Reply With QuoteAwesome. Sounds like an amazing day. Don’t have them, well I don’t, very often. Good job.
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7/13 Crappie and Bluegill feeding frenzy in Socal
Have been on a pretty hot bass bite for a couple weeks that I had all to myself so the UL took a hiatus. Today the bite completely shut off after 90 minutes so I figured I owed myself some relaxing time on the dock.
Got my usual 1.5" 1/32oz stinger tail plastic rigged up and insanity ensued. I haven't seen many crappie under 15" this year but there seemed to be a rabid school of 10" or so gills and 12"ish crappie about 3 feet below the surface that were absolutely smashing my jig. No gentle taps, these guys were grabbing it and heading out to sea. When I was able to get past them, the big crappie were down there and I did land about a half dozen 2lb+ piggies.
Can't complain about 10 bass in 90 minutes to start the day and absolutely stoked to have such a hot panfish bite as soon as I switched to that. I normally keep track but I was unhooking fish so often that I couldn't keep track. It was a heck of a great time. My favorite lake has really provided this summer after a slow start. Headed out again tomorrow and not sure if I'll fish bass at all.
SuperDave336, Jamesdean, MCG1, JUNGLEJIMJIGS, BIGFISHNFREAK, S10CHEVY, 6poundtest, skeetbum LIKED above post
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Awesome. Sounds like an amazing day. Don’t have them, well I don’t, very often. Good job.
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Sounds Like a great outing...Congrats on finding them.
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Me either. Keeps hope alive.Originally Posted by SuperDave336
Bob
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Thanks guys. This has been a pretty blessed summer. Usually it's 105+ degrees at this lake in mid July and I'm done until next year but the weather has been really cooperative. Fingers crossed it stays this way. There's a couple other lakes with nice gills but you need a boat to get to them, there's nothing that compares to this place crappie-wise and it's by far the best bass lake on top of that so once this place closes in September, freshwater fishing is real slow.
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I like hearing of a great bite no matter the species. I know I wear a stupid looking grin when I’m on one. Glad the year is giving you an extended season. I never put the boat away and it’s odd to hear of lakes and season’s closing. I’ve never had to sit on the sidelines so to speak. Sounds like you had a good day, thanks for sharing with us.
Creativity is just intelligence fooling aroundshong thanked you for this post
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Another crazy day. Got to the lake around 330 planning to fish crappie from the dock all day. I've felt like the Crappie Whisperer lately but they must not have heard a word I was saying when I got thereIn 30 minutes all I could find was a couple bass and bluegill so I changed gears and switched to bass who were more than happy to cooperate. Rare day where I lost count but I would guess I ended with over 50, about triple my previous best this season without even starting up a boat! Dock has been really busy lately but another gentleman and I had it all to ourselves today. Never went 10 minutes without a fish. Pretty surreal day of glorified shore fishing.
Gave the crappie another try once the sun started going down and they were ready by then. Mostly smaller ones but tons of action. A dad and his young son who has been having an awesome time fishing lately came in on their boat and I gave him some of my jigs and encouraged him to come fish by me and he stuck quite a few crappie with a couple big ones which was awesome to see.
Never in my 30+ years fishing this lake has the bite gotten better as it goes on this late into the season but I'm very fortunate to have nothing but free time right now. Counting down the hours until Wednesday to get back out. I feel like I'm going to get to the lake and it's going to be 110 degrees with dry wind blasting me in the face any day now but it's only hit 100 once and the wind has never been too big of a deal.
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Great post of a very good trip! Good on ya for sharing the secret weapons with the young man and his dad. I hope the conditions hold for a while longer.
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Always a great day when you don't know how many you caught. For me that's somewhere in the teens.
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Got to 22 bass today but ended up with half a dozen other guys casting within 5 ft of me so I switched over to the UL and it was smooth sailing. Sat myself down in one of the boats and dropped straight down between that boat and another. Picked up 3 or 4 more bass, probably around 10 gills and 20+ crappie with a handful of absolute studs. Finally tossed my little float tubing net in the car to make it easier to scoop up the piggies on future trips.
What's a good way to weigh a large crappie safely? Feel like I'll hurt their mouths if I use a lip gripper like a bass. I'd really like to get the weight of a couple of the true monsters. I know I've caught a number of them over 2.5lbs but I'm curious how much over because a small handful have been really, really big.
