Morning trip

I got myself up and out a bit earlier than normal for a morning trip as I had other things planned for today. Pushed off from shore at 6:30am in to mostly calm conditions, air temperature at 55, water temp at 75. Fishing a different pond from the last trip, I found the water clarity much improved with visibility about 4' or so. I cast out my 3 lines to troll up along the weed edge. Had 2 quick strikes on the RR with a BG baby shad ( I think sunrise color or something like that), both crappie, both shaking the hook as soon as they got to the surface. The Cajun Cricket baby shad on a 1/32 ounce jig would do well today, bringing in 2-3 bluegill to start off my day.

I fished a bit differently today; trolled along until I hooked up, then would stop and fan cast the area for a bit before moving on up the weed line. I did pretty well with this technique. The orange colors did pretty well for the first 90 minutes or so but then the black/chartreuse began to bring them in steadily as the sun came up higher and the lighting changed. Here is a sample of what came in today.











About 8 or so, an intermittent breeze stirred up and that's when the crappie began to get more active than they had been. It would come and go so I was able to pretty much stay on that line and cast around. Most of the crappie would come on the casting, rather than the trolling. Worked out pretty well combining the techniques today.

That breeze settled in for good about 9 and when it did the bite fell off noticeably. Got one last bluegill on the troll and called it a day about 9:30 and headed for home and other obligations.

Totals for the day would be perhaps a dozen crappie, ranging from about 8" up to 11", 16-18 bluegill, some pretty small and a couple really nice ones as pictured above, and a single fat rock bass.