Crappie afternoon trip

I slipped out of work an hour early today to sneak in a trip before the rain arrives tomorrow. Most of the day was fairly calm but the breeze did begin to pick up about 2pm, an hour before I walked out the door. I was on the water, ready to rock at 3:45 under mostly cloudy skies, air temp at 49, water temp between 51 & 52. Still have some color from the oaks but the lighting was not good today; here is the only foliage shot I took.



Hooked and landed a small perch about 15 minutes in to the trip, which I released as being too small and for good luck. I've read where many folks toss that 1st one back as an offering to the fish gods; sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Today I felt I needed all the luck I could find.

I guess it was the right thing to do as 45 minutes later things began to go my way with the crappie. Here's a few samples.




That chartreuse head with the reddish baby shad tail would bring in some good ones tonight. Twin 12's in the first double and a 12 and a 10 in the second shot.







I had traveled quite a ways up the lake in to an area I don't normally visit and most of my fish tonight came from that general area. Had a stretch of about a half hour that put most of the fish in the boat and into the cooler.



Total for the trip would be 13, with 11 nice ones coming home with me. Tossed back the perch and a skinny 9" crappie that would not have been worth filleting. Most of them were right around the 12" mark and solidly built. Didn't hook a single bluegill tonight which I thought was unusual. I should have brought a wind breaker to help keep the chill off and that omission led me to call it a day at 5:45. Seems like it's been a while since I've been able to put that much green, black and gold in to my cooler.