Fun trip last night

It was a fine weather day yesterday and I finished it off with a jaunt to the pond. Air temp at 74 when I shoved off and water temps at 76. I had some wind to start but I had a feeling that it would die off and calm down and I was right. Took about an hour to ease off but I had pretty good conditions for most of the trip. Lines in the water at 5:20 and first pumpkinseed in the boat at 5:23. I had to pull in the other line to reset and as I did, it got smashed hard by this nice 14"er, big fish of the night.



I worked my way up the weedline, slowly towing my 3 lines, landing a fish every now and then. Had 9 fish in the first 45 minutes, a mix of crappie, perch, 'gills and bass.







Calm conditions settled in and I enjoyed the rest of the trip both vertical jigging and slowly trolling with various lures. No one else on the pond, just me and an osprey floating around looking for his dinner. Didn't see him dive on anything, though.
Late in the trip as I was releasing a fish, I picked up one of the lines for a restart and and it had very heavy feeling to it; thought I was snagged hard. Then the line started to move and it was game on. Knew it wasn't a crappie and after a good fight, I brought a big pickerel to the surface where he jumped and spit the hook about 8' from the boat. He was a monster; if I had to guess I'd say he was at least 24", big bodied, not some skinny hammer handle. The big on that got away for sure.
Shortly after, after releasing another fish, I pulled in the other lines and again, that heavy feeling and I was in to another good tussle. I won this one.





A 14" brown bullhead! Wasn't expecting that but I have to admit, I had a feeling as I fished tonight that I'd be catching one of these tonight!
Here's a few more of our favorite species.







I called it a night after that last one and headed for home at 7:50. Days are certainly much shorter, fall is coming.
Total for the trip would be an even 2 dozen fish, with about 1/2 of them being our favorite, the crappie.