Joedog on Smithville

Met up with Keeferfish and launched his boat just after the sun began to peek over the eastern horizon. Patchy mists swirled over the surface of the water, which was only around 74ºF at the surface but was warm compared to the 56ºF air temp. The wind was next to nothing. The barometer was about to start falling.

Traveled to the back of the Crow's Creek arm where the timber gets a little thicker and the water starts to get shallower. We don't fish this area very often because there tends to be a lot of summer boat traffic with tubers and skiers and wakeboarders chopping things up. As it was, the water was close to glass.

Dropped the livescope in and started looking around timber in about 14fow. Found a bunch right away and dropped into them, knowing they were probably typical Smithville shorts. And they were, but...it was cool that we doubled up on the first drop!







Not finding mass quantities of the size of fish we were looking for, we moved through the timber, checking different depths, looking for the bigger dots, dropping here and there and picking up more of the typical Smithville fish. Bill was throwing all of them back. I was keeping a few of the better looking ones just to see if we'd get enough to make it worth getting the knives dirty. Seemed like we were throwing a LOT of them back, though.

Going back into Airplane Cove was a bust, but there were a couple spots just outside of it on both the right and the left of the mouth had a few spots that generated multiple fish.

A couple of the main lake brush piles near the dam were largely unproductive--only smaller fish, and even those were unwilling to bite right away.







Decided to switch spots and resisted the urge to go back to the same ol' places where Bill had been having some success before, the thought being that we kinda KNOW what we're gonna find there. So let's check out some "new" places that we don't normally go to, cuz...we got the livescope and...why WOULDN'T there be fish in there, too?? Kinda the same layout.

There must've been a bass tournament going on cuz there were a TON of boats out in places that I don't normally see boats. We had to pass over a couple spots that we might've tried if there wasn't anyone there already.

Ended up going to an "off the beaten path" area that I'd tried a couple weeks ago for the first time in probably 8 years, and where I'd marked fish but....they were either disinterested or they weren't crappie. They didn't ACT like crappie. Too much movement. You'd drop a jig down and it would spook them away. Or you'd hang it in front of their face and they wouldn't even react to it. And they weren't close to the trees, either. They were in between. Anyway...that was all a couple weeks ago. Wanted to take another look at it, this time with another set of eyes.

If anything, it was just as bad or worse. Couldn't find ANYTHING that looked promising. Moved a lot. Finally found a spot that looked like maybe there would be some fish there? Closer to the trees, not in between them like before. But again, they didn't seem to have an appetite for what we were offering.

By this point, although we were still consulting the livescope for potential targets, we were pretty much just dipping trees old-school. I swam my black and chartreuse hair jig with a pink nibble through these three stumps that were really close together and got bumped hard and my line went sideways. Felt like a drum or maybe a small catfish cuz it just wanted to dig. But when it started to come to the surface it turned and ran again, but there was a flash of white. Could still be a drum, maybe? Or maybe a white bass, the way it was fighting?? But when I got it to come back up face first, there was no denying it was a big ol' crappie.

"Don't lose it!" Bill was saying. And, "I don't have a net! Go to the back of the boat so you can get it close enough to lip it."

I did, and he did. And the jig pretty much just FELL out of it's mouth once the fish was on the deck.







No scale in the boat, but we put it on the bump board and it went 17". Biggest crappie I've caught in my life.







Released it back to the lake. It was probably out of the water all of 45 seconds and it swam away angrily! It was a healthy fish.

As always, thanks for another fun trip, Bill. Fish or no fish, we always have a good time and I always appreciate the open seat! I especially appreciate the assist on the fish. I never would've been able to swing that thing in on that 13' Ozark I got from Anthony at Spring Camp!! So thanks for helping me with getting my personal best!