Quick Report

PG24:

The lake supports an incredible population of baitfish. I've seen them swimming around in clouds. The increadibly large, fat bass may also indicate that there is enough food to support big crappie. Actually, every lake I've fished known for its giant bass seems to host crappie of similar proportion lurking beneath the wake of all the bass boats.

As far as Jordan goes...I look foward to fishing there again. I had good luck there this spring (abundant 10-13's), but nothing to put on a photograph or wall. I fished the narrow "belt" of what would be normal pool when the lake was up into the trees in March. The fish were packed into a couple quiet, well channeled bays protected from wave action.

For the very reason you mentioned, I try not to tell everyone which bathtub in Raleigh I jump into. I also rarely keep fish; and because fewer fish are injured on a jig than on a #02 aberdeen hook, I take a heightened interest in how many I can catch on the jig. I must confess, however, that I have released six 2+ lbers into Holly Springs' Bass Lake, and relinquished dozens of nice fish to those shore fishing for their dinner.

See you on the water!

Jeremy

Thursday in a "Raleigh Parks" lake:

5:15pm-7:00pm (fishing was consistantly slow)

5 crappie 9.75-15" (15"=1.84lbs)
bobber/minnow
#6 Vanish Transition Line
7-10' deep

It felt great to get back into the 15" range again. Unfortunately, today's big fish weighed the same as the 14.25 from monday (1lb 13.5oz). He was a bit skinny. The fish was released after I measured, photographed, and weighed it. A picture of the fish is posted in the "big fish Pics" thread.

Sunday in a "Raleigh Parks" lake:

5:15pm-8:15pm (fishing was consistantly slow)

3 crappie 10-11.5"
Bobber/minnow
Chart jig/minnow
#6 Vanish Transition Line
3-10' deep

Not much biting, but I felt pretty good about my homemade minnow trolling rig. It rarely tangled, and I caught one of the keeper size fish on it.

Sunday in a "Raleigh Parks" lake:

6:15pm-7:55pm (best fiashing at 7:50)

5 crappie 10-16" (16"=2.33lbs)
Bobber/minnow
custom minnow rig
#6 Vanish Transition Line
6-10' deep

Got the big one at the end of the day. There is now a 2.33 crappie swimming in Bass Lake. My homemade minnow/trolling rig was outfishing anything else I could throw at them. I'll post a pic of it soon.

Thursday in a "Raleigh Parks" lake:

6:15pm-7:55pm (fishing consistantly slow)

2 crappie 10-12"
custom minnow rig
#6 Vanish Transition Line
6-10' deep

The passing coldfront may have played a part in the slow fishing--although it was certainly welcome.

Sunday in a "Raleigh Parks" lake:

5:15pm-8:00pm (best fishing 6:00-7:00pm)

10 crappie 10-12"
custom minnow rig
bobber/minnow
#6 Vanish Transition Line
4-10' deep

The fishing seemed a bit better today; and my first attempt at spider rigging (albeit only with two poles) paid dividends. I have installed two "Bee Ready" 4 pole-adjustable platforms. I am quite impressed by the amount of water covered. Like last Thursday, the homemade minnow rig outfished anything else I put in the water. I'm still streamlining it though--primarily making internodal adjustments to reduce its tendency to tangle, optimizing the packing and unpaking element, and experimenting with breakpoints to control the portion lost to snags. I guess most importantly, however, is that I keep it simple!

On another note, I towed in a disabled boat for the secong straight outing. What are the odds?

Sunday in a "Raleigh Parks" lake:

5:25pm-8:00pm (best fishing 6:30-7:00pm; 7:45-8:00pm)

9 crappie 10-13" (13"=1 lb 6.5 oz)
custom minnow rig
#6 Vanish Transition Line
4-8' deep


The overcast conditions were conducive to lots of fish. More fish were biting today, but the ratio was on the lean side (9 'keepers'/30+ fish). However, it was obvious that the nicer fish kept the smaller fish out of one very cozy spot. Also, the fish were averaging about 6' deep today--generally about four feet shallower than I have caught them since June. I'm guessing that the cool weather was responsible.

Saturday in a "Raleigh Parks" lake:

4:45pm-7:45pm (best fishing 4:45-6:00pm)

8 crappie 10-13.75" (13.25"=1 lb 3.75 oz; 13.75"=1 lb 7.5 oz)
custom minnow rig
bobber/minnow
#6 Vanish Transition Line
4-8' deep
Water Temp: 85F-87F


I spent the morning installing my new Lowrance GPS/Sonar unit--and consequently rewiring the boat. It works; I just have to throw a Navionics chip in it. The bites were extremely light today, but the average fish was much larger than Wednesday. I caught a total of 11 fish--8 were 10"+ (10"; 11.25"; 11.5"; 12"; 12.5", 13.25"; 13.75"). There was no crappie "tick" resonating through my 10' ProAnglerTackle.com rod today--I just felt a little more or a little less than the 3/16oz sinker my wrist was used to suspending. As could be predicted upon their lack of striking zeal, they were biting quite short. To get a better hookset, I eased the pole toward the strike as I would do trolling for Walleye, then set the hook.

I may mix in a few trips to Jordan soon now that I have my boat ready.


__________________
I wasn't born here, but I got here as fast as I could

Thanks for the Report!

Sunday in a "Raleigh Parks" lake:

4:00pm-7:45pm (best fishing 5:30pm-7:15pm)

39 crappie 10.5-16.0" (16"=1 lb 7.50 oz; 15.25"=2 lb 5.25 oz; 15"=2 lb 4 oz)
custom minnow rig
bobber/minnow
1/16 oz chart/gold sprkle tube jig
#6 Vanish Transition Line
5-8' deep in 7-10'
Water Temp: 83F-85F


What a day. I started at a tried-and-true spot and caught an 11.5" and a 13.25" on the homemade minnow rig. Then nothing. Next regular spot--nothing. Next regular spot--nothing. With the new Lowrance GPS/Sonar, I decided it was high time to do some real scouting. I found a brushpile on a channel break. Less two hooks; plus no fish. I pulled the bouy and moved to a large flat which produced a few ok fish this spring. The depth was similar to my other productive summer spots and my interest was augmented by some springtime tails of large fish being caught from closer to shore. Not too long into my structure search, I found a hump that rose from the 10' flat to peak at 7'. It was fairly gradual, but seemed to peak a bit. I threw a bouy and waypointed the spot. Let's just say the fish were stacked on this thing. I couldn't believe how many arches I saw on the display screen--nor how much the arches were bending my poles. I chose to christen my 12' Outlaw Rod on the spot. The virgin pole (with a 1/16oz jig/minnow) only caught 2 crappie, but the second one was just shy of 2.5lbs. Twice my homemade minnow rig caught two-at-once (11.5" + 12.5" & 11" + 12"). The fish literally wore the complex rig out, but fortunately the bobber was just as effective, scoring back-to-back 15" fish at one point. I caught a total of 40 crappie today. 39 of them were 10.5" or bigger.
As usual, I let most of them go, but gave a couple away. It was so exciting when sonar did its job--and will be even better when the GPS puts me right back to the spot. I'll have a couple big fish pics to post as soon as I can get them downloaded.

This was not so "quick report"