Rathbun

[carlcmc]

I will be coming down to fish with my father in law mid may at Lake Rathbun. Hoping to catch the crappie spawn.

Anyone have any tips for crappies during spawn at this lake? Any other good fishing at this time?

[abens1078]

carlcmc,

I think you picked a good time to hit Lake Rathbun. My uncle and I used to get down there when I was still in college and didn't mind skipping an afternoon here and there. We concentrated our efforts in the Honey Creek Arm of the lake. This area features a number of "fingers" running into it. Some are cricks and others are just dry ravines. We had 3 main paterns to fish the fingers and the nearby area.

1.(the easiest) Fish were up next to shore on the beds and in the brush near shore. We would usually use small jigs with a Power tube under an old red/white bobber set at 1'-2'.

2. If we tried the first pattern and got overrun with smaller males we would cast a slip bobber and minow towards the middle of the finger to see if the big females were staging or if they had been spooked out by the boat. the slip float was pretty much the equivelant of a deadstick while we worked the shore more aggressively with the artificials. 2 poles allowed here, take advantage.

3.(kind of a pain) if we were getting skunked in the fingers we headed out to where the finger would meet the main lake and start searching for submerged brush piles with the electronics. Our goal was to find other possible staging areas holding active fish and then anchor upwind and cast plain tubejigs, jig/minnow and or a slip bobber/minnow over the brush pile. We would often troll small spinners and small bottom bouncers while looking. You can find a good brush pile by accident, sometimes better to be lucky than good.

Keep moving and searching those little fingers, I know finger sounds stupid but check it out on a map and you'll see. If you get tired of crappies drag some crankbaits along the dam or over a few of the flats on the lake to see if the Walleyes are out. Your slip bobbers will also catch a few too. If the weather and water levels hold you should be on a shallow brush bite that time of year. Chances are the spots I fished may be high and dry though as Rathbun has had some dry years since I was in college. My uncle still heads down every year on or before Memorial day and has done so for about 10 years.

Good luck,

abens1078

[wallywalleye]

Hey abens, Spirit Lake is almost wide open!!

[abens1078]

Wally, that's the best news I've heard for awhile. I always get pumped up for the Great Lakes opener and ice out means its that much closer.

[FreedomFighter]

Hello, I'm from Des Moines IA. I'll be going to Rathbun the weekend of May 21 & 22. I'll post a report of our trip when I get back. I've hit the spawn there once in "Crappie Cove" you could almost walk across the boats; everyone was catching huge crappie and all were using anything they could to keep there fish in after baskets and livewells were full. It was an incredable site!! The non stop action was in Crappie Cove but the largest fish I caught were in 15-20 feet of water near the largest bridge on Rathbun; 15 yards off shore 20 yards from bridge; I forget what end of lake it is on but I think it's the only one. Have a good trip!

[carlcmc]

:-). I'll be there from 15-19! Hope the crappie tournament on the 14th doesn't screw up the fishing for us.