Hardwood backwaters ?

[perch"n"eyes]

Has anyone fished the hardwood backwaters in hardwood recently , i used to fish it years ago and get crappies but then i heard they drained it , but that was 8-10 years ago. Wondering if there is anything in there anymore ?

[lindy]

A Friend has been doing well on the gills. Good size to them. The Crappies are still in there. I haven't fished it myself for some time. The bite at Gene's is all but dead. Only little ones. I think I will try Hardwood this week coming up. I'll let you know.

[perch"n"eyes]

Thanks for the info Lindy , maybe i'll try it this weekend depending on the weather.

[Capt. Chris]

Our camp is about a mile from there. We fish it quite a bit, but mostly the kids hit it from shore. With the lower water levels the last couple of years, it's all but impossible to get the Lund launched and back on the trailer. Been looking for a plain jane 16' aluminum with 4 seats that we can launch by hand, but they are pretty hard to come by in good shape.

Gills are getting better, but I'd say the jumbo crappie and perch ain't quite back yet. It seems the little bullheads that used to make fishing no fun have thinned out as well. Early spring and summer, we can actually keep a meal of gills from shore if we wanted every now and again.

[perch"n"eyes]

How deep is the deepest spot and the location and the best way to access this , i wanna go tommorrow for sum possible gill and crappie action.

[Capt. Chris]

Deepest hole is right out front of the park. It's 25-30 feet, at least it was a few years ago when I had the boat out there last.

You can walk right out from the campground picnic area if it's still good ice. If not, the launch is at the end of the road to the right past the pit potty.

I always did better in the 6-8 foot range for gills, looking for weed edges of course.

Keep in mind that the dam is by the deep end. Could be putting some funk on the ice with slow currents now.