All I have been catching is males in the shallows. Have the females already moved in and out. Or are they still waiting to drop there eggs.

If they are anything like what we saw at LOP today they are scattered. Fish were caught today from 4' to 30'.

wish someone would write a book on this lake. been fishin weekly since late february have yet to be there when in shallows.water level maybe? used to fish denton creek but water level limits your boat up lake ..a late spawn lake this year..

I'm glad someone started this thread. I am bank bound and have been wanting to check out some wade fishing for crappie at the Vine. My biggest problem is getting the time to scout and fish. Maybe I need to get a tube to at least get to the boat houses.

From what I have heard, the Vine is a late spawning lake...Add that to water level and wind and you have one tough venue...

I will learn this lake, but even then it will be a challenge due to the way it lays out with the wind, washing machine factor during the summer and wild water depth fluctautions...

It has some monster crappie though, I have caught a few at a buddies slip...

Unless this year is different due to the water level, Grapevine should be right on schedule with it's spawn, but one thing that you should remember. The lake is almost 10' low this year, which has taken most all the shallower coves out of play (historically good spawning coves), so the crappie will have no choice but to spawn a little deeper this year. To me that means that they'll still mainly go to the coves to spawn, but it will be the steeper, deeper coves. Many of Grapevine's deeper coves have natural 'shelves' in them, formed by layers of rock, and unless I miss my guess, that's where you'll find them. Other than slip fishing, I pretty much stay away from the lake until the latter part of April each year, because that's when it starts to really happen. May thru October can be exceptionally good on the lake, but like Tim said, it all depends on the wind.

have fished this lake for 30 years ..still at times a mystery ..of course so many idiots during summer it is almost off limits to fisherman..so go to timber ughh only timber left ? twin coves and still ...idiots... cause first of all you have to get there and back without gettin run over by the drunks or teenagers in daddy's boss hog boat!!this is also a great catfish lake ..right now you can walk twin coves and reach a lot of cover with slip bobber rig..i have seen spawning crappie in this lake as late as june ...i wish corps would let it stay high it floods so easy in high rains... the good old days you could load up in denton creek and marshal creek..and you can definitely walk them now ..hard in boat .. have heard and seen lack of spawning fish go up these creeks during low water because of the sand bars and low level..fish do not want to risk being caught up in creek with no escape and also risk their little ones to uncertain conditions..so i recommend little inlets and twin coves ...every body go somehere else and let me have for next month or so and i will let you know how things turn out...

last friday the 17th when my brother n law and i were out there, i had the luxury of cleaning the 34 keepers. most of all the fish were females we caught. maybe like 6-7 crappie were males. the crappie are full of eggs, they are real yellow and still in tack real good, not that much blood with them. now the 5 sand bass that were caught there was 1 male out of them. the s.b. eggs were like a milky color and were coming out as i was applying pressure with the fillet knife.
i believe as of last friday the 17th the crappie have not began to spawn yet. on that same note this weeks 80 - 90 degree weather might go ahead and push them to the point.

Thanks for the update. I've wanted to do some wade fishing for crappie this year at the vine. I work in Grapevine and will try it after work some day soon.

weres a good place to go. i fish mc pherson slough an too much pressure. i was thinking of try silver lake marina, i dont know anything about it.

I checked SL out 2 weeks ago and found a huge brush pile with the top sticking out of the water. I'm surprised they don't pull it out 'cause it's too far up for safe boat traffic. Folks we gotta put them out of the way and deeper or somebody is gonna raise a fuss.

Fished Grapevine yesterday evening and night. Not much success. I pulled the boat deep into Twin Coves about 7PM and went all the way up the west arm of the cove. Water temp in the cove was 71 in the evening and 69 after sundown. No wind and the water was like glass.

Using live minnows I fished water ranging from 3 feet deep to 12 feet deep, including a rocky rip-rap section and lots of standing timber. I tried casting a bobber with minnow at varying depths and I tried tight-lining and I tried the "pendulum" technique. I tried drifting through the timber then tried anchoring and tried using my green crappie light. The baitfish were thick around my light but...

In four hours I only caught 5 crappie and none of them were keepers.

What did I do wrong?

Wernt holding your mouth right. J/K, but I know last week I was catching fish when the troliing motor was getting stuck in the mud.