Thread: 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.



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.





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!

Nice trip, glad you got on the water.


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