Crappie.com - 2012 year in review...long, many pics..........

2012 was a pretty good year for me. I have no idea how many trips I took, ask my wife, she might know. No idea how many I caught, I’ll says lots and each one was a smile. I know I fished a lot more than 2011 and hope to continue that trend. I fished Holiday Lake, James River, Buggs Island, Sandy River, Briery Creek, local ponds, Lake Anna, Potomac River, Lake Erie, Slate River, We started off in January fishing Holiday Lake for yellow perch and crappie. We did pretty good there, had several good trips with friends and grandson. I missed the NW Bash, hope to make the next one. March and April were decent on crappie at Briery, I got a 2.1 slab there in March.

Warmer weather brought a renewed interest in chasing smallmouth bass on the James, I got two on the same plug the week after my friend Kenny did. On a plug he bought for me.

Then the fish I’ve chased all my life, I finally got a citation smallmouth, 20.5 inches on that same plug.
In June we took a trip to Lake Erie and caught some great walleyes casting nightcrawler rigs. My grandson Samuel is still talking smack after taking big fish money from us all.

Fall brought more James River smallmouth and even some elusive upper James River crappie. I’ve spent thousands of casts searching for them and finally found two stumps one day holding some that would bite. Casting for musky hot one day in August got me another citation, a big old gar.

Hit the Potomac River at Stafford with a friend, we were trying for those snakeheads but big green fish kept us busy on that hot day.

Spent Wednesday afternoons the month of August at local ponds with three grandsons watching corks go down, catching crappie, bluegills and a few bass with, lots of fun and smiles. They all got tickled when the youngest one was pulling in a small crappie and a big old bass got after it and finally ate it, I grabbed the rod and landed him. He says we tag teamed that one grandpa. Yea, the smiles were tag teamed too. In October my youngest son brought his new girlfriend home and we helped her catch her very first fish ever. She jumped and squealed when she got him. Looking forward to her return so we can get her some more. Cold weather got us back to Holiday and more yellow perch and more to come I hope. Ended the year on December 29 with one of the fattest yellow perch I’ve seen from Holiday, then fished the hot side on Lake Anna on December 31, we pulled 36 smiles over the side that day. I’ve been blessed to be able to fish in 2012 with good friends, my sons and grandchildren, even talked my wife into a pond trip for crappie, her first fishing trip in awhile. Even got to take my dad out twice before he passed in June. 2013 is starting out with a bang, 2012 was one of my best ever. Now ya’ll get out and catch something and have some fun. Pull in some smiles. I hope to fish some new water, I’ll trade trips with anybody that wants to go.
Crappie for the year- hundreds but 2.1 citation makes my year
Yellow Perch for the year- LOTS but remember most the 2 citations grandson Samuel caught the same day
Greenies- quite a few, 6 pounder in Jan was the biggest, a trip to Stafford was the most
Catfish- some from Holiday, some from Potomac, 5-6 pounds was the biggest
Pickerel- annoying minner thieves but plenty of them to about 22 inches
Brown Bass- hundreds from the James, a 20.5” citation and another 19” that probably was 5 pounds, two on the same plug was memorable
Musky- ZERO but I tried and hooked a citation gar for my efforts, I can still see the huge musky that bit off a fluke while smallmouth fishing.
Walleyes- 43 from Lake Erie to about 8 pounds, one 2013 goal is to get a citation walleye from Virginia waters
Total fish got to be thousands, I kept maybe 100 all year to eat, that includes the Erie walleyes. Threw the rest back, some joined the GK relocation project into K’s pond.
Expectations for 2013- more smiles than 2012
Fish more with my wife
A snakehead
A citation walleye
Another musky
Fish new water
Make new friends
New boat