Thanks from a Noob...

[PhilADivot]

Howdy,
Found your site here out of frustration a few weeks ago. Been a bass fisherman most of my life, fishing mostly around west TN, north MS, and eastern AR, most of it done at Sardis and Pickwick, altho I haven't been to Sardis in a few years. Built a house on a 250-acre lake a few years ago, not knowing anything about the fishing. First trip out, I was fishing with a spinnerbait and hung a huge crappie that got off right at the boat. That piqued my curiosity, so I began to throw a roadrunner every once in a while, but could never catch more than 3 or 4. Here's a few a caught on one of my first tries -



I've tried a few more times, both at my home lake and at Pickwick, where my folks have a house, without a lot of success. I decided that I would devote more time and effort this year, so on my first couple of trips, I left the bass rods at home, but I still only managed 3-4 fish (mostly trolling with roadrunners). Feeling frustrated after that, I found this site, and one of the first things I read was the ENTIRE pullin' cranks thread in the MS forum.

I got 15 Bandits, and couldn't wait to try it, so without any rod holders, etc, I went out with my partner today with a couple of baitcasters and started pulling. My partner caught 3 small bass in the first 15 minutes on a mistake model 200, and I was getting skunked with a pink model 300. I switched to the same one he was using and we struggled for an hour or so, but then found a few. We finished with 8 crappie, 5 bass, and 2 bream. That more than doubles my best crappie numbers on this lake yet, and hopefully that will improve (from what I've read here so far, that is directly related to amount of money spent, right?) Only one of the crappie was decent sized, so I threw them all back. I think I'm going back tomorrow - I think this may become a problem - I'm already putting off some yard work to go tomorrow. Here's one my partner caught today, and thanks again for sharing some info!

[crappie1968]

Looks like a fun outing..good job. Thanks for the report.

[yankee doodler]

Welcome from west MI. You're livin' in the heart of BIG slab country with all the good lakes right around you, including the "big four" (Arkabutla, Enid, Sardis, and Grenada). Crappie are for the most part fairly predictable fish if you study their habits and understand why they are where they are at any time of the season. Keep readin' cause there's literally a boat load of info on this site. As far as your results being directly proportional to the money invested...not neccessarily. Good electronics does help find structure and fish, but ya still gotta give em what they want on that particular day. There's a lot of guys that are far better slab fisherman than me, and I'm sure they will be glad to weigh in and help you and your very happy partner catch more fish. Good luck.

BTW, another MICDC member, and a good friend of mine came down this spring with me to the AR spring camp on Chicot lake. We spent a week up on Sardis with some other great CDC members including Ed (Slab) the owner/founder. We both caught personal bests pushin jigs. It's one of my favorite ways to catch 'em, but I've learned that you need to know and apply several tactics depending on time of year.

[Bob # 1]

Welcome from Indiana


There is awesome lots of reading on the forum
That will bring you up to speed fast, and you
will be one of the pros

Enjoy, just catching fish is not all there is too it
the smile on the boy face says it all

[RetiredRR]

Welcome to Crappie.com. The smile speaks volumns. Your on the right track. Enjoy.

[Spawn]

Awesome fish man, its cool having you and your lil fishing buddy haha!

[gabowman]

Welcome from GEORGIA.

["G"]

Welcome from Mississippi.

[Blackhawk19]

Hey from Alabama.

[Stargunn357]

nice fish and welcome from Illinois