The Struggle was real ......

[Ketchn]

Thought we would whip em good , fish had other plans , actually turned into a work project.
I don't like working for them as you might have imagined . At before dark we quit and we started late afternoon , fish were tough all over the lake and there never was a really good spot or time frame.
The vast majority of them were roaming with bait parallel to the shorelines and out in open water , most of the bait was in water over 12 foot deep . Not many if any were tight to cover and or sitting still. Now knowing I NEVER TROLL for crappie made it a really tough go and to be sure it was just hit and miss in many spots . As bait shoals would go by a few fish would hit IF you had the jig at the exact depth they were traveling .
Best technique of the day consisted in measuring out line and keeping it at the depths they ran under us , 4 to 6 feet down in 12 to 20 plus foot of water was KEY. AND setting the rod down and NOT giving it action seemed to be the ticket.
Tried about every color thinking it would matter and sure enough it did , they were for sure wanting white and NOT what I wanted to pitch , thank goodness I had me a handful of new white handties that needed to get wet, they saved the day for me without any doubt.
Only kept 15 and tossed back another 35 or 40 so that were either close or no cigar, but to be sure 3 guys hitting em and no more than that in 3 hours is about boring as it gets in these parts .....
the boat captain tried to lift a whale right at the end of the day and it was a really nice fish and it snapped the line on the lift , net was right beside him to add insult to injury and like I told him , ME and H were just about as sad as him when it escaped ....
So you see there are them days when it ain't just a cake walk, the good news is you sure get to chat it up and laugh about the lack of bites on these kinds of trips ....
A bit of KABOOM is the word from the hotter part of the world ....
p.s. looked like the lake was on fire after we left , probably a minnow bite in the dark is my bet ......

[BuckeyeCrappie]

Very nice Ketch! Thanks for sharing

[Ketchn]

Very nice Ketch! Thanks for sharing

do bass and bream and etc. count for something ? managed a pretty fair number of them other fish , just saying .....

[SuperDave336]

Good pics as always. Even slow you caught some good ones. KABOOM

[DockShootinJack]

Nice mess

[BobC]

He won’t boat lift next time! That one was a shame. It didn’t sound like a “sling and fling”!
Bob

[Ketchn]

He won’t boat lift next time! That one was a shame. It didn’t sound like a “sling and fling”!
Bob

you know he often does this and even though we know some fish should be netted , we still get in a hurry to put em in the boat and some just dont sling as easy as others .
lost a few the same way a few times myself , either not quite enough rod for the fish and or a line grab will often let a real nice crappie return to its original agenda before you interrupted ....