of traffic.

Lester and I (and maybe a couple more lads) are heading up the weekend of the 29th and will stay at Tumblehome.

First full weekend outing for the new ride. If you're in the neighbourhood say hey. The boat is a black Lund 1650 Rebel dual console.

With any luck it will be in the water. As a rookie, backing around the corner of the lodge has me a little worried.

[Badger Shark]

Just curious Blackbear what speed were you trolling. My boat tends to troll 1.8 to 2.6 mph. If I was to troll 150ft of leadcore with a shallow diver would it get down that deep at those speeds or would I have to let out more line. I was using power pro at about 150 ft with 2 to 3 split shots and still wasnt sure what depth I was running. Its a difficult science. I definitely want to be able to catch more walleye on this lake but never am sure at what depths to troll or jig. I also dont trust my fish finder, I dont believe it when it is registering tonnes of fish and we dont get any hits at different depths. Hopefully you or someone else can give me a little insight in this area. I currently dont have leadcore line but may get into it soon.

[ToadhunTer]

Fishing was terrible, I believe the weather had a lot to do with it. We had a strong wind from the south 3 nights in a row, without a break at night. Did manage 1 decent eye, a few small ones and a couple of slot fish.

[clown worship]

With any luck it will be in the water. As a rookie, backing around the corner of the lodge has me a little worried.

You won't have to worry about backing it down past the lodge, the water is so low you can pull right around and then back in from the beach. We didn't figure that out until AFTER we had backed the boat down...

[Badger Shark]

A lund is a nice boat. My boat is really wide as well but even though you dont have to back down now it really isnt to bad, ya just take it slow and have someone guide you down. And if you really arent comfortable yet then just pay the 5 bucks and ward or jeff will do it. And myself and my wife may be back up soon so if it happens to be at the same time I will look for your boat. I have an alumacraft 16.7 feet with a 75 merc optimax on it, dual console full walkthrough windshield, grey carpet. If you see me feel free to say hello

[Bobber]

Hey Blackbear,

Are my eyes decieving me or is that a smallie you're holdin there. I've been there twice and had little luck. Mind you, I was a lot less experienced at that time. Might do better now, but who knows. Both times we were there we were told there was no Bass in Crotch Lake by one of the Lodge owners. First year we didn't see any, however next year my brother hooked into a Largie. Now I see a smally. Is the fish population growing?....bass that is...or were we given inaccurate information?

[ToadhunTer]

Hey Blackbear,

Are my eyes decieving me or is that a smallie you're holdin there. I've been there twice and had little luck. Mind you, I was a lot less experienced at that time. Might do better now, but who knows. Both times we were there we were told there was no Bass in Crotch Lake by one of the Lodge owners. First year we didn't see any, however next year my brother hooked into a Largie. Now I see a smally. Is the fish population growing?....bass that is...or were we given inaccurate information?

The Crotch is loaded with smallies, I've been going there for 10 years and have seen and caught many nice smallies, I don't target smallies there cause I'm after the eye's, after this year I think I'll try a few days just for smallies.Caught a few just drifting minnows around 25ft of water. A couple of years ago I had a smallie chase my tube to the boat that had to go over 6 pounds, my legs were shaking so bad I had to sit down. Largemouth here at home are to easy to fish for. Ifish a few places that the fish are 4 pond average, if its not over 23 inches, it's not a trophy.

[blackbear]

Hi Bobber, Crotch has some big small mouth, last year one day I had 5 small mouth on 6 casts from 20-24" all catch and release. They can be tough to find when the go deep like this fall but when they feed heavy the action is fast .
Hey Badger Shark, My Gps says I was trolling about 1.8 mph with the leadcore I find as long as I don't go over 2.2 mph The line runs true. over that you have to adjust, that why I use a line counter for best depth control. With Power pro or Fireline I run 150 ft using Tail dancer deep crank baits and run about 28ft and with Wally divers 15-17 ft. Adding Egg sinkers 6 ft up help get it down a little more but check beside the boat to see if it runs true
ToadhunTer nice fish but watch the open containers I was checked 3 time this year and saw 5 boats get find for open containers and one had all empties, just a word to the wise, no offence ment Not Judging .Happy fishing guys and let us know how you all do.

[Badger Shark]

Hey Bobber , Crotch has lots of smallies, just couldnt find many this time. Strange one of the lodge owners would say that there arent any. In Fawn Lake in a few years the largemouth are going to be sweet. Clown and I hooked into a tonne of them around a pound and a few over 3, and apparently some over five were caught. There is lots of timber lying around the entire bottom is dead trees. Too bad this time of year you cant get back there as they let so much water out of the lake you dont even recognize it.
Blackbear if you are trolling deep taildancers would you run about 150 ft of line with a couple of weights to get them down to about 28 ft and is that the depth you reccommend trolling at? I am planning a couple more weekend trips there before they close up for the season and want to get the best info I can so I can get Mrs. Badger Shark and myself into some fish. I have alot of deep divers but never really know what they are diving at and dont know if I should be diving more shallow or deeper. The lodge owner only trolls down about 15 ft max. He uses origional floating raps usually blue and white #11 with 2 splitshots sometimes 3. I have been using this method and had some success but not enough and want to try something else, any advice would be appreciated.

[blackbear]

Hi Badger shark If using deep taildancers by Rapala I would run about 125 ft That should get you down around 25Ft per Rapala's Tail dancer deeps chart. Thats The depth I found best last week. I use leadcore alot but also run with Fireline with the taildancer and have hit bottom at 24-25 ft with 125 ft of line out, If you use Mono you might have to add a little more line depending on the Dia. of the line ( 15-20feet extra) Using inline weights works for shallow running lures but make sure you check how it runs beside the boat. We also did good with Spoons in Firetiger color last year using mono with 3- 1oz egg sinkers 5-6 ft from the spoon trolled slow1.5-2 mph with 150 ft of line out( line counter help here) One thing I found in the evenings just at dark was large bait schools in deep water 20-30 ft down in 50-60fow with alot of big Arches showing up on the fish finder , I would troll thru the school of bait to pick up so nice eyes. I use my fish finder in Manual mode with the Fish ID off to get true fish Arches it makes a big diff. showing true fish and not what the on board computer thinks is a fish) Good luck and let me know how you do. I wish I could make 1 more trip there this year I think the fishing will be better in the end of Sept.

[Badger Shark]

Hi Blackbear I dont think the taildancers I have run that deep, we usually fish them out 150 ft of line and they run about 12 ft down maybe on leadcore they dive deeper. I guess I would have to add a couple of weights. Its frustrating not knowing what depth you are running your baits. I guess one way would be to troll to a gradual slope until you start hitting bottom and estimate at what point it hit. I appreciate the tip and always welcome more.

Thanks, Don

[blackbear]

Hi Badger Shark, There is the reg tail dancer and the tail dancer deep the deep has a long heavy lip thats trollable to 30 ft @ 150' of line out, The reg. tail dancer only runs about 15 ft @ 150 ft. Try a few egg or trolling weights to get it down more. best of luck.

[Badger Shark]

Hi Blackbear, I have both regular and deep but its still hard to tell how deep they are running. I guess I will just have to give it a shot.

[NickN]

Anyone know what the recent lake temps are reading?