"Da Plane! Da Plane!"

Please bear with me! This past Tuesday, a small, single engine plane made an emergency landing on a sand bar in the middle of our Quabbin Reservoir. No one was hurt and yesterday, a recovery helicopter hoisted the plane in the air and carried it to a local air port. What has all of this got to do with fishing for crappie? I don't know? But, I did get a heck of a shot at a similar rescue helicopter today while out on the water. It flew right overhead of us; maybe it thought we were in distress! LOL! Here's the pic:



Thought some of you might get a kick out of that. Back to reality. Winds today were predicted for 10 - 20 mph. So, Walt & I decided this might get us back into the grove to kick up our C&R count for a few hours of drift fishing. And it did. Air temp when we launched at 7:30 am was 64 degrees with the water at 74 degrees. Light winds to start with quickly picked up to the predicted speeds. The air was up to 81 when we pulled off at 1:30 pm. I am definitely going to have to bring along my GPS the next time we go. We both agreed that we were moving along at around 4 to 5 mph on each drift. Our 1/8 oz. ball heads were near to water skiing at some points, but that didn't affect the bite one iota.

We ended up with 80 fish between us today; only 4 being bluegill and the rest crappie. Here is a shot of one of the bait balls, with fish, that we marked early on today:



These were far & few between however and we'd hit a bunch of fish in one location, then nothing for a hundred yards or so. Then we'd get hit again. Sliders started out out producing everything until about 9 am. Then the straight tails kicked in big time. I also had significant success with a hand tied (by "skiptomylu") 1/16 oz. Roadrunner. Straight tails, Roadrunners and Sliders that were colored pink & chartreuse, enjoyed a high success rate. Others as well, but these shined. I wanted to show you some of the white caps we had to deal with, but the picture didn't come out that great. Here it is anyway:



Here are some to the fish we caught (and released) today:



Did I mention the sun was intense today too?













A final observation. Most professional fishermen and outdoor writers tell us that it's best to fish the down-wind side of the water you are fishing. Not so today, nor on other trips we've made. Today, as with other days, the up-wind end of the lake out produced the rest of the lake. Anyone else have a similar experience?

Anyway, not a bad way to spend five hours with a great fishing partner. What more could you ask for? Life is good.