Report; 5/15/19

It's been raining the past couple of days and just let up at the crack of dawn this morning - finally! Walt & I decided to give it a whirl and our expectations were high with the last trip being as successful as it was. We started fishing today around 9:10 am due to the cold start. Air was only 44 degrees, with a stiff breeze. We targeted the Oxbow section of the Ct. River system once again. The water was only 53 degrees! That's 6 degrees colder than our last trip! The ride out was cold and wet. I considered calling it quits before we even cast our first line out, it was that cold. But we were there already.....may as well make the best of it.

This super fisherman kept an eye on us off & on for most of the morning:

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We mainly targeted the shallows along the flooded tree lines in 4' - 6' depths. We could not get back into the flooded brush with the boat. That's probably where the majority of the crappie were hanging out. But this guys did OK back there:

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Great blue herons are the best "fish finders" you can have. He was fishing just beyond our casting range. We mainly anchored and cast Road Runners and jigs today. They produced well for us the last time out, so we gave them our focus. Unfortunately, the fish were not where they were a few days ago. The rising water, cold temps and wind may have been contributing factors. All in all, when we pulled off at 1:10 pm, we had caught & released 20 fish. Only 6 were crappie with 8 bluegill (exceptional size!), 4 small yellow perch, 1 largemouth bass and one northern pike which, after a grueling battle, came unbuttoned boat side. Larger than the last one I successfully boated in the last report. I also lost another pike which kept taking drag. I was afraid he'd spool me, but instead broke mw off in the weeds. Great fun!

We also checked out the deeper basin as well. Marked a bunch of fish, but only a dink here & there to show for it:

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Here are some of the fish we did manage to boat & release:

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All in all a good day to be on the water. Can't wait for WARMER weather! Then maybe we can target the crappie better. Here's a shot of the kind of day it was generally.....although the sun didn't seem to help much!

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Hope you all had a chance to wet a line and catch some crappie! :biggrin