Crappie still eat in the rain/cold!!!

[SpeckWick]

Ohio Crappie Boy and I hit East Fork this morning in weather fit for a duck and did really well. All together in a few hours we caught around 30-35, give or take a couple. Kept 15 for the freezer. We caught some nice slabs. The longest were only 12", but boy were they thick! The bite was fast and furious for the first hour or so of daylight, then we found them a little scattered. Nowhere near as good as a couple weeks ago, but it's tough to complain about the results on a nasty day in about 4 hours. Here's a couple pics of what we kept and a couple thick black crappie. The date is wrong on the bottom one. It was today.

[Ohio_Crappie_Boy]

Well finally got to get out on the water with speckwick for the first time since the first week of october. I tell ya it sure felt good to be on the water that is. The weather on the other hand, crappy. The big blacks that we got were right at 12 inches, but like speckwick said they were some thick ol bigguns. All in all not bad for about 4 hours. Now cant wait to get out agian. Caught all of them on minnow under slip float about 1 1/2 to 3 foot deep. Did get 1 muskie on but it was only about as long as a number 2 pencil and as big, but did get a good look at him out of the water for he come off. Wild lookin fish i say that. Well good fishin yall.

[JusFshn]

Alright!!! Nice mess for the freezer.. Wish I could go tomorrow but it looks like I will be servicing my oil furnace.. Got that sucker tore down and can't get the parts I need until tomorrow when the parts house opens at 7:30 a.m.

[Yates]

SpeckWick Good bag! I was going this week end but had to work saturday came down sick didn't want change setting in all that rain sunday, maybe I'll get lucky and go out monday
see you on water be safe. Larry

[foul hook]

How long do you guys have before the lakes ice over? I would go nuts if I had to put my boat in winter storage. That would as bad as my X moving back in. What a nightmare!!!

[AtticaFish]

I am farther north and already have ice on many small lakes. I was out last weekend from shore and had to cast over some ice to get to open water. The crappie were small (round 9") but lost couple trying to swing them up over the ice. Bass was 19". It was cold as you can see by the snow.

Nice catch Speck & OCB! Wishin I lived a couple hours south!

[SpeckWick]

Hopefully they don't ice over at all. I keep hearing we are going to have a mild, dry winter, so hopefully it stays just warm enough to keep the water soft. I don't put my boat awat until I can't float it. The crappie hit all winter if you can find 'em. I work outside, so I deal with the cold either way. May as well catch some fish while I'm at it.
Thanks Larry! I wish I could keep the 7 biggest for the first tourney of '09. Somehow I just can't manage any consistent size when it counts, but it sure has been a fun fall! Things are coming around for us though. Maybe next season we'll put it all together and take some of you guys' money instead of just contributing to the pot 10 times a year.
I'm gonna try to get out myself again this coming week. My dad thinks he's gonna take Thursday and Friday off and take my boat out. His is broke. I think I feel a bad case of the "blue flu" coming on for late week.

[Yates]

How long do you guys have before the lakes ice over?

sometimes they don't ice over at all, and if they do it's late jan-mid-feb and alway open by mid-march. most of the time if you go at 1st light it's thin ice and the lake is opens by 9:-10:am

[kycreek]

Good job Speckwick. I'm gonna try and come back up there sometime soon.

[foul hook]

I remember back in the mid 70 s the Ohio froze solid. The corp of eng. tried to blast it loose . That was a joke. Dont want to experience the winters of 76 & 78 ever again. That broke me from the habit. Guess that I am a woos.