An afternoon trip, 6-12
Friday evening I called 870 to see if his plans included any fishing. He had hoped to finish up early enough on Saturday to be able to make a trip out in the late afternoon in to the evening. We both knew it was going to be showery in the morning into the early afternoon but it was supposed to clear out and it did. He had offered to take me to a pond that he fishes that I have never fished and I agreed it would be a good time to give it a whirl. We launched at 4:30pm and headed to the area he felt would offer some good fishing. Here is a snap of what our area looked like as we started fishing:
We mostly used a cast and retrieve method today and I think it was his 2nd cast that brought in the first fish, and I got my 1st on maybe my 3rd cast. We spent the next 4+ hours hooking and releasing many bluegill, rock bass, yellow perch and the occasional small crappie. The bigger crappie went in to the cooler! Surprisingly, no bass or pickerel were boated, although he did hook one small pickerel that cut him off on the hook set.
We worked rocky outcroppings, weed lines and pockets in weeds, drifted some open water with some short periods of trolling as the wind dictated. We tried it all and all methods resulted in fish of some sort.
We didn't score any really big fish yesterday; the big fish of the day (which he landed of course!) was a crappie between 10 & 11". Most of our keepers were around 9" which was just fine. Seemed to be the norm for this water. Just a couple less bites on the smaller ones compared to the bigger ones!
I finally called it a night for me after losing the tail off my Stinger for the umpteenth time at 8:50 as the sun had set and the moon was a sliver in the sky.
Note the moon just off the tip of the rod he has in his hand (that little white speck in the cloud). We got all loaded up and headed back to his place to clean our catch figuring it would be easier with both of us working together rather than each taking a share to clean individually.
Didn't count but guess there are about 20 crappie and 1 nice yellow perch in there. Between the 2 of us, I'd estimate we tossed back around 60 other fish tonight, putting our total in the 70-80 fish range, a spectacular day of fishing for me! I got home shortly after 11pm making it a long day for me after a 5:30am start.
Yes, I was talking to myself; sometimes even I have to ask for expert advice.