It was a slow start but ended well

My long time partner finally found some time to join me fishing so we took a trip back to our favorite water (which shall remain nameless!) We hit the water about 9:30 and started a slow circuit of the pond. Water temperature was 67, air temp about 50; we had a chilly night last night, it was 42 this morning at 5:30! I landed the first fish, an average size gill and tossed him in the cooler, hoping to add to the take in short order. It took a while for the next fish to come in the boat, a just legal length pickerel that I tossed back. We worked our way along the drop off and I finally hooked up with one of the larger bluegill that we came here for.



The way we had the boat packed today it was difficult to have the camera safely handy so my pictures are from when we got home. I wish it was handy when the 2 bald eagles came over our heads, with one of them sort of attacking the other and the big puff of feathers when the one grabbed on to the other before chasing off the invader, I guess. Didn't look like any kind a mating ritual to me, more of a warning to get out of my area. We moved along, with me catching a few fish here and there, small 'gills, couple of bass, another pickerel while my buddy failed to hook up. Took him nearly an hour but he finally got on the board with a pickerel, then a bass, then a tiny gill of about 4"! He got the small fish of the day award with that one.
Shortly after 11, we turned the corner to run along another drop off/weed line that we knew from previous trips. Bingo!! The bigger 'gills had been found at last and for the next hour, we had solid action from the big ones like this:





For my area, these are BIG bluegill and this water seems to have the best of them. What a fight they give on my St. Croix UL panfish rod, 5 1/2' with 4 pound test line. A bit further along this same drop, another solid hit but a different fight and I pulled in the first crappie of the day, a nice 12"er. We both were landing big gills and big calico's along that weedline, including this big crappie of the day, just under 13 1/2".
The camera perspective is deceiving but it really does measure out at that 13+".



We finally called it a day about 12:45 as he had plans and had to get going. We ended up keeping 13 big 'gills and 12 nice crappie. The small crappie of the day was 10 1/2", he came in as a double in the net as we were both hooked up and we had to scoop them both then straighten out the mess in the net! In addition, we landed a good number of LM bass and a good number of smaller gills that went back in for another day. Another memorable day to go along with the others we've had on this water.