E
nid Lake is a lake that is located mostly in Yalobusha County in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Parts of it extend into Panola and Lafayette counties. Common fish species include crappie, largemouth bass, catfish and bream. Enid Lake holds the world record for white crappie at 5 lb 3 oz and holds the Mississippi state record for shortnose gar at 5.83 lb, as well as the state record for spotted gar at 8.1 lb.
Enid Lake is one of the four lakes in North Mississippi operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Construction on the Enid Lake Project began in 1947 and was completed in December 1952. Enid Lake is part of the Yazoo Headwater Project, which was designed to help protect the Mississippi Delta from flooding. Although the primary mission of Enid Lake is Flood Risk Management, other important missions include Environmental Stewardship, Recreation Management, Natural Resource Management, Water Supply and Support to Others. Enid Lake is located approximately 1 mile off U.S. Interstate-55, 72 miles south of Memphis, TN and 140 miles north of Jackson, MS. The Enid Project encompasses over 44,000 acres and provides runoff and precipitation control in the Yocona River drainage basin.
Recreation
At Enid Lake you will find some of the most modern camping facilities in the region. Our campgrounds are extremely popular among camping enthusiasts. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Enid Lake maintains and operates 5 Class A campgrounds which include: Wallace Creek, Persimmon Hill, Chickasaw Hill, Ford’s Well and Water Valley Landing. Enid Lake not only provides premier camping opportunities, but offers many other recreational opportunities including hiking, boating, swimming, picnicking, fishing, hunting, horseback riding, and wildlife viewing. Enid Lake has been recognized as one of America’s Top 10 Fishing Spots, and Enid’s Persimmon Hill Campground has been selected as one of America’s Top 100 Family Campgrounds twice by the National Recreation Reservation Service. Not only is Enid Lake a camper’s dream, it is also home of the world record white crappie which weighed an impressive 5 pounds 3 ounces.
All New Interactive Map
of Enid Lake
Crankbaits on Enid Lake
by Ron Wong
So what are the best crankbaits to use? We asked John Harrison, he is the owner of JH Guide Service which is based out of Calhoun City. John is a seasoned veteran in using crankbait on Enid Lake. He uses several different brands of baits but on a normal day, he begins with a specific color that has worked over the last several trips. Today and over the past month, the best color combo is black and orange. On the eight rods being used today, there were some Strike King 3 and 3XD, Jenko Fishing, Bandit 200 and 300 and Arkie crank baits tied on. Again, the common denominator was all baits were some sort of black and orange coloration. As a pattern was established, the bait catching the most fish was tied to other rods. John said the crappie can change their feeding mood from day to day so if they are not biting as well as the day before, switch colors. This will often trigger bites and catch more fish. One of the things that John has experienced is that colors will change from year to year. Example, last year pink was a hot color with the year before that, chartreuse was very good and this year baits with orange work better.
With many years of trolling experience, John had some excellent tips to catch more fish while trolling in the hot weather conditions:
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- Troll with the wind because it reduces boat slap noise and it’s easier to control the boat
- Make wide turns to prevent line tangling
- Start at slower speeds, and increase if bite is slow, often times the faster speed will create the reaction bite better
- For stained water, use darker colored crank baits; for clearer water, use shad colored baits (black & orange along with black & pink have been excellent colors on the I-55 lakes)
- If the crappie are biting but not getting hooked, change colors
- Use your graph to find schools of baitfish and to determine thermocline; most crappie will hover near or above the thermocline
- Once a specific depth is established for bites, typically along ledges, follow graph contour lines
- Adjust depth of crankbaits to the same once a biting pattern is established
- As the sun gets up during mid-day to afternoon, go deeper for more bites
- Troll edges of old sloughs as they will have some flooded cover and will typically have a little deeper water
- Stay hydrated during the hot weather
John Harrison is the owner of JH Guide service based out of Calhoun City, Mississippi. He has seasoned guides to help him with his services. They guide on Eagle Lake and Lake Washington during the early spring and spend the majority of their time on Grenada, Enid, Sardis and Arkabutla lakes other months. Check out our guide page to learn more about John and how to contact him.
Ron is an outdoor writer and avid fisherman and co-hosts the weekly radio show Outdoors with Larry Rea which airs on Saturday mornings from 6-7:30 a.m. on on ESPN790. He also writes articles for CrappieNow and The Mid-South Hunting and Fishing magazines.
Up Coming Tournaments & Events
On Enid Lake
LAKE INFORMATION
LOCATION: This lake is located mostly in Yalobusha County and parts of it extend into Panola and Lafayette counties.
SIZE: 6,100 acres
DEPTH: Depth Varies from 12 to 60 feet
AQUATIC VEGETATION: Alligatorweed, Waterhyacinth, & Hydrilla
MAJOR SPORTFISH: White Crappie, Black Crappie, & Magnolia Crappie, Bream
FISH FORAGE: Threadfin Shad, & Gizzard Shad
VISIBLE COVER: Cypress Trees, Stump Fields, Rip-Rap
BOTTOM FEATURES: Man Made Stake Beds, Sunken Christmas Trees, Drop-Offs, Channels
LAKE CRAPPIE RULES
& REGULATIONS
LENGTH LIMIT: 12 Inches
CREEL LIMIT: 15 Crappie Fish
POLE/HOOK LIMIT: 4 Poles, 2 hooks per pole per person
OTHER: The aggregate daily boat creel limit for all species of crappies (white crappie, black crappie and their hybrids) for boats with 3 or more licensed or exempt anglers shall be 40 legal crappie per boat.
Destination Articles:
Enid Summer Crappie Tactics
Enid Summer Crappie Tactics by Tim Huffman Stats: 16,100 acres at summer pool; 250 feet elevation at summer pool;...
Click On The Map Below
