Foggy morning trip

Got a call from 870 last night inviting me to join him on a trip this morning to a lake we've fished a couple of times in the past. It was to be a group trip, with 2 of his friends fishing for bass in a separate boat while he and I chased after some crappie and other pan fish. We pushed off about 7:30 under a heavy fog but it would soon burn off giving us a beautiful fall day, topping out about 65 degrees, but only 42 when we got started. Water temp was 71.







We were in to a variety of fish right off the bat, with 5 fish on my first 7 casts. We'd bring yellow perch, bluegill, pumpkinseeds, bass, crappie and pickerel over the gunwale today. Lots of each except for pickerel; only one of those and I got it. I think another one bit me off clean, too.

Big fish of the day of course was caught by the captain of the boat, way longer than the measuring stick, what we believe was probably a solid 4 pounds if not a bit more. WC handled it perfectly, patiently letting it pull drag and swing the bow to and fro until he tuckered it out. I did the honors with the net and lots of pictures were taken.



He texted the picture to the other boat, showing them that you can catch big fish on small lures. They would later text back one of their biggies but we think W's was the topper.

We'd each get some good bass today, a few over 15", estimated weight between 2 and 3 pounds. On our light tackle they were some fun.
And yes, we got in to some good crappies, too. Not sure how many we put in the cooler but it was a good number; here is a few of mine. Most between 10 and 11", only a couple got tossed back as being too small.







That Cajun Cricket BG baby shad would do well today. I caught many big pumpkinseeds on it; color pattern was a near perfect match to a baby 'seed and they just scarfed it down with gusto.



We stayed out quite a bit longer than originally planned due to the good action and comfortable fall day. Not much color to be seen yet but it's coming. We called it a day just after noon, with a triple digit count on the clicker, 111 to be exact. The other boat had a good day as well; they figured they scored upwards of 30 bass, with a few topping out between 3 and 4 pounds. Guessing about 25 fish ended up in our cooler; lots of perch, a good bunch of crappie and a single big pumpkinseed rounded out the keepers. All went home with my partner and I bet it took him a while to clean them up. I did treat him to lunch at the local deli in thanks for inviting me along on another memorable trip.

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