“Memorial Day” 2012 is just that for myself and my wife, it is a day that we soon won’t forget, and as time passes, it just keeps getting more special! That day started as many other typical days for my favorite fishing partner and me. We are very fortunate to live, (in my opinion) 25 minutes from the best Crappie lake in Indiana, Patoka Lake.
You may not agree with the best Crappie lake part, but for beauty and scenery Patoka Lake is second to none in Indiana. As I was saying, it was a typical day for us and within 40 minutes from leaving home, my wife and I found ourselves on the glass-like water, vertical jigging one of our favorite brush piles with some 1/32 oz Bobby Garland Glo Heads and tube bodies enjoying the beautiful lake. One of its majestic bald eagles was too; looking for a tasty meal as he glided effortlessly 60′ above our boat. Within a few minutes we started getting a few small bites and as I remember, my wife landed the first White Crappie of the day, to which is no surprise. Within the last year and half she has gone from not ever seeing a Crappie before to fishing her first club tournament with me, and catching her fair share of good Crappie! We are typically vertical, single pole, jig fisherman; for us it works. We are open
to other styles of Crappie fishing, but feel at our best vertical jigging (as I like to call it) “the stuff”…thick brush.
As common for us, hang ups happen a lot! If we don’t get hung up, I don’t feel like we are fishing “the stuff” good enough to catch fish. As in any case, equipment is important for us. Good sensitive jig poles from BnM and Power Pro moss-green braided line are staples for us. Without the braided line I can’t imagine how many jig heads we would lose!
So that is when it happened… my wife and I are working separate ends of the brush when she gets hung, but this time she can’t pull the jig free. I had just dropped my Bobby Garland in, and began to work the cover when I heard “I'm hung” in that voice of disgust all of us married men know. “I can’t pull it free”, she said. So typically I reel up and troll to her aide, but today, I just backed the boat straight back to her snag for her to work lose while I danced my Bobby Garland over the brush. The next thing I know, my BnM was bent over and the next few seconds of the fight is just a blur of me getting excited knowing I have a good fish on. My wife drops her snagged pole, grabs the net, and lands a fish of a lifetime!! We looked at each other in awe! At the bottom of our boat was the biggest White Crappie we’ve ever seen in person (17 3/4″, 2.86lbs!). A few tears of joy were shared and 2 phone calls to Brad and Scott (friends from CDC that share our passion) were made, and everything changed.
That day, it brought a new approach to how I fish brush. Before that moment, I have always worked brush a couple of different directions, but now thanks to a hang up, I fish brush in all directions before moving on; even backwards!
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