Thread: Thump therapy yesterday

Yesterday, the urge to hit the water on a glorious New England fall day was too strong to pass up and I just knew it was going to be a good trip. 72 degrees at the launch, with a breeze that was starting to ease off after blowing pretty good throughout the day when I pushed off at 4:30. Water temps were between 68 and 69 for the most part.
1st line in the water at 4:40 and first fish in the boat about 10 minutes later. I'll just post the one 'gill picture here as a sample of the nice bluegills I'd toss in the cooler last night.



There would be a good number of these landed, as well as a bunch that got tossed back that didn't quite measure up. Even the perch were aggressive, hitting my lures hard while trolling.



Within the first 20 minutes, I'd have 5 fish on ice and the action stayed steady all evening. I'd troll and drift along with the wind at times until the wind died off about 6:15 or so. I found lots of stacked fish on the sonar compared to my last trip and many of them were our target species! I think the fall bite is coming to life in my waters at last.







I could continue but I think you can see how the evening was going! The crappie were very active and taking my offerings on a regular basis. As were the 'gills, perch and even some bass, both trolling and sitting on marks and vertical jigging.
This Crappie Magnet was a winner while the sun was still up but as the shadows lengthened, it drew less and less attention.



As the sun set, the triple tail Tennessee shad lure on a 1/32 oz. Roadrunner head became the lure of choice; I could hardly keep it in the water. Everything wanted it, including the big fish of the night.



It was interesting to compare the manner in which the various species would strike. Crappie bites were very light, barely twitching the rod tip while trolling but thumping it while jigging. The bluegill were hitting it hard and also barely tapping it while both trolling and jigging. The perch all came trolling and they nearly pulled the rod out of the boat then they hit!
The clicker had counted 40 fish landed when I left them biting at 6:45. I was simply tossing them back at that point as I had a nice mess of fish in the cooler, destined for the Friday Night club fish fry.



Turns out there are 24 fish in there, with about a dozen of them being those nice crappie of 10-12". I did toss back one smaller one of about 8", too. Almost filled my gallon ziplock bag for the guys.



Once again, one of those trips that gets filed away and revisited often.

Nice catches