Crankin on Monroe today.

[cevans]

Did somebody say it was going to rain today? I was a drowned rat but spent the day on Monroe as I wanted to finally crank this year and had to try out some new reels. And no,,didn't fish the Cutright area or east of the Caseway. Spent 3 hrs crankin, fighing rain and 2' whitecaps and did catch a 11.5, 12, and 13" crappie, 1 nice gill, 2 - 13" bass, and 3 little crappies that did go 9". Kept the 3 biggies, then switched rods/reels, and went to long ling jigs in the same areas and about 2:30 or so break in the rain, and picked up 6 more 10-11 " crappies and 2 gills, quit at 4 and it was raining again. Fish came out of 5' to 12' of water on a couple of flat long points and from 5' up the point was weeds and buckbrush. All the fish were females except the gills were males,,,3 had runny egg sacks the rest were firm. Water temp 63. Wind about 10-15 mph...crankin speed was 1.6...long lining speed was 0.8 to 1 mph. Various colors on cranks,,red/craw, yellow/craw/ and salad bar..chrartuese tubes with nibbles injected. When cranking,,only nailed 3 little crappies,,,long lining tubes on 1/16 RR's must have caught 40 smaller crappies. They just slammed the cranks and it was shame,,didn't hammer any more fish with the cranks,,but they are wanting the slower bait as I did loose 2 nices ones about 10' from the boat due to boat control in the wind off the RR's. Will try again when the weather is better,,maybe tomorrow again.