July Surprise Crappie on Maumelle Rivers

[CrappieDave]

Hey Folks,

I just wanted to share A picture of a few from a Saturday AM trip and give out some my Story and stats. Read on if ya care for my long winded explination... I managed to catch (6) good keepers that I ended up releasing, which is rare. I was reluctant to go fish considering the deluge of Big Rain that pounded us in Maumelle before sun up that AM. I was awoken at 4 am from the Hail ticking on our bedroom window. It sounded like Pea size, but I didn't get up yet to check. I believe we picked up almost 1 1/2" of rain. My Pool filled up to the top edge and would need attending at some point during the day...so I ended up dealing with it instead of fishing that early morn. But by 10am I just couldn't resist the urge to GO FISH !! I looked at Wifey and said I gotta go give it shot. I wasn't expecting much considering the water temp and time/month of year. I never have fished much in July anyway. Too hot...but this summer has been different..ya think?

So I dragged the ole Ranger MPV 1760 on down the road and arrived on the water by 10:30. There was a nice deck of clouds overhead and it was not that hot ...yet. Steamy though. I could see the edge of clouds not to far off and knew it was moving on over and would be gone soon. So I eased up on some wood structure and was pleasantly surprised after dipping a 10' B&M with 6lb test wrapped around a Bass Pro spin reel loaded with a Bobby Garland shad Jig in a Char/Red speck color dipped in some stanky Crappie Juice, to find a nice 1lb er. First cast/dip... I then proceeded to wiggle a few more outta there. These fish were in 8 fow about 3 feet deep. Water temp was 85 !! But then I had to move on cause that was it...shut down. Hit some some other spots and came away with blanks. I Then decided go DEEP and moved into 25 foot water and found the thermocline. Fish were in that 15 foot deep window of Oxygen rich cooler zone. I found some tree knock downs close by and work that Bobby up in there on the back side. Right at the 12 foot mark on the drop...BAMM !! Big hit !! Got tangled of course and lost her. Dang...Then did it again. Well after a re tie of my jig a few times I managed to pull in a few more being a bit more deliberate and careful. Then the clouds moved off and so did the bite. Water temp was now 88... Well it started getting steamy hot and I proceeded to run around some and cool off going by ALL the Bass fishermen not catching crap. I was running the live well on auto trying to keep em frisky...then I felt like letting them go for some reason. So I dropped those fatties off at the ole Bus Stop logs for another day. All and All I was surprised to catch what I did and feel blessed for it. Learned some things and will apply them in the future.