Low H2O, Go! #2

I went back out to the lake I did well at last weekend in Durham County. The water was even lower, which made launching & taking out a lot trickier than last time.
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It was Opening Day of the muzzleloader season for deer and shots were ringing out all across the countryside around the lake until about 9:00 AM. At the start, the water was slick as glass and nothing seemed interested in what I had to offer. Same as last week, the fish did not want to cooperate early on. High pressure was forecast for the morning, with clouds coming in for the afternoon, and rain in the evening. I switched colors before I pulled through a few ditches that were holding fish, with no takers. As soon as I put a black crank on, I started getting a few strikes, though the crappie were smaller and barely hooked on the back hook. I dropped them deeper, but got no action. It was definitely not like last week, where they were swallowing the entire crankbait once i found the right depth/color combination. I paddled back out towards the steeper dropoffs along the channels that were littered with fish on the depthfinder, but the black crank wasn't drawing any more strikes. I noticed a few clouds moving in front of the sun and switched to a Purple Candy color, which caught fish right away. As soon as the clouds cleared, the purple bite quit.

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Just because it was so productive last week, I clipped on a Flashy Pink Flicker Shad and started catching bigger and more fish. Maybe I wasn't doing anything wrong early last week, the fish took time to turn on.

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Clouds built up, the crappie moved off the points, and didn't seem to be interested in anything I was pulling. A school of 2-3 pound bass moved up to the end of a long point and eagerly hit the flicker shads. I caught 7 of them, but that's not what i was fishing for. I set the lines a bit deeper and noticed a veil of clouds had covered the sun completely about the time the crappie moved off & the bass came in. I decided to call it a day, but left the lines out deeper than usual, just to see if anything might be interested. Two small White Crappie bit as I pulled through their school. They were the first whites I ever caught out there. There's bound to be some bigger ones around that I'll have to try for next time.

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I boated a total of 26 Crappie and 7 bass yesterday, but I didn't catch any 14+ inch crappie like last week. I had a lot of short strikes and a few fish came unbuttoned on the way to the boat, but that's crappie fishing. It was still a great day, even if the knee-deep, thick mud at the take out left me and my boat a mess. No telling when I'll get the chance to fish there again, maybe Spring? I'm looking forward to it.

Jim