Turkey in the woods

It's been a couple of weeks since Walt & I were able to get out fishing. Weather here has been terrible. Seems like every "decent" weather day, one of us had a doctor's appointment! Oh well. We did get out today. That's what matters. On the way up to the Quabbin, we interrupted a couple of toms setting about to see who was the biggest and baddest turkey in the woods:



Arriving, We decided to hit the main reservoir to see if we could locate some crappie there. We launched around 8:00 am today. Air temp was 56 degrees; water was 59 degrees. Wind was light to calm most of the time on the water.

We spent about an hour casting various coves and structures that we were familiar with. I did manage to catch a small 1-1/2 lb. smallmouth bass and a decent rock bass there. But crappie.....NADA! (Uh oh!) So, we pulled off the main reservoir body and re-launched again on the smaller "POG" side.

We started fishing again a little after 9 am and figuring the crappie would be on the first drop (12') prior to the spawning flats, we started "Side-Pulling" with the new electric in that area. Bing, bang, puff! We started getting bit.....and the correct species this time! Here's what our sonar was showing us:



When we pulled off a little after 1 pm, we had a total of 38 fish (a far cry from the meager 7 of our last trip). Nothing record breaking, but it was good feeling the heavier crappie hitting us again. We also got 2 LM bass, 5 bluegill and one pickeral. (Quite a varied mixed bag.) We ended the day with 29 crappie. Here are a couple:







We are becoming more proficient at this side pulling presentation and today, being a very calm and windless day, afforded us the opportunity to experiment and gain confidence in this new method of boat control. I think we are going to really love this method! Fits right in with our favored "drifting" presentation.

Hope some of you had an opportunity to wet a line today. Great day to be alive! God Bless you all.