Reservation Number : 23582
Property Name : Oak Meadow Lake
Reservation Date : 03/29/2020 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 29 bass, 24 crappie
Lures Used : popper, senko, swim bait

Sam and I made the easy 2-hour pre-dawn run up to Tushka Oak Meadow on Sunday.  Steve had advised us the day prior that a different road can now be used to access/launch on the other side of the dam.  This is a great improvement over the old rutted path and the new launch area was a breeze.  The new route is to simply stay on the main road (don’t turn) and follow to the end at the new launch area. 

We had a good dawn with popper and senko action near all of the banks, typically at grass edge and 1-2 ft of water.  We landed 29 bass at 13-17”, with 13 culls and 16 bass released by 1030 am.  The sun got bright and the bite slowed a bit, so we decided to pursue the notorious black crappie found here. 

We initially tried all the typical slab techniques, crappie jigs around the brush, beetle spins, small spoons, etc., but we were not having any luck. After lunch Sam decided to go back to bass and tied on a 3” swimbait. His first cast was out deeper in 8ft water at the edge of grass, and bingo, our first crappie was in the boat.  We spent the rest of the afternoon doing this and landed 24 keeper slabs, and lost/released that many more.  We caught them all over the lake, anywhere 8ft water met with grass edge, all on 3” shad swimbaits on 3/0 hook.  

 Strange thing, I had run all over the lake with the Livescope sonar, looking for crappie suspended, but could not see a one, even where we had just caught them.  Later, while filleting them, I discovered the secret: The stomachs were all gorged with small earthworms.  The crappie had been digging worms on the bottom right at grass edge and I could not see them on the sonar mixed in with the grass.  When we got the swimbait over their heads they would pop up and nail that.

Very good day, nice weather, light breeze, with 15 lbs of fillets in the cooler as the sun was setting.

Sam slab#1:

Fillet time:

Someone's lost Buzz bait hanging just out of reach.  This thing shines like a mirror in the morning sun.