M.U.D...Mean, Ugly, Disappointing fish. LOL.
In an effort to maintain my earnest effort @Cooch's Crappie Conquest, I launched an hour after sunrise to gather some more data on this river's Crappie population. This time I remembered to bring my portable depth finder and obviously gain valuable structure/contour data. Strictly sticking with one-pole presentation(casting/vertical jig) with hand-tied jigs, I was rewarded on 1st drop with a tick that emanated from a feisty 8" lm that eagerly awaited his release. My 3rd drop resulted in the same(gotta love it) tick that yielded a more well-shouldered combatant. I initially thought lm>gar>catfish(definitely NOT Mr. Speck). After numerous 10' Ozark rod-bending arches, my curiosity was visually quenched seeing my 1/48 oz. hand tie planted perfectly in the corner of this surprise...a 3-4 lb. Bowfin!! Any of you that have experienced Mr. B know the attitude they genetically showcase. Although not renown on their tablefare ranking, their attitude is off the chart. My search throughout the day prove fruitful with some bream, copper-nosed gills, and yes Crappies!! (Only 3- 7-9" males) that I found in the river's plentiful hyacinth matting that needed to be "holed" to get my jig through. This attachment shows the modified butt on my rear-seated Ozark rod that I removed the butt cap from before inserting a 4 inch piece of spare graphite rod tubing which was epoxied tightly in place and then drilled out/glued a piece of hardware store cork. This modification was done to enable spider-rigging application = works great! Oh, pic also shows a well-shouldered CN Gil.
Thanks for readin', until next time-
u2s
Great fun I'm sure, what end of the river were you on?? Dunnellon area?
The finest gift you can give to any fisherman is to put a good fish back, and who knows if the fish that you caught isn't someone else's gift to you?"up2specks LIKED above post
South of Dunnellon Brian.
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Thanks for checkin' on me! CURIOSITY takes me there, SUCCESS ushers me back!
Those bowfin are ugly! Never been around them.
Glad you got out and got your line stretched!!
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Proud Member of Team Geezer!up2specks thanked you for this post
Redge, they fight there’s no tomorrow. Kind of like a smallie on steroids and they never quit.
A good trip, U2. It’s always fun to go pokin around the out of the way places, never know what’s around. I stopped by a hole in the weeds on the bank of a pond and found a mayfly like hatch going on. Fished it for 3 or 4 days, one fish after another, then it was over. I always look for something like that, even found some that were close, but that one was magic. Looking for the reports to follow cuz I know you’ll go back.
Had that happen in Kissimmee one time. Started getting pelted by bugs, came off plane, then started snatching mayflies out of the air and putting them on the hook and tossing them over.
Filled a cooler up with a mix of catfish, bass, crappie and bream in no time. Was one of those truly amazing moments on the water.
up2specks LIKED above post
great report and a fun read. Thanks for taking us along on your trip.
Jim