9-29-09

Finally made it out fishing yesterday again. It has been awhile since I last was out fishing. I must be blessed or something because the weather was perfect for fishing. It started out 47 degrees and made it up to 68 by the end of the day. The water temp is now 68 degrees. The last time I was out the water temp was 78 degrees. I got on the water about 11:00 and went to my first stop and only caught 1 small Crappie. I spent until 2:00 trying to figure them out and what they wanted. When you don't fish all the time you loose track of what they are in the mood for and have to start the puzzle from scratch. I tried different jigs and sizes and color combinations. I tried slip floats and setting a spring bobber at 5 ft and all to no avail. I even tried minnows. At 2:00 I decided that the fish had just outsmarted me and was going to go back to the Marina and try around the docks again and then go home. The fishermen that I talked to weren't any smarter than I was and all left the lake before me. I guess I am just to stubborn to give up so easily. As I was coming out of a cove that I was in I noticed that there was a new dock that was built since the last time I was down at the lake. I thought I would go scope it out and see how deep the water was around it. It was made of wood and was a different configuration than the usuall docks around there. I pulled up and the water was 8 ft deep on the short pier and was 12 ft out on the ends of the longer piers. I put a minnow on and dropped it at the end of the 12 ft pier and let it fall to the bottom but the line didn't go that far. I thought there was a tree down there that it was on so it wouldn't go to the bottom. Wrong! All of a sudden my line took off and I set the hook and pulled in a very respectable 12 inch Crappie. I dropped it in the live well and dropped my line back down and nothing so I reeled it up on a slow retrieve and nothing. I dropped it back down to the bottom and let it sit for a second and then I started jigging it as I slowly started reeling it up. about 4 ft off of the bottom another slab smacked it and had another nice crappie in the livewell. I dropped my line back down to 8 ft and let it set there and nothing. I dropped it back to the bottom and reeled it up and nothing. I dropped it back to the bottom and jigged it slowly up again and got slammed by another nice Crappie. So I figured out the pattern for the day, and it only took me 3 hours to figure it out. As I always say the fish will talk to you if you are willing to listen to what they are telling you. Yesterday they wanted it dropped straight down and slowly jigged up. I was casting to the docks and retrieving it back to the boat. They didn't want it moving horizontal or fast. I ended the day with 24 very nice Crappie, 1 bull Bluegill, and 1 nice perch. I didn't think I did to bad for a day I was ready to go home empty handed. EB

Nice report.