Lake Greenwood SC

Man, the fishing has been tough as of late! We had a tournament with SC Crappie Association this past weekend on Greenwood and the weigh-in was solid proof of just how tough it was. Out of an 11 boat field (I think?) only 3 boats brought 7 fish to the scales. I believe all teams either spiderrigged or trolled, but neither seemed to provide much action from the fish.

My partner and I chose to troll and the action was less than desirable. We got a late start when we noticed the water pump on the motor was not pumping water. Neither the tell-tell or the water pressure gauge gave us any indication that the pump was working. After about 20 minutes of cranking up and shutting down it seemed that things started to thaw out a bit and we started seeing some water at the motor. That was a good sight! Off to find the fish we went.

Upon arrival at our destination, the trolling motor wouldn't deploy. Turns out it was also froze up. Temps in the low 20s is sure hard on your equipment. Between minnow buckets froze shut and ice freezing in the rod tips we finally got baited up with lines in the water. After about an hour and half we got our first fish aboard. After another 30 minutes #2 was boated. Thankfully, it was a big girl. She turned out to be big fish of the tourney tipping the scales at 2.29 lb. She was also my new personal best and it was 9 years ago this spring that I caught my previous personal best of 2.25 lb. With that being said, I'm debating about putting her on the wall. A personal best in nearly of decade of fishing all over SC and caught on tournament day as big fish kind of makes me thing she is worthy.

We fished long and hard and by 1:00 PM we only had 3 fish in the livewell. We decided to make a move and it proved to be a good one. From 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM we boated 3 more fish, but never could find #7. We headed back to the weigh-in one fish short of our creel and little dejected/aggravated, but by some miracle our 6 fish proved to be enough. We were able to pick up the win with 8.42 lbs. Never in a million years would I have thought you could win a tournament this time of year with that weight, but as luck would have it, we did.

It was a slow day on the water, but it was still a lot of fun. And the fishing stories and fellowship at weigh-in was a blast as usual too. And I'm already looking forward to my next chance to get on the water. It shouldn't be long before the bite picks up everywhere. The big girls are starting to look like they could bust!

A few pictures: