Thanks / local shout-outs
Thanks for asking your area dealers for the Luck E Strike products. Jeff also gives shout-outs to Williams Guide Service, Grand Glass Cleaning and VIP Day Spa on Monkey Island, and to OnGrandTime.com for Grand Lake gear gifts.
Special guest: Haydn ("Slim")
Jeff's son Haydn of Williams Guide Service joins the report straight off a guide trip. Jeff says Haydn catches more Crappie than anybody on this lake.
Crappie
They're out on the main lake on any structure you can find. Deep docks hold fish at certain times of day when the sun hits them just right. With how hot and sunny it is, the fish stack up in the shade. Haydn fishes brush piles from about 12 to 25 feet, mostly 15 to 20. He's using mostly minnows on guide trips. When scouting he uses Luck E Strike Lucky Bugs and catches fish, getting right on top of them with LiveScope. Any brush on the main lake from 15 to 25 feet has fish on it. They're eating a lot of Shad and aren't real aggressive in the heat, so you may have to hit four or five spots for a good mess of fish. Catch the ones that will bite, and the minute they quit, leave, even if there are 100 to 150 more down there. You can't beg them to bite. Yesterday, right before the storm, they bit really well, probably from the pressure change. This is about the pickiest they get all summer.
Bowfishing
It's been good around the islands, up around the mouth of the Elk River and one night at Duck Creek. Gar tend to be out on the main lake. If you just want to shoot Buffalo and small Carp, the coves are loaded.
Paddlefish
Haydn isn't snagging right now, but being on the water daily he sees them. Spoonbill are stacked from about Three Fingers to Wilson's Point and scattered along the Horse Creek main channel from about Snake Island to the Bernice Bridge. Some guys have been LiveScoping and trolling for them.
Catfish
Lots of people are catching Blue Cats by drifting out by the islands and around Horse Creek, especially on a 12 to 15 mph wind day like today.
White Bass
Not a ton, but Haydn saw some this morning chasing Shad over by Weed Island and caught a couple. In the afternoons you can definitely find them topping. Last week near Governor's Island, his clients saw White Bass topping on the way to a brush pile. The fish stayed up about an hour, and the group put around 60 in the boat quickly.
Book a trip
To book Haydn, see FishGrand.com, or follow the Williams Guide Service Facebook page, where he posts every day. Book soon: Haydn works hard all year so he can take off much of late October and November for deer season, then starts back in December. "You're more likely to find him up in a tree somewhere than out on the water when those bucks start chasing does."
Support the report
Jeff hopes Haydn will take over the report someday. Sponsors don't pay Jeff to do the Outdoor Report. He does it because he enjoys it, so supporting the brands he mentions helps keep it going.