A calm day before the storm arrives

[6poundtest]

Today I fished a new pond, one that I never knew had crappie in it. On another forum that I read often, this pond was mentioned as holding a nice population but the CT fishing guide doesn't say anything about them at all. I was skeptical but since I'm having trouble getting to my usual water I thought "what the heck, might be worth the trip". I was quickly reminded why its called "fishing" and not "catching". What few I saw at first on the HB weren't interested in my initial offering; of course I didn't think they were crappie, I thought they were bluegill and I was rigged with my favorite curly tail plastic at that point. They were pretty much right on the bottom in 22-25 FOW. I kept working them with 2 rods at once, one in the left hand, one in the right. On the 2nd pole I had rigged a Southern pro Umbrella tube. Guess which one they bit on? Yup, the SP and up comes a nice 9" crappie. Well, I'll be darned and I've got a new pond to fish! I rigged the other rod with a BG Baby shad and worked them over some more. I did pretty well today, thanks to everything I've learned here. Water surface temperature was 54* and they were not aggressive, but based on what I saw on the HB, they were down there and interested, I just had to tease them and work them and I had a nice 4 hours of slow but steady action. I finally had a day of little to no wind so I had the visual clue of the line and the rod tip to help me. Everything was vertical jigging, directly off the stern and under and around the transducer. Thanks to "Bee" there in Maine who suggested I "fish the electronics". I did just that and watched the returns approach and back off the lures; I could wiggle a bit or hold still to tease them all the more to get them to bite. The bite was often so light I couldn't believe it. No thumps today, just the lightest inhale or just the tip feeling a bit heavier than it was a second ago. I had a very educational trip today, all by my lonesome, fishing and learning stuff.
IT WAS GREAT!!
I ended up with about 14 in the cooler; I kept those from around 9" and up with I think 3 being in the 12-13" range, most around 9-10". Tossed back a fair number of little dinkies as well. And I'll admit it, only once did I get a bite on the right hand and set the hook with the left pole! Everything was calico's today, never hooked any other type of fish.
Had a bald eagle perched in a tree for a while today as well. Then I got a hit and when I got done unhooking him, the eagle had flown. I located him a bit later back in the swampy end of the pond in a different tree. I always like seeing things like that while I'm on the water. The only bad part of the day (if you can call it bad) was the guy blowing his leaves on the hillside nearby; he started just after I got there and quit about an hour before I left.

Ken

[drifterdon]

Great report,
Thanks for sharing.
Better get hunkered down.

[Cmj]

Good job, i remember your previous post. It is good to see that you are learning from this site. WTG.


(C.J.)

[skeetbum]

I love days alone that teach me and leave me smiling. 43 and windy here at 5 am so I didn't even try. Good luck with the oncoming storm.

[6poundtest]

It is good to see that you are learning from this site.


(C.J.)

I've learned a tremendous amount from this site in the short time I've been participating. Some of it doesn't seem real obvious but while working those fish over yesterday, I was confident I could make them bite. All the tips I've read here are hung in the cobwebs of my brain somewhere and although I can't articulate everything that made the trip a success, just knowing that I had tricks up my sleeve to try on them kept me at it, kept my interest up rather than saying "they're not biting, might as well give it up". So much of it comes from everyone simply relating their days on the water and what techniques worked on a particular day. Pearls of crappie wisdom keep showing up in the most ordinary of posts so I hope you all keep posting them! I'm sure I speak for other novices when I say that all the collective knowledge is NOT falling on deaf eyes.....errr, make that deaf ears.

[drifterdon]

I've learned a tremendous amount from this site in the short time I've been participating. Some of it doesn't seem real obvious but while working those fish over yesterday, I was confident I could make them bite. All the tips I've read here are hung in the cobwebs of my brain somewhere and although I can't articulate everything that made the trip a success, just knowing that I had tricks up my sleeve to try on them kept me at it, kept my interest up rather than saying "they're not biting, might as well give it up". So much of it comes from everyone simply relating their days on the water and what techniques worked on a particular day. Pearls of crappie wisdom keep showing up in the most ordinary of posts so I hope you all keep posting them! I'm sure I speak for other novices when I say that all the collective knowledge is NOT falling on deaf eyes.....errr, make that deaf ears.

I couldn't have said it better.

[Eager Beaver]

Great job and sticking with it. Switching lures and changing things to the situation at hand and not loosing confidence is one of our best assets for catching and not just fishing. EB

[shipahoy41]

Stay safe my friend. Nice report.

[rdhammah]

Today I fished a new pond, one that I never knew had crappie in it. On another forum that I read often, this pond was mentioned as holding a nice population but the CT fishing guide doesn't say anything about them at all.
Ken

someone probably threw a few in there to see what would happen. apparently, it was a good thing.

[skiptomylu]

Sounds like a good day and so cool getting to see the Eagle too! Nice report.

When I was a kid I caught some of the biggest crappie I ever caught on the local Golf Course lake. There was a bridge across it between the 15th T Box and the 18 Hole and right out in the middle of that bridge there was a couple big Cypress trees and that was a great spot. SO it can be a small lake or a big one also works, like Toledo Bend with 1200 miles of shoreline, lots have crappie.

Congrats!