I was on the lake at first light. Fished the coves across the lake from rd 37 park. Caught a crappie and a white bass right off the bat, and then not another crappie until late in the day. Disapointed with that. Did a lot of bass fishing too. Caught somewhere close to 40 largies. Couple 3 pounders, some 2's, and a bunch of 13-14" 1 pound fish. Caught almost all the bass on zoom speed craw or rage craw, texas rigged. Caught a couple of small bass on a topwater popper in the afternoon. All the fish were shallow, 10 feet or less. Saw a few on beds. There are alot of fish shallow, wore me out. Couldn't figure the crappie out. I had a spot where I knew they were at, and as you can see by the picture, they were spawning, and in about 5 feet of water, but couldn't get them to hit. Tried every color except minnow color..ha. Should have brought some minnows I guess. Absolutely beautiful day. Caught fish all day and good weater on a pretty lake. Good stuff.

One of the 3 lbers...



Spawning crappie..13 inches

that is the blackest crappie I have ever seen!

Nice report and pics.

We fished the evening of March 17, trolling Liebolds area and on up just past Pop's Place. Caught a half dozen whites that were 7-9 inches, plus a few largemouth. Pretty slow for us. We trolled Shad Raps, Rattletraps, and jigs. No crappie.

On the way back to the State Park ramp we caught one white that was probably 11 inches and looked to be full of eggs in a speck rig trolled in the prop wash at Turk's Head.

Not sure where they are--we couldn't find them yesterday...

The white I caught was a chunk and 13 inches also. No eggs, no milt. ?? Saw a couple of others that looked fat in the shallows of the same cove.

Hendo, he was darker than that when he came out of the water. Started getting lighter as I fumbled for the camera.

Man, I haven't been out yet this year, but the water looks great Kyle. Need to try to get out this next week. What is the water temp like Kyle?

It was 64 degrees in the morning, and 68 by the afternoon.

Super job as always. Nice Catch!

Thanks for the reports, Kyle and Sean.

Regarding the crappie, it looks like a nice specimen of a black spawner. With as clear as the water is, I would suspect the majority of the crappie are a little deeper. In my experience, the crappie are deeper and tighter to cover with clear water and clear skies. However, they will go shallower in clear water with cloud cover. I think the reason is that they are ambush predators and rely on not being seen by their prey.

The main reason I posted, though, is to comment on the white bass spawn. It does seem strange that no one (including myself) has really got into them this year. The water temperature seems good, right? But looking through my journal, it's the same as every year. They just run much later on Medina, and it seems that way even if the temperature seems right compared to every other body of water I've fished for spawning whites. Historically, Medina doesn't start popping until April. I know, I know...it's all about water temperature, flow, etc. - not the calendar. But it just seems that way there. We should start seeing them upriver any day now... I just hope that I'm able to time it right. It may happen so fast that I miss it because of work or some other commitment.

For what it's worth, I almost always see a good amount of spawning carp and gar on Medina when the whites are running. And I haven't seen those bad boys yet, either. I enjoy changing it up and fishing for them every once in a while, too.

I have been fishing medina regularly since mid february, trying to catch "the run". during the last week of feb, I found them stacked up pretty thick and caught both male and female whites and hybrids mixed together by turks head and the mouth of cypress cove, and the males I caught were oozing sperm all over the place (gross!) and the females were all fat with eggs. I have been fishing out there every weekend since, concentrating primarily from brushy creek up to and around the bend from leibolds point, and I have only caught small undersize male whites in that section of the lake since...and none, not a one has been oozing sperm... and this weekend, to my surprise I caught numerous big fat females (13 and 14 inchers!) and an occasional male white (not oozing sperm) in haby's cove (I typically catch them in this area in the summer, post spawn). some of the females were full of eggs, and some not, and none of the males were oozing sperm. I havent caught a hybrid in weeks. the evidence would seem to suggest the spawn has already occurred, and that it wasnt in the river? Medina is such a mystery.

There is probably just as many fish that spawn in the lake off wind blown points, and the backs of creeks, as there are that venture up into the far reaches of the river to seek current.

I grew up fishing on the Medina river and the best spawns have been when there was a pretty good flow coming into the river and emptying into the lake.

We've been so dry and little rain over the winter and spring so it doesn't surprise me that it's been a little off this year.

That's Milt you are refering to, and yes it is fish sperm.

Diddo. have been up there about twice a week for the last month. around Leibolds it was always good for 30-40 small whites. I'd even pick up a crappie or to, and all crappie were over 14". We drove the 4 wheeler down to pops on sat evening and saw one guy catch a few whites on minnows. we didnt stay long, and didnt catch any whites. Same thing sunday morning. After working on the deck, we went out and trolled sunday evening and only caught 1 tiny white between leibolds and pops. We did catch crappie though. Once again, about 13-14". Can't get to the main body as we dont have a boat big enough for that so dont know anything about that.

I had the opportunity to stay at a lakehouse and fish Medina for 3.5 days last week. I was staying at Church Cove about mid-lake. The 1st evening I made a run to Pop's place in my Bass Boat. I had 3 boys with me and I had them trolling for White Bass but Nothing. The next day I concentrated on Black Bass and ended up finding a pattern on Wind Blown points with Cranks. I also Found some brush in about a 60 yard stretch-- I Carolina rigged a Senko and started sticking fish pretty good.
The last day I had 2 Boys with me and had them throwing Mid depth stick baits on wind blown points- we hit a few bass then one of the boys hit a good sized White Bass. She was full of eggs and was at mid lake which had me confused--?? Why wasn't she up the river ? Then I thought Of Jimbo describing some of the Whites Spawning on wind Blown Points.
The trip was fun and educational. The blacks, we caught, were in good shape and we also caught a few crappie off of the cranks. One of the crappie was as black as the one Kyle showed.
Hope I get to learn this lake better- It is a beautiful lake.
Here is a Pic of the White Bass caught on the wind blown point.

I think I'm going to start focusing on this lake for the remainder of the time I'm here in Texas. With gas prices, it's nice to not have to drive but 30 min max. It's a challenge too, and I admit, like most fisherman, I could use some work on finding fish in deeper lakes like this.

I hear you Kyle-- It's about 30 minutes from my house as well.
Here is a pic of the fish we kept for a fish grilling cook-out.
I normally release Black Bass but needed the fillets for the cook-out.
Fun fishing and good population of Crappie which would be fun to get stacked on a brush pile !