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Crappie.com 1K Star General
Not a crappie! Not a crappie!
This evening we stunk it up. I got blanked period! My partner took half a dozen or so dink bass. Not a crappie, not a sunfish! We hit four spots on two different lakes and still came up empty.
Last evening was a different story. We moved to a different pool where we often find crappies on and off all summer long. It was cold with a stiff cold breeze. We didn't do very well; some initial sunfish nibble and then what seemed like a tentative version of the classic crappie one tunker beneath them, but no fish. My partner ended up with 7 crappies and a small handful of sunfish and he worked for them. I couldn't turn more than a couple of sunnies despite changing tails, changing presentations whatever I could think of. We even bobbered up to no avail. Finally I put on a black 1.5" twister.
The second cast along the wall we were standing on, I hung up and then the hang up began to move. For 15 minutes I put as much strain on the 4# line and my UL rod as I dared. The drag worked perfectly, and the hen below ran all over that pool, before she ended up in the net.
32" and fat as a pig, wide across the back and carrying quite a belly.
Needless to say that pool was really stirred up; so I ran back to the car and got a noodle ice rod rigged with a yellow #10 Fat Boy tipped with an inch and a quarter luv nub, hoping that downsizing would turn a fish or two. A news crew from WCCO TV showed up to do a bit on the effects of the very early spring. Something grabbed the Fat Boy about then. I found myself hooked up to a 20.5" largemouth on the ice rod. No pictures for here, but they caught a bunch of the fight on tape and the fish after she came to the net, too. And then they announced it to the whole community where I caught her in the 10:00 news. All of our fish came from right tight against the wall we were standing on which drops down to about 4' of water at the most. Both of the bonus fish came from just about exactly the same spot along that wall.
We were out about 2 1/2 hours, but the half hour part that spanned those two bonus fish was pretty much the highlight. I pretty much struck out on the crappies but there was some compensation...
The TV crew tried to do an interview, but I found myself at a loss for words and thankfully they cut that out of the broadcast. By the way both fish were definitely returned to the water, which I would have done anyway, and seemed to recover pretty well and swam away on their own. The season for pike doesn't open here until early May, and for bass until mid-May; so I couldn't have kept either one anyway even if I had wanted to.
You just never know what's going to take those darn little plastics next.
Slabmaster
Nice. Bummer about the crappies though. I'd think with the funky weather moving in they would have been a little active. I'm taking my 8-year old out tomorrow for the start of his spring break. From your other posts, I am hopeful to find some shore fishing opportunities for him in the cities.
Slabmaster
I thought I might be able to catch the video on WCCO's web site, but no luck finding it. My fishing buddy and my son made it on during the opener last year. They had his name and "Angler" tagged below his interview. I'm still giving him a hard time about that.
Crappie.com 1K Star General
You and the boy should do well. With this weekend's warm up there should be literally hundreds of spots around the Metro that produce crappies coming into the warming bays for the temperature and the bug hatches which should be massive. We quite literally have crappies all over the Twin Cities in nearly any water of any size that does not winterkill.
Crappie.com 1K Star General
Nice pike Dutch. Did you practice your lipping techniques to land this one? lol
Crappie.com 3K Star General
Hey no1, nice fish. Bet that was fun....
Proud Member Of Team Geezer
Member: Michigan Chapter of Team Overalls
Crappie.com 1K Star General
On the little sticks they are all fun. I keep getting amazed at the number of bonus fish we get on the little crappie plastics, though.
At first we though this was a musky. They are amazingly similar from the top. That ticked me off, but it got a lot more fun when she turned and showed us the pike pattern. I am not a fan of stocked muskies. Pike I like, they belong. Pound for pound they are also a much better game fish than muskies, more fight for sure. They are also far cheaper to manage for the same sporting return. We have been seeing more and bigger pike in the last few years on several of the waters we fish, including some waters with no muskies. Our DNR has been doing a much better job of managing that species than used to be the case. IMO the 24-36 inch release slot has been a success on most of the lakes where it has been applied. The consumption advisories have also played a part.
I aint about to lip no pike. Over the past almost 60 years of catching them I have already had more than enough misadventures with pike teeth. Too many stiches already.
Slabmaster
"On the little sticks they are all fun. I keep getting amazed at the number of bonus fish we get on the little crappie plastics, though."
Bonus fish today were a couple 1lb bass, and one big one the weighted in at 5.0lbs before going back in, and so did the single northern of about 3-3.5lbs.
My buddy Paul wanted to go out on the lake after passing on the potential thunderstorm last night, and at the end of the day he said "This was the best crappie fishing day, ever." Lots of fish, but converted my 8 year old over from a jig and minnow to a micro translucent white jig, and it was a crappie every cast after that. I'll post the name of those things when I get the name from Paul. The biggest was a little under a pound.
Of course, my eight year old was ogling over the big carp randomly clearing the surface. "Our goal should be to catch one of those!" he said. Oh boy...
Crappie.com 1K Star General
Pearl or translucent white is one of our mainstay colors, whether tubes, stingers or shads.
BTW carp very often show up taking the little plastics, especially at this time of the year; so the boy may very well get his wish.
Sounds like your team had a very good trip. Good on all of you.
Minnow
No1,
The level of detail and your varied approaches to local waters is very impressive. A little tenacity never hurts either.
Nice fish!
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