An afternoon trip, 9-2

We closed the doors at noon today for the long weekend. After taking care of some errands, I gathered my gear and headed for some fishing relaxation. Launched about 4:40 under cloudless blue skies, very little wind, air temp at waters edge was 78 and the water was 79 out where I was fishing.
I trolled 3 lines as normal, things were pretty slow to start. I was working the 20' water contour like I did on my last trip, with 1/16 oz. Roadrunners and ball heads, although this was a different pond. I landed 5 small bluegills in the 1st 45 minutes. I tried a number of different baits; the Roadrunner with a blue/black/chartreuse tail Stinger seemed to be the lure of choice for a short while, nothing really knocked them out tonight.

What little wind I had died down nicely when the sun went down behind the hill and between 5:30 and 6:30 I landed a few more 'gills, a bit bigger than the first ones, bringing my total to a shy dozen for the night.

About 6:30 or so I was trolling along in some shallower water, closer to the sharper drop in about 16' of water with 1/32 oz. ball heads with 3 different Southern Pro Stingers when the crappie came to life. Over the next half hour or so I would bring in about 8 good fish, 4 of them coming on 2 double hookups! Here is a sample of what I was in to.

Attachment 435856

The fish above, the first crappie in to the boat would be the big one of the night at around 11", the others would all be 9-10" or so.

Attachment 435857

Attachment 435858

Most of them came on the white tail stinger, with a couple on the same chartreuse tail/black body the 'gills were hitting on earlier. I'm not sure what I did wrong but after that brief flurry, I wouldn't get another bite. I called it night at 7:30 as I was quite a ways from my launch point.
I also realized on the ride home that I didn't lose a single fish tonight; every one that I hooked came in to the boat; none shook the hook lose or got off on their own. I can't remember that happening before!

Congratulations and Happy Labor Day!

Great start to the Labor Day weekend. Hopefully you will be able to get out again this weekend. Tight lines.

Nice trip, glad you got on the water.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com