Punishing is the word. Around here, if you don’t get off the water before 11 you’re gonna be pouring sweat and dehydrating fast. So is the way it's affecting me. But the long and short of it is that we just aren’t built to deny ourselves the outdoor time that restores our soul and sanity. Such was the basis for yesterday’s trip. Nino has had some work to do on his Gheenoe so it’s been off the water for three weeks. He met me at just after 6 and we headed out and dropped in about 30 minutes before the fish got moving. Glass conditions had me happy waiting to see how well the day would turn out. We didn’t have long to wait.
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This one got us started and I was hoping to find a few this size but he was the only one of size for the day. One other maybe 8” was all the crappie I could find.
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Notice what can’t be seen in this pic. That jig is gone deep and had to have minor surgery to recover it. This told me that even if there wasn’t many, what was here were active. Pretty colors on this one, got a few more colored like him as we moved on. Nino was getting antsy cuz my count was six and he wasn’t on the board yet, but that would soon change. First came some gills and nice ones at that.
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Then came the first of a couple of LMB that found his jig more than mine. Cute little guy.
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Now these pics have a little story with em. That was an above average sized redbreast and had us thinking it was a nice gill. Really nice colors. He was put on the middle seat for a little bit and we found some of his breakfast left behind after he was released. The first pic is as we found it but I had to know exactly what it was. Come to find a tiny crab body and the smallest minnow or fry or something like that that I’ve ever seen. He’d been eating good. I’ve never seen a freshwater crab but proof was there. Appeared to be like a blue crab in build but smaller than a dime. I was impressed. Then came more gills and Nino had to have another wrestling match with a good 12-14” LMB on his 2lb pline rig. It didn’t come easy, little dude was tough.
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That was all we could take from the heat and we headed in shortly after. I had a great time and no fish were harmed, it was a good day.

It was good enough that I had to go again this morning and found a few friends I didn’t get to meet yesterday. I’m liking the Pfenix more every time I use it. A couple of todays better fish made this little rod jump in my hand. Better components and construction definitely makes for better sensitivity. The heat ran me off today also and it takes a long time to cool down once out of it. Nino has his boat almost ready for finish paint and trim and it’ll be back in action, I know he’s ready. Here’s the pics, this one has run long and I apologize. Til we meet next…Skeet
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The bait shown in a few of these pics worked better than good. It’s one of Victors BG-1 1gram heads powder painted brown and a mister twister trimmed body that’s super glued in place. Never did tear it up and the diameters are almost identical. It’s worth putting a few of those tails in your bag of tricks.