It's great when it all comes together!

[omegapd]

Last weekend was a real eye opener for me when it came to crappie fishing. A little history on my fishing experience: I grew up in Florida about 2 minutes away from the ocean and all I ever fished was salt water until I came up to Georgia and went to college. Life happens, I grew up, got married, got a job, had kids, etc. and fishing was put on the back burner until two years ago. I got involved as a den leader in my son's Cub Scout group and we started fishing on trips, etc. It then turned into a family thing and we now go every chance we get. The wife and I would fish for bass and the kids would fish for bluegill and whatever else would bite their line. I then started fishing a couple of private ponds that had some crappie and now it's what I prefer.

Fast forward to this last weekend when I stumbled across a school of crappie in semi-deep water fishing from the bank. I was fishing 4 lb test on a Microlite rod and Shakespeare reel. I got so "in tune" with how this rod feels that I was catching crappie on every cast. Every bite felt like I had just dragged the jighead through some grass and was feeling a slight resistance on the line. I would then jerk the rod and set the hook. I had read in the past about watching the line go slack, etc. but never experienced that. This felt exactly like I was getting hung in light weeds.

So, 30 fish later, we gave up and came home with a few big redear and about 8 crappie we fried up. We also caught 4 bass in the 2.5 range but they went back in the pond, too. It was the best fishing trip we've had in a long time.

(I posted this pic in the panfish section because of the redear, but it fits with this post too)





Have a great week, everyone. Just wanted to share in my epiphany!

[wvsportsman]

Nice! were you using a curlytail?

[Fatman]

Nice haul

[gabowman]

Great story! Glad you found the fish. I bet they'll taste good too. Congrats.

[omegapd]

Nice! were you using a curlytail?

Yep. That's basically the only thing I fish. :D They were biting a pink/white 2 inch and a pumpkinseed 1 inch curly tail.

[shipahoy41]

Good report. Nice catch. Well done.

[skeetbum]

Great catch, and good job paying attention. Making the cast, counting down, and beginning the retrieve will get you into different levels of the water column. As the fish move around this may help. Keep it up.