Storms, Strawberry Moon, and Sunnies!

This week has been a wet one. 3 inches of rain fell in the last 7 days. Monday afternoon I came home to this:
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One of my 19 ricks of wood fell over due to high winds ( and possibly poor stacking). Tuesday brought another afternoon deluge and in between rain showers on Wednesday I re-stacked the wood. Wednesday night I caught a glimpse of the Strawberry Moon,
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but could not find Saturn due the cloud cover. Did we not go through this on the last Full Moon with Alberto? Thursday afternoon trip was cancelled due to work concerns, but Friday morning looked good. No fog, tube of crickets, St. Croix Panfish rod loaded and ready. Got to the lake and found it to be crystal clear? I could see my bait 6ft down. Yikes. First two spots, 1 Male each, no other bites. Lots of White Bass on the graph and in the jumps, but Gills....absent. Hit 3 more areas and picked up a few keepers, also started catching some decent sized females. They should be bedding, but the action was sporadic. Hit a couple docks, picked up a few more, and ran across a brushpile in about 14ft of water that was loaded with something (Crappie maybe). Dropped a jig, nothing, squirted it with Slabsauce, nothing, added a nibble, bang! Keeper Crappie, but dropped him while taking him back to the livewell then did this:
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Lost the Crappie, he flopped back in and I said a few words bad words to boot. Picked up this mess, didn’t get another bite in the brush, so I called it a day. Ended up with 16 males and 1 female in the bucket.
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Size was below average with lots of throwbacks.
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The guy above was right at 9in, wide, but skinny. I kept one female for R&D, and what I suspected was evident, they were spawning.
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She was gravid, and all the others I pardoned seemed to be spawning, but where were all the males? They were just not present on the beds in great numbers like they were in May. Water too hot? Water too clear? Too late in the Summer? I have caught them on the June moon before as well or better than the May moon, but not this year. This may be my last Gill trip, the Crappie I found last week should be hunkering down tight in the brush with the forecasted heat. The Holiday crowd will be out strong next week so be careful if you go the lake and wear your PFD.
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Great report! I’ve kicked over more nibble jars than I can remember! Step on some, grind it into carpet, track it all over before I realize I’ve stepped in em, rinse and repeat! Good pic of the fish and visor. You a wanted man or witness protection?:biggrin

No bounties to be made here, just trying to get some different pictures for the reports. This is my first smartphone and I am still learning. It has given me the ability to make reports and post pictures as I am trying not to use my work computer for much Crappie.com surfing.


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Nice catch. I fished the trout river today...no luck. All of my bluegill waters are blowed out from about 5 inches of rain.

Regards


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Looks like a fun time to me ....short of the wood issue

Some good looking fish! I could stand a few days like that.

Nice report, I have picked up my share of nibbles too.


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Nice catch, I need to try the nibbles . :cheers2