Strange day to be on the lake/ Easter Sunday

[M R Dux]

I went to church with my wife then cooked some of the crappie we had caught Saturday for a late lunch. As we were cleaning up, my wife asked what I was going to do the rest of the day. I asked if she would like to go to the lake. She had things to do so I called my Dad. He couldn't go either. I hooked up and headed out by myself. I was nervous that I would have to park 1/2 mile from the ramp at the resort I launch at. As I pulled into the resort about 4:45, I noticed there were ZERO trucks and trailers parked there. I saw the owner on his golf cart so I stopped to chat for a minute. I asked him what the deal was and he said it had been absolutely dead all day. The weather was nice, the wind was zero, the lake was slick as glass and there were very few boats. It seemed all very strange but I said this must be my lucky day. I expected 4th of July type crowds.

I launched then motored a short way to one of my later in the years spot, just to try something different. I put out the planer boards with a couple of Bandits and a couple of jigs, plus a couple of longlines. Within 5 minutes, I had two 1 1/2 pound white crappie in the boat. Short time later I hooked something that I knew was not a crappie. I had made a tactical error on the board and it didn't release when I started playing the fish. I had a 6 pound leader and the boat was moving at 1 mph, so I had to take my time. I finally got the board loose where it would slide down the line and the fish up beside the boat. Ended up to be a flathead catfish about 20 pounds. This thing was 3 feet long!! Here I am, standing on my big net with my Ego crappie net in my hand. I thought to myself "This ain't going to work very well!!". Finally the flathead had seen enough and turned and off he went with my broken leader and jig in tow. Oh well. It was fun and at least it wasn't one of the multitude of Asian carp that were all around my boat.

I ended up with 10 really nice white crappie with the largest just over 1 1/2 pounds. It was a nice day to be out there. It gave me a chance to clear my head. I only had one lake lice confrontation when some female pontoon operator thought it would be a good idea to run wide open ACROSS my long lines, no more than 20 yards behind me when she had at least 1/2 mile of lake in any direction to run (guess there was at least one 4th of July lice out there). I'm just glad she didn't decide to run thru my planer boards.

I'm still curious at the lack of boat traffic. Was everybody celebrating the holiday at home, sick of fishing, bothered by the economy, etc? Strange but welcome lack of traffic. Never saw another crappie fisherman within 1/4 mile of me.

[skeetbum]

Had a little more traffic, but about the same day without the kitty. Wonderful day, thanks for sharing yours.

[Monark King190]

Good story.

[Dongotto]

The lake I fish all the time was full of boats on saturday and very sparse on sunday. I went after church and lunch. It was overcast, light boat traffic and the crappie were hungry. A great Easter sunday. Enjoyed your story.

[hatchieman]

I was at Paris Landing eating lunch with the family, I noticed that there was absolutely no boat traffic out either. and the Lake was literally as smooth as glass. I can personally not remember it being, that calm in the middle of the day, ever. I would have gone out later that afternoon but I forgot to put on sunscreen the day before and was a bit burnt and was quite full from feeding my face, so I resigned to the couch for a well deserved nap.

[usafret99]

Good report