Lake Z

[CNY Tim]

Franky you got some nice pigs didn't you? Good report! I didn't get the full blow by blow by Tuzzy while he was driving home from Darago but he said you had some dandies. I on the other hand had a pretty good day as well 20 keeper crappies about 3 9's, 4 10's, 6 or so 11's 5-12" and 2 - 13's. Tyler had 6 keepers as well all 10 or better. No spikes either I caught all my slabs on Little Atom glow nuggies and JB Lure Gliiter Glo size 8 red sparkle glow. I just hung the nuggies horizontal off the jig and they obliged. When they were finicky I caught a few on the LA split tail plastic but I didn't have any glow ones but I caught a couple on the pink/red. I should have had a limit today as I lost about 5 keepers but heck that's how it goes. We were fishing 26' to 29' and I caugh crappies from 15' off bottom to the bottom. Left the MarCum LX-5 in wide beam today to give me a little more cone coverage, because you just didn't know where the crappies were coming in at any given time. Tyler caught most of his crappies on Custom Jigs and Spins Finesse Plastic glow tails size 6 on a plain lead head jig. I also picked up a couple of keepers on Little Atoms Optics size 10 with a wedgie hanging horizontal. It was fun fishing with Craig, Mark and Rob. Rob was smoking his stoagies and Mark was making my gut hurt with his wise cracks at Z. Craig left earlier than we did and he had 15 keepers. Any way I have pics of the swarray and I will be sending them out to Big Johnny Ice my partner and picture poster. Should be back on Canadarago Saturday with Big Johnny although I have to admit it will be tough leaving those crappies alone. I want to thank Z for showing us the ropes on this lake and I promise bub mum's the word.

[CNY Lee]

Lake Z???? I love those lakes... How big is lake Z?

[CNY Tim]

Lee - I don't know how big the lake was, I couldn't see squat I was blindfolded. Like I said bro I promised Rob. You will understand when you see the pics., honestly there no bigger than Oneida's and if you don't have a graph of some sort your at a distinct disadvantage, the fish coming in from all levels up to 1/2 way up. I don't think I had more than 4 on the screen at anyone time but man it was fun.

[BigJohnnyIce]

Here are the pics....great job guys!

Johnny - The last two pics were not in compliance with the picture taking policies of this forum and as Staff I should have known this. :^D Just a note to you guys that you can post pictures of multiple fish in lineup form but not piled up like I had of those tasty crappies. Make sure there in a natural environment (no blood) and not awaiting the fillet knife, on newspaper or a cutting board. That is all... CNY Tim

[CNY Tim]

Thanks Johnny

[CNY Tim]

BigJohnnyIce - It's Crappie time! Just got off the phone with "Z" . Mark and "Z" will be up there around 9ish. He told me that the drag out this week was no picnic, hopefully the wind blew some of that snow off and it won't be too bad a drag especially for Tuzzy. I don't think I'll be able to sleep much tonight. Tank's thinking about making the trip up to cash in on the crappiefest but he's keeping a close eye on Oneida as well. I do miss Oneida but what the heck you gonna do with the freaked up weather we have had this winter. Seriously how long has it been between this trip and your last trip on Silver. Well we can only hope the ice gods can pay us back with good ice into May.. That would be nice.

[CNY Tim]

Well the crappies cooperated quite nicely for CNY Frank today as he had the Pail of the Day with 14 nice craps and one that had to be close to 14". Rob, Mark and I finished with a 1/2 dozen each and Tuzzy had two. I had probably 6 0r 7 throwbacks and only had one 11" the rest were over 9's

We ran the LeDredge weed line in about 32' of water and Frank fished in line with it plus his two weeds and hit em on the big stuff as only CNY Frank can. I rolled plenty of fish today because my two crappie rods haven't come back yet so I was using the UL's when the fish wanted the hardware and Franky was obliging yet again.. Nice job Frank on a tough day for the rest of us...

Johnny will post a pic of Frank's nice crappie. What Franky used on Canadarago worked just fine on Lake Z Johnny

[BigJohnnyIce]

Here ya go!!

Franky with his slab Crappie!!

[CNYFrank]

Talk about being bushed last night . . . slept like a baby. Hauling all that extra weight back through the snow! Just lucky and staying close to the only vertical structure out there and as the trout fisherman say . . match the hatch. Thanks to Rob for the invite and Tim being the lead dog. The big fish hit while I was holding the rod off the side and clearing the ice out of the hole. I was holding my lure about 5 ft above the marks that were down there and out of the corner of my eye I see a big mark jump off the bottom and streak 12 feet off the bottom to my lure and then the pole bent . . .no skill there in setting the hook . . .but I would rather have good luck than no luck at all. Oh yeah Tuz . . .you do have to put bait on your hook.

[CNY Tim]

After Saturdays report were heading back there this Saturday. I have approval from the powers to be and the overnight lows are very accomadating, still 12-14" of ice on there and easy walking. Let's hope for a bright sunny day. Z hit em hard with CJ&S Jigging Spoons all gold tipped with spikes, he caught 55 fish total Saturday, a limit and released 30 not bad for an afternoon. He'll be fishing tomorrow should have a report later that day. So Frank and Big Johnny Ice have the ok and naturally the Vassils if the decide to make the run up. Thanks Rob!

[CNY Tim]

Reports have been sporadic on the keeper crappies 7 from Craig Friday and 8 from Z yesterday, ice is still a good 14" and I believe the shoreline has actually froze back up. Same scenario 1 out of 2 crappies caught are keepers. Z and I will give that a go on Friday exploring some new areas on Z.

[CNY Tim]

On ice report from Z and Craig was not very good this morning but things seem to be slowly picking up. Not so much quantity but size 14" plus. Ice is still a good 14" thick and the snow that was 9" a few days ago has squatted nicely to the tone of 3" so mobility should not be a factor. I'll hold off on immediate plans for Saturday right now but this temperature warm-up could signal the beginning of the end.

[CNY Tim]

Boys it was a very slow day for crappies of size in general. Z and I finished with 11 keepers and caught double that small ones a piece plus small perch. We had 20-25 holes cut and we explored different areas of the lake but we just never found big fish consistantly. What a gorgeous day to be out hole hopping and that's what we did pretty much all day... We both got some sun and the lake still has a good 15" of ice on it with the last of the snow melting off today. Enjoyed the ride home and saw a ton of deer grazing and turkeys even the malesa were strutting, pretty cool. See you darago boys in the morning.

[CNY Tim]

Left work at 10 a.m. for one last hurrah on the ice and caught 10 keepers, 9 craps and a perch. Lot's of small fish today and quite a few 8.5" so the Lake is in godd shape for next season. Was surprised to catch a decent perch in there usually all you get ur runts. Probably caught about 50 fish today mostly small ones and a bullhead. Franky took the golden sombrero as he walkedout on the ice the bite slowed down to a halt. Thanks for posting the pics John! Ice was about 8" with the top 2" pretty granular, shoreline was perfectly tight on exit and she should be good to go again tomorrow. It's been a good season and will get em again next winter.

[BigJohnnyIce]

Just got to posting the pics, Tim. Sorry it took awhile, but here they are:

CNY Frank at work LOL...

CNY Tim's take on his last ice trip to Lake Z