Thread: A Pleasant Surprise

Sorry Newly, no photos.
Last time I looked at the forecast for Monday, it promised wind and rain. But when I went to get the paper, I thought -huh, looks like a good day for fishing. I rechecked weather channel and decided to go until the wind and rain got here at 2 pm.
Everyone else must have been looking at the old forecast or maybe recovering from the Super Bowl hangover, because I was the only rig in the lot at Seaforth at 10 am. Sunshine, no wind no competition- perfect conditions.
Launched the Triton and made a scanning pass over the flat where they were last Thursday when neighbor Chris and I put 37 in the bucket. The screen showed it to be the Dead Sea so I went under the bridge to fish some concrete. Managed to find one lonely 11" fish on the first pass, so I tried the same depth over deeper water and picked up 3 more. About this time, I figured out there was no current through the bridge, even though the lake was up 3 feet above normal pool. Evidently, the storm east of us dropped enough water to make the Corps hold back the overflow.
I moved out from the bridge and stayed in the channel and in very short order found a covey of feeding crappie 22 feet deep over 30- 40 FOW --chartreuse glitter and black and chartreuse tubes still worked-- same jigs I used last week. I looked at my watch when I put #20 in the livewell. It was 11:17.
Most of the fish around Rt 64 were running 11-12", but I did find one 14" hog. First one I have caught for several weeks.
I almost never leave fish to catch fish, but I just felt there were bigger fish up north, so I headed to Farrington.
First thing I noticed was the water was a little dirtier and 2 degrees warmer. I tried the same pattern- 22ft over the deep parts of the channel with only one hit. Moved one rod up to 19 ft and started catching a few more. Finally ended up at 15 feet and really got busy. The fish were bigger - both length and girth.
I don't use a counter, but my mind counted 45 legal and 13 short fish before the wind blew me off at 2:30.
It was a great day on the water- only two other crappie boats and one guy fishing bass or stripers. And I needed a feel good day after the Panthers took a dump Sunday night.
The day ended on a sad note. I fished all day with the same jigs and finally lost one on the way back to the ramp. Unfortunately my favorite rod was still attached and ended up on the bottom of the lake. I feel a trip to BPS in the works.

Thanks for a good report. With the days getting longer, I think it sends a biological message to the fish that it is time to head towards shallower water for spawning. From your results, it seems that is what is happening right now.