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Crappie and Slab Sauce, on the "docks"
It was a cool, wet, windy day here in Michigan. So what do you do on a day like that? Call a buddy, grab a couple of rods, buy some minnows and go crappie fishing. And that's just what we did.
I gave Steve a call to see if he wanted to try some dock fishing on a private canal I have permission to fish. It didn't take much to convince him so a plan was hatched. After I picked him up we stopped for minnows (I had picked some worms out of the driveway before we met) and headed to my "secret spot".
While Steve was strapping on his GoPro, I baited my #10 treble with a fat head and made my first cast. By the time he made it to the dock, I was holding a nice eater sized black crappie, waiting for the bucket he was carrying.
And that's pretty much how it went for the next couple of hours. It seemed like one of us was always fighting a fish and often it was doubles. None were what most would call slabs but they were pretty much cookie cutter 91/2-101/2 with some reaching the 11" mark.
At one point I changed to a 1/16 minnow head jig with a Case Plastic baby shad in a brown/white color set 18" below a bobber. Add a shot of slab sauce and the crappie couldn't resist. They liked us "swimming" it to give it action but when the wind kicked up and put a good chop on the water, leaving it set in one place worked good. By the time we left, the minnow bite had shut down and all they wanted was plastics, both the brown/white and JT's Jewel.
As a bonus, I rigged up with a #10 aberdeen hook and a worm and started catching some decent bluegills. We finished with a 2 man limit of 39 crappie and 11 bluegills. Some of the crappie went home with Steve for a Friday night fish fry for Miss Judy, the gills will be my dinner and the rest will go in the freezer for spring camp.
We had a great time catching fish, poking fun at each other and making a Haulin' Ash video. It sure felt good to get out (almost) on the water and feel the tug. Attachment 338769Attachment 338770Attachment 338771Attachment 338772