Thread: Another busy trip last night

Even though it was a bit windy, I headed off after work to see if the fish were biting after the rainy weekend we'd had. About 3 1/2" all told fell between Saturday morning and Monday afternoon. I figured it being Wednesday things might have settled down some. I pushed off and had the first line in the water about 4:40. Air temp at 64 and the water temp about 62 for the most part, wind mostly from the NE and about as strong as I felt like dealing with. Had it been much stronger I might have changed my mind.
Only took a moment or 2 for the first perch to bend the pole over; in this water they hit things hard and then give up the fight pretty quickly. He got a pass as I was after crappie and the bigger bluegills. Like these......





That one on the floor of the boat was a solid 9"er.
Lots of bluegill that didn't quite measure up and a few perch got tossed back as I worked the water between 15 and 20'. Lots of schools once again, like this one.



These would usually produce, question is what would be on the end of the line?







Once again the crappie were super active and I had a blast pulling in the big guys; smallest last night was just over 10", most of the others 12" or so, simply hard fighting big ones.
The wind began to ease off about 5:45 as I'd hoped it would and I was able to sit on the schools and jig 'em. This school would result in 3 big crappie and the 9" gill above.



Once again, the biggest fish came from the deeper water schools. I tossed a good mess of them into the cooler and by 6:15 or so I realized I had plenty in there for this trip and began releasing everything for another day. Here's a couple more nice ones.




As the moon cleared the trees I figured I'd better head for the beach as I was still out over the main basin.



I was still catching and releasing on my way in but didn't snap any more photos as the light was fading fast. The last fish caught tangled one of the other lines and I called it good for real at 6:45. Clicker says 32 caught all told.


10 big crappie and 7 big bluegills gave me this pile of fillets.


They're slated to go to my fishing partner 870 as he is in fur and feather mode and I'll have to do some real fast talking to get him out on another trip this fall. But I know he'll appreciate the makings of a fish fry or 2 over the winter months.

Good trip. Good to donate some filets for a friend sometimes.