What’s workin’ now?

Thinking about heading to Brushy this next week, July 24. I prefer to fish for walleye, crappie, and bluegill. Anyone have any suggestions or recent experience there?

TIA

Fish at night or fish deep. Deep in Brushy is really deep. I’ve never done squat there during the heat of the summer. There’s a new GPS map out that might help if you’re so equipped. If you go good luck and post your results.

Went today, Monday July 24. Put in at the North ramp and tried pulling a Lindy Rig, attempting to stay away from trees. No luck.

Encountered a boat fishing on a hump and they were very helpful. We anchored close, fished nightcrawler and got some decent gills (nothing huge, but keepable if you desired). Fished about 12 ft of water.

This person said walleye bite was hour before dark. We didn’t have the time to stay.

He also said that at times they get nice crappie, probably spring and fall.

Very challenging place to fish. If I lived closer I would try to visit often to find the patterns and locations. 2 hour drive makes it tough.

I would definitely get into the trees next time you go. especially in the day time. i’d try to find some kind of bottom structure (hump, channel edge) in a small opening amongst some big trees and then tie up and slip float and/or jig the area for a few minutes and see what happens. duplicate in similar areas if it works. rock piles and earth mounds near deeper water and trees will see fish early and late. good luck!

Thanks for the advice. We’ll give that a try next time we go.

Yes it takes awhile to figure Brushy out. I live about 20 minutes away and I still have much to learn. As others have said, get right on top of the big oaks and cottonwoods if you can. The limbs on the larger trees hold some great crappies in the spring. Earlier this spring I had good success fishing all species with a slip bobber in depths of 6-12 FOW. I’ve only fished over there once this month due to the heat, but I will be targeting some cats there in the evenings next month. If you could get the map with the correct GPS coordinates for the rock piles and brush piles, it would be very helpful. I’m already counting down the days till fall, so I can start targeting muskies again at Brushy

How do you target the muskies? I see them once in awhile and have even had a bite off or two, but targeting them in all that wood, how do you do it?

Take the lure retriever and just start casting Luckily some of the areas where muskies have been caught or sighted with some frequency, are not heavily wooded. Most of the reports of caught muskies that I’ve heard were taken by bass fisherman with smaller spinnerbaits. I’m by no means a muskie expert but I think downsizing baits at Brushy will work for muskies. Their forage is gills & crappies rather than shad. I just have to learn to adjust my casting methods with all the wood just like all the other species specific anglers.