Report; 7/23/17

It has been almost 2 weeks since we've last posted a crappie trip. Weather has been rainy, hot, & humid. Add to that various doctor's visits and projects around the house; which all delayed the inevitable. Walt & I were getting pretty antsy to say the least. Needed a fix - bad! (We don't count that last bass venture!) So we launched on our favorite lake this morning at 8:00 am.

Air temp was 67 degrees to start off, with the water at 77 degrees. Wind was out of the NE at a good 10 - 15 mph. Perfect for our drifting. And to top it off, we had 3 fish in the boat by 8:10 am! Way to go....right? NOT! We had to scrimp and scratch our way to the we counted today (we fondly remember the 135 - 145 fish days of seasons past!). Top that off with almost half of today's catch being bluegill (we've got nothing against gills....we'd just prefer crappie). Our poorest outing of the season so far. Which is why we pulled it at 1:00 pm.

We cruised and fished most of the water between 12' and 24' depths. Just could not find a decent baitball anywhere and we marked very few fish. Not sure what's going on, but I suspect the lack of bait is the primary reason for the results we got. I was always under the impression that crappie were a "schooling" fish. Not today though. One there.....one there.....with no signs of a school.

So, for our next voyage, we plan on drifting the deep basin once again to start - but only for about an hour or so. If no significant results, we'll go into some the ponds coves and ply the really shallow, weed infested waters, to see if anyone is home there.

Problem being, this is "Pickeral City". And I hate having to retie after a couple of casts and getting bit off! But hey, we gotta find them someplace, right? I can tell you for sure right now - on a stack of bibles no less - they're NOT in the trees! :)