Boone Lake - ugh...

I finally got an entire day to go fishing. First time in a very long while. With the water levels being high on Cherokee and Douglas, and my small mouth adventures for this year being over, I decided to fish Boone for some crappies. After all it's close to home (5 minutes away) and they stocked it the last two years. Surely I can catch a few for dinner - right...?

I blew off a nice morning in the woods with my bow to make this little trip to Boone. I hadn't seen any deer the last two times in the stand so fishing sounded better. When I made the right turn to the ramp near the dam I nearly hit a six point buck standing in the middle of the road. Then as I made the left at the VFW there were seven more deer standing in the field looking at me. 1/2 mile down the road I started to make the right into the ramp parking lot and six more deer ran across the road in front of me. Maybe I should have gone deer hunting :mad:.

The lake was flat calm and it was beautiful. I looked out at the mountains as I cruised across the lake. We are so lucky to have all these great fishing opportunties. I was happy... :).

The plan was to fish docks in 8 - 12 feet of water. I started at my favorite dock on the lake. I caught a nice keeper black crappie on the second cast. Just pitching minnows on light line and one very small split shot. Caught a few small bass and a bunch of bream as well. 20 minutes passed and I caught a nice white crappie about 14". Fished it for another 30 minutes, no more crappies.

For the next 6 hours I fished every dock and tree I could find from 5' - 30' deep. I went through 1/2 lb of minnows using only one rod the whole time. I caught at least 50 big bream and bluegills, 20-25 bass small and large mouth. But only two crappies I caught on the very first dock. I stuck to the plan and ended up throwing the only two keepers I had back at the end of the day. I did look at the channel edges, flats and about a dozen of my brush piles. All still too deep until the drop they lake another 15'. Bait fish were on the bluff banks thick. The bass were tearing them up too. I caught several nice bass on a fluke I had laying beside me for when they blew up. I did not have my trolling rods or I would have slow trolled the bluffs. Water temp was 69F - 70F all over the lake.

I did enjoy the day. But the deer I had seen that morning kept coming back into my mind. What if I had gone to the woods instead? As I pulled back into the cove at the launch ramp I saw 4 young fella's loading stands into a boat and heading for the ramp. I met them there. The first one jumped out and he had a doe. The first one he had ever killed. He was so excited. Made me feel good to see them enjoying the outdoors. They took the deer from the WMA on Boone Lake. As I loaded up the boat about 2:30 and pulled out of the parking lot, a four pointer was standing right next to the road. Boone may not have many crappies, but it has plenty of deer.

Next time, I'm going to Cherokee :D.

that was a good store and sounds like a good fishing tripe.

Next time....run over a deer and throw it in the back of your truck...keep big crappie, gills, and smallies....Have great fish fry to get your strength up for dressing the deer!!!! hehe Just a suggestion, Mark!

Well look at that...my last post on CrappieKiller's thread promoted me to a General....not in fishing, just in "yapping about fishing"!!!!!

Sounds like a great fishing trip, but you shoulda went huntin.:D