Fish Triggers

[TubeDude]

Thank you for your generous information it's appreciated. I believe I have everything needed. One of these days I'm FINALLY going to catch one. They are on my bucket list. I wish Utah had lakes with some big slabs like I watch on TV or YouTube. Thanks again.

Utah has quite a few ponds with crappies.  But in the northern part of the state our best bets are Willard Bay and Pineview.  I have caught lots of crappies from both...up to about 15 inches in Willard and maybe an inch smaller in Pineview.  There are also some surprisingly good crappies taken from Utah Lake.  Some of the largest in Utah come out of Powell or Quail Creek...down south. 


It takes a couple of things to produce good numbers and good sizes of crappies...abundant food and good spawning conditions.  Both are hard to find...consistently...in Utah.  Most crappie ponds are man made reservoirs...subject to great fluctuations in water levels...often providing no suitable flooded brush or aquatic vegetation for spawning.  So in some lakes...like Willard...good spawning conditions only occur every few years...with resulting up and down cycles in crappie populations.  And, most crappie ponds have no year round source of protein...minnows.  So the predators have to feed on their own young...or baby perch or whatever.  Only Willard and Powell have shad, and shad are the big factor in producing abundant crappies of good sizes.

I have fished for crappies all over the country.  I have observed firsthand that good populations of shad in a lake will usually translate to more and bigger crappies.  When they have a good food supply they grow faster and bigger.  Some of my best crappies came from a little lake in southern Arizona...Patagonia.  It is just above the Mexico border and is one of the few lakes in Arizona that receives constant natural stream flow and maintains a year round high water level.  A great deal of the shoreline is ringed with cattails and other vegetation...for good spawning.  And there are tons of threadfin shad for them to dine on...year round.  A "footlong" crappie from Patagonia is a small one.  Lots of 15 inchers.  And I caught grundles of 18 and 19 inchers weighing up to 3#.


Here is a segment from my CD/book on Willard...on crappies.  Should be some helpful info for you.