Very nice. I've only fished it once and for about 2 hours. A camping trip I would like to forget.
Now I remember that reel. I know exactly where one more is located!
As Jeff said in his thread, we made plans to hit the evening/after dark bite on Morrison Lake to see if the bigger crappie would turn on later in the day. I gave him enough time to eat a quick bite when him and Michelle got home from their trip, then picked him up about 4:30 and we headed to the lake. On the way he filled me in on their trip and we laid down a strategy for ours.
We were both optimistic about our chances, less than two hours earlier he was on this same lake and knew where the fish were and what they wanted. Visions of huge numbers of crappie being caught were dancing in both our heads, nothing could stop us. As we neared the lake Jeff commented on how there were more vehicles in the parking lot than earlier, maybe a bass tourney or something. Something ended up being a parking lot filled to capacity with at least 5 spaces taken up by trailerless vehicles.
Now it was decision time. We could 1) park along the road and get a 75.00 ticket, 2) say screw it and head back home or 3) find another lake to fish. We chose option 3 and decided to head over to Sessions Lake, a small, no wake lake in Sessions Lake State Park. Small, no wake, surrounded by state land, sounded like just the kind of place where two buddies could spend a relaxing evening enjoying nature, heck, we really didn't think we would catch many fish and didn't really care.
We started out long line trolling along steep drop offs, pulling sliders on 1/16 oz jig heads, watermelon/chartreuse and white/chartreuse. Nothing. Next it was a 12'-15' flat with scattered weeds that looked promising but another big fat zero. We made a wide turn to make another pass over the 15' flat and ended up on a 9'-11' very weedy flat with the weeds coming within 4' of the surface. Too shallow, too weedy, too warm. That's what we thought but apparently no one told the fish. I hooked up first as we were dropping into deeper water, a small 7 1/2" crappie. Another pass over the weed bed put three more in the boat, all the same as the first. We dialed it in so we were trolling a 200 yard area back and forth and were catching crappie and bass on every pass.
After we wore that area out we moved across the lake to a similar type of area and made several passes, catching lots of small crappie and bass and one real nice bluegill. We landed at least 40 fish and all were returned to the water. I even got to catch some crappie with my new to me vintage Wondereel. That was pretty cool.
What started out as a trip to forget ended up being a trip to remember.
The older I get the more I realize the therapeutic benefits of fishing
Proud member of Michigan chapter "Team Overalls"
Worlds proudest grandpa x6
Very nice. I've only fished it once and for about 2 hours. A camping trip I would like to forget.
Now I remember that reel. I know exactly where one more is located!
I have OCD "Obsessive Crappie Disorder"
That reel is tough to get used to. Several times I forgot to flip the anti reverse lever after I would cast and had the thing back reel when I would set the hook. No adjustable drag meant I had to pump the rod to bring the fish in but it was still fun to fish with.
The peace and quiet comment was a bit tongue in cheek, the beach was packed with happy, boisterous swimmers and the park crew was running a skid steer mounted brush chopper just off the lake so it was never quiet until nearly dark. We never got swamped by jet skis or ski boats but did get swarmed by a big group of kayakers. Still a good trip.
The older I get the more I realize the therapeutic benefits of fishing
Proud member of Michigan chapter "Team Overalls"
Worlds proudest grandpa x6
Good job finding the crappie, I’ve fished that lake twice and got 0 both times.
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2017 MiCDC fall crappie guide of the year (FCGOTY)
Member: “Michigan chapter of Team Overalls”
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I wish we could say it was from hard work, studying lake maps and thinking like a crappie but is was pure luck. If we wouldn't have made that pass into too shallow water we wouldn't have found them. The second spot we can take credit for, we duplicated we what found in the first spot.
The older I get the more I realize the therapeutic benefits of fishing
Proud member of Michigan chapter "Team Overalls"
Worlds proudest grandpa x6
Man that beard gets shorter and shorter.
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Yeah, I decided it wasn't fair to hide these good looks behind a thick beard, I'm sharing with the world.
The older I get the more I realize the therapeutic benefits of fishing
Proud member of Michigan chapter "Team Overalls"
Worlds proudest grandpa x6
good job making the best of it and going to another lake.
I used to fish Morrison all the time , it was one of my favorite lakes..............then they changed the parking lot and started issuing tickets.
they got their way, I have not fished it since.
I swear the locals park their cars there sometimes just to keep boaters off.
I have heard lots of stories.....
takes a lot of the enjoyment out of fishing.
I tried two or three times after they changed the lot, parking was always full.....
glad you found some fish at sessions
fillet em n fry em
john
I too used to enjoy fishing it. I've caught some nice perch there when the time is right. I know there is big walleye in there too as I've found a few of them floating. Unfortunately, like John, unless you get lucky, parking is non existant. I guess the locals got their way on that one. They did a great job of keeping the lake to themselves.
I have OCD "Obsessive Crappie Disorder"