Just kidding Wally. I had a great time with Mr. Crappie and I've gained a new found respect for him as a fisherman. He really is a true master of his trade. A finesse fisherman that can out fish the best of them, and I'll tell you why, just read on. You can sit right next to Wally, fish the exact same water, with the exact same rod, reel and jig, follow every bit of his advise and he'll out fish you every time, just like what happened to me.
It was a calm foggy morning. We arrived at our first fishing spot, bridge pillars in about 30 feet of water, and as soon as I threw my jig next to the pillar, Wally said to let it drop and tighten the line a bit so you can feel a strike. Bang, I caught a nice crappie. We even got some double headers, where both Wally and I caught fish at the same time. What a hoot.
Instead of side arming our bait, we shoot it, just like you would dock shoot. We were using seven foot long, one piece Wally Marshall rods (of course). These seven footers were very nice and being one piece, when you shoot with them, they didn't separate as some 2 piece rods have done to me. They were flexible enough to shoot with, and were great fun when you caught a Crappie. Being from the North, and historically only using 5-6 foot rods this 7 footer was long. Although this was not a 12 ft. or 14 ft. rod, I've recently grown used to longer rods in general, and I like them. These seven footers had plenty of bend in them to take the fight out of a nice slab, and were sensitive enough to get a good feel and set the hook. I've actually grown very fond of these Wally Marshall Seven footers.
The water on Lake Fork was very, very low. Normally all these stumps are under the water.
Anyway, as the fog lifted, the fishing got a little tough, at least for me. Wally was still catching nice Crappie right in front of me. He did share with me all the information he could about how he was catching them. We used 2 Slab Daddys, one stacked about a foot above the other. We used a single pole, and shot the jigs as close to the pillars as we could. We were positioned at one end, right next to the pillar, and casting down parallel to the farthest pillar. If you got your jigs up within a foot, maybe two feet, from the side of that far pillar, waiting the prescribed time (15 seconds), kept a tight line as the jigs fell, and then reeled in slowly, you could feel a thump anywhere along that process. If you shot wide, or short of that pillar, you could forget about catching anything. If the jigs fell without getting that proverbial thump, you can sometimes give it the "Wally Wiggle", just shake the jig a very little bit (towards the water) to tease that onlooking Crappie into the thump. It works--it really, really works. Wally has this down pat. As the day progressed, we did fish the pillars of another bridge, in slightly shallower water, and we did the same thing only adjusting the time we let the jigs fall.
I really liked Wally's setup. The all new Wally Marshall Tuxedo Black Rod and Reel. The Wally Marshall hi-visibility line in 6lb test, very limp, no memory, just how I like my fishing line. Plus the 1/16 oz Slab Daddy's. I always thought the Slab Daddy's I had on hand were a little light in weight, particularly for their size, but I think they are perfect when you stack them like we did. Slab Daddies have chenille on them. I like the chenille because if you use scent, it will stick to it longer. Although we did not use scent this time, I can't wait to try it.
Did I say Wally is funny. Well, he is. I had a great time with him, just talking about everything. The day flew by. We worked hard, but we finally did catch our limit, 25 fish a piece. We went back and cleaned those 50 fish, plus 25 Wally caught the day before when he pre-fished alone. That's why you'll see 75 fish in this picture (actually just short of that cause it's not easy counting that many fish in a live well). We needed all those fish fillets because Wally was doing a fish fry that evening for everyone. We cleaned them, Wally fried them up, and it was awesome, everyone loved it.
Thanks for the invite, and the opportunity to fish with the best products and pro's at:
www.Lews.com | www.GeneLarew.com | www.JewelBait.com | www.NumaOptics.com
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