Glen Elder proves place to be for crappie

Living in Lawrence would seem an ideal location for a crappie guide. The legendary waters of Clinton, Melvern, Perry and Pomona reservoirs are minutes away.

But Chatt Martin often tows his boat three hours west for quality crappie fishing.

“This place isn’t a lake it’s a factory,” Martin said as he stopped his boat on Glen Elder Reservoir. “It just keeps producing so many nice crappie.”

Within two minutes of dropping lures into the lake, Martin and a guest both hauled up crappie about a foot long.

In less than three hours Martin, of Crappie Time Fishing Guide Service, and his guest caught more than 100 crappie, releasing many that would have been keepers at most lakes.

Martin has become accustomed to such angling over the past several years at Glen Elder.

The great fishing is partially due to a drought about eight years ago.

Scott Waters, the lake’s fisheries biologist, said assorted small trees and brush grew thick around Glen Elder during low-water times.

Heavy rains in 2008 flooded the vegetation and made ideal spawning habitat.

“We were about eight feet low to start, so the water stayed up in the vegetation for two years,” Waters said. “We already had a pretty good stock of big fish for spawning. It was amazing.”

Waters’ annual fall test nettings showed crappie production was more than 10 times normal in 2008 and 2009.

High water in north-central Kansas last spring and summer also has another great class of crappie coming on strong.

“We’re really pretty well stacked with fish 10-14 inches,” Waters said. “I feel a lot better knowing we have the 2011 year-class coming on, too.”

Martin said his clients caught several 17-inch crappie this winter.

With the great crappie population came great numbers of crappie fishermen.

Well, at least compared to what Glen Elder was used to.

“These people out here don’t know what fishing pressure is, compared to places like Perry and Clinton. It’s not even close,” Martin said on Monday. “We have a whopping three boats on the lake today.”

Waters said there are times when there have been 25 to 30 this winter.

Had there been enough ice, that number could have been 100-200 ice fishermen per day.

Pressure will increase when the shallow water spring spawn makes Glen Elder’s crappie more accessible.

Still, some of Martin’s best angling has been on fall and winter days when the fish were heavily concentrated on the edges of flooded river channels.

“The best day that I know we had an accurate count was when four of us caught and released 202 in about four hours,” Martin said. “We were weighing quite a few two-pounders but we quit because the fishing was so good nobody wanted to stop and weigh anymore.”

Monday’s trip was a side note for Martin, after giving a weekend of fishing seminars at a nearby boat dealership.

The first two spots he checked held no fish.

His graph lit up when he checked a spot where 18 feet of water dropped off to more than 30 feet.

He never left a 40-yard stretch over the old channel, fishing a 3/8-ounce tube jig about a reel crank off the bottom.

Several times both anglers had fish at the same time.

“Days like this out here can spoil you in a hurry. There aren’t many places where you’re disappointed with a 12-inch crappie,” Martin said with a long laugh. “And I’m supposed to head back and try to catch 10-inchers at Melvern? I don’t mind making the drive out here.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2012 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Glen Elder proves place to be for crappie."