Lake Storey

[harpenter]

Took my nephew out fishing on the 4th, and much to my suprise all the bait shops in our area were closed. We decided to get some wax worms at a gas station and hit some bream fishing. We got really lucky and came across a nice crappie bed.
We were fishing in 12' of water, but caught all the fish between 3-6 feet down. We would get snagged on the occasional tree branch, so I'm guessing someone put some trees in. We were about 30 yards off shore. They were hitting on waxies, nibblers, bare jig, it didn't really matter. We found a nice hole & they were hungry. Water temp was upper 70's.
We ended up with 18 keeper crappie and 3 keeper bluegills. We threw back another dozen gills and close to 100 crappies between 5-7 inches. The biggest one is 13 1/2".
Imagine my shock when that catfish took off with my jig.

[Timotha7]

Now that is a great days fishing! Nice to come on a honey hole like that
No doubt that cat was looking for those smaller crappie that were hanging
around
Would be a great place to go back an look for some cats after dark I bet

thanks for sharing the story and the pictures

[Schoe]

Wow, what a nice bunch of Crappies, It looks like you two had a ball catching them. And what a nice bonus Catfish.

When's the fish fry? Thanks for the report and pictures. Schoe

[capt.kirk]

Thanks for the report and pics Jeff,Thats a great day you guys had,
I will catch another fish some day if we ever get enough water to
fish in,hardly got enough to cover that cat right now.:icon_biggrin:Kirk

[Rainman4u2]

And to think I've never had any luck in that lake....

Good job fishing!!!

Ray

[gofish]

nice mess ya got there,bet the boys buggin ya ta go back already lol

[harpenter]

Yeah, he's really "twisting my arm." We tried to get hnd to go with us too, but he had a "honey-do" list to take care of. I don't think he'll miss out on the next trip though!

[Fishaholic]

wheres this lake at? im looking for new area to venture to within hour or so from sterling,

[Illinoisgiller]

Take I#74 towards Peoria, exit at Galesburg on rt#34 W. Take exit at rt#150 N and lake entrance is a mile or so down the road. Decent crappie population. Gills tend to run on the smallish side.Decent cat population also.
Probably in the neighborhood of 40 miles from the Quad Cities .Hope this helps a little. Did you do any good at Carlton? Mike

[Fishaholic]

thats a no on Lk Carlton, decent sized lake, good in the spawn time but way to overfished!!! run way on the small side. make cattracker some great bait though!!!!

[Rainman4u2]

They will be drawing the lake down soon to winter level. I try to wait until 2 weeks after the draw down to fish it again.

Ray