Ragfly Jig Man is a dock shooting animal

Dockshooting day one.



I caught the first fish for the day. It was a 14.5 inch fish. We figured it was gonna be a good day. It did not end up bad, between the two of us I think we ended up keeping 24 fish for the fish fry that weekend. We probably released 10 or more.

The next day was another story. Rusty caught fish like crazy, and I just could not get into the spots that held fish. The easy to shoot docks that held fish the day before just did not produce. The hard to shoot docks were the ones with fish. When I'm talking hard, I'm talking about docks that only had maybe four inches to shoot into. It was crazy that Rusty could even get in there, and he got far back in there , maybe 10 feet or more, and caught some nice fish. It was hard, and I just did not have the Midas Touch. Maybe one out of 6 shots made it under the dock, and even then it would only get under there less than 5 feet. I think I only caught one fish there, whereas Rusty pulled out double figures! Dang frustrating.




I've been an OK dock shooter, especially since I actually learned from Rusty in the first place. But with these new challenges I've made some changes in how I shoot. Whereas previously I used 6 pound test line, now I use 4 pound test line. Rusty also has a way of leaning forward and shooting right off the edge of the boat. So now I try to “go low” as well. We will certainly keep trying and learning, especially when you get to be inspired by Rusty catching all those fish right in front of you.



Mr. Dock Shooter himself. I'd be willing to bet anyone that Rusty can shoot a jig through a quarter sized hole at 10 feet, for ten feet!

Another thing that is wild about dock shooting is, only certain places on certain docks hold fish. We fished all around one dock once, and only in the small space between a pontoon boat and the dock held fish. Shooting all around the rest of the dock brought in one maybe two fish, but this one spot produced about every cast. This was another place where I found it hard to get my jig into. Besides it being a small space, there was a rope on one side and a bumper on the other side. Crazy, but again Rusty could get in there and pull them out. I got in there a couple times, and did manage a nice fish, that darn it all, got off at the side of the boat. Oh well. I do have to say that dock shooting with someone that really knows how to do it is a lot of fun to watch. It keeps you motivated. Besides that, I don't even have to catch fish, as long as someone is catching fish, it's fun. I'll take the pictures!



Speaking of pictures, here are some of GA Crappie Camp.


We arrived shortly after noon the Wednesday before the event. Abbey and I set up camp and put up our sign.


Rusty shows off his catch from that morning. The fish are on, I know it's gonna be a good weekend.


We actually tried to bobber fish the Cypress trees with live minnows and all we could catch was one small Perch.


Here's "rookie slabmaster", we shared fishing spots and techniques. Great guy. He was camped right across the road from us but unfortunately had to leave before the event on Saturday. It was good to meet you and you family.

I did not bring much food other than some sandwich meat and bread but, we did not go hungry. NannyFaye made something she called Cowboy Soup. A mixture of just about everything. Not a lot of liquid in this soup, mostly sausage and vegetables. Just about every vegetable know to man was in there including Okra. If it had beans in it I might have called it Vegetable Chili cause it had a bite, but beans is one thing it did not have. It was great and kept me and Abbey fed for a couple days. Thanks Faye.


Papasage with a couple good ones.


More fish to clean for the fish fry.


An assembly line.




Papasage, NannyFaye and the whole Strickland family, including their extended family like members Stickburner and detail man and Ragfly Jig Man (who all helped with cooking) did an absolutely wonderful job putting all this together.





It was too funny, Papasage won two raffle prizes in a row and then stickburner won three prizes in a row, then I think 1cove won a few in a row too. It was a raffle filled with winning streaks. Papasage won both BnM poles that were raffled off, so I took this picture of NannaFaye and Papasage with their prizes. Thank you BnM for your support of Crappie.com.

And of course, since we did not have Billbob here to take his customary pictures, we have Abbey. If you know anything about Billbob or Abbey, they are nothing if they are not social butterflies.











Oh and I have to tell you about this. "G" hit the nail on the head when he made fun of me for not having replaced my tires. This tire was at the very least 4 years old, but it looked good. Well, not any more it don't look good.

After I left Georgia, I headed home to Illinois. After I went through the hills at Chattanooga I looked at my wheel and the tire looked a little funny. It was not hopping or vibrating, but it kinda looked funny, I can't explain why. But one second after I took my eye off it, it blew and took the fender with it. No big deal cause I had a spare, and I was even ready with socket wrench and 2x4. I have a 2x4 cut just the right length so that when I place it under the trailer and drive forward, the wheel lifts off the ground so I can change it. Makes changing a tire extremely easy. Just thought I'd share.