St. Mary's Lake Dinks 5-16-12

[ProGrizz]

Air: 65º to 75º Mostly to Partly Cloudy
Wind: 5 MPH West +/-
Water: 74º w/18” clarity
Barometer: Steady

Fished: 8:00 to 1:00

With FLW tournament banghead waters ‘off limits’ I had considered the river but decided I wanted a relaxin’ trip.
So I packed the wife, some food & drink and off to St. Mary’s Lake we went.

Even with the late arrival, we only had two other boats on the entire lake. We headed up lake to a beaver lodge.
I anchored up and the fun was on. The smile I saw with the first bobber down made the whole thing worth while. I haven’t seen many smiles lately from her.

Sending a minner in tight to cover, produced the typical SML bass. We had brought a deadwell with us to try for the panfish. But as usual the bass were hoggin’ the action.



I assessed the situation and had her start fishin’ a tad deeper (4’-5’) and out a ways from the lodge.
The crappie started feedin’. After awhile Wifey was saying she was still tired. So I upped anchors and built a nest of cushions, PFDs, and jackets.

She retired to the Captain’s quarters for a nap.

Meanwhile on the bowsprit, I was castin’ a black Beetle Spin to the lodge and added a few more tasty bites to the larder. It was funny, she is usually a light sleeper. But between fish splashin’, Styrofoam cooler squeaking and even having the wind blow the boat across some stickups that caused the God awful screeches, she slept on.

Anyway as she rested, I motored on down the lake to another good deadfall. I hovered away from it for a good while, while I lure slung and awaited her to awake. After a “where are we?” she moved back to the fighting chair and proceeded to fill our previous set self imposed limit of 20 crappie.
Again we found that the bass were up tight to the cover and the crappie were just off it around the edges.



She caught many more that we returned along with probably 15 bass.
We eventually stopped for a bite to eat.

Fished a little bit more and then headed home.
I didn’t fish much and got there later than I’d like, but sure had a real good time. Even the lake and Mother Nature was trying to help out today.


The crappie are definitely not river slabs but with 40 tasty little fillets, they’ll eat.
After looking over the 'take', I thought about a friend’s question about eating smaller crappie. The 20 we kept were mostly 8"-9" with a couple at 7" and a lunker at 10".

I noticed that one fish had escaped a near death experience from probably a green headed step child (pickerel), only to snatched by big ol' fat redneck.



And the final product and why my son & I coined our "poorman's shrimp" moniker for 'em.

[MDsteve]

Great photos and report/story. Glad to hear you put a smile on the wifey. Good eats you have there. Hopefully one day I will make the trip over to try that lake.

[Tracker01]

Nice job.

[tear-em-up]

Sounds like a fun day with great eating afterwards . Is that lake in st. marys county?

[Tracker01]

Yes it is, its off camp cosmos road.

[arkansasbowhunter]

Great story and Picts.