1st outing for crappie this year
Bought a lot of new equipment this year and did a bunch of testing. The weather finely came around so I waited to after the holidays to hit an inland lake that has had a crappie bite on for a week now. Tossed the kayak on the jeep and got there at 7:30 this morning.
Brought a 5 1/2ft ul (diawa aird pole/regal reel) that is spooled with #4 mono. I put a sowbug trout magnet with silver 1/64th oz jig on top. And 16" below that I put a bison trout magnet with a gold 1/64th oz jig. Then I put a bb sized jig 8" below that, was fishing weed beds.
Hooked 1 bass & when I brought the rod tip up and started to apply pressure it jumped out of the water, did a spin and slipped me the fin as it got off.
3 perch for the day, tossed a fry back and kept two 10" perch.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/lVQGNPE.jpg[/IMG]
The bluegill were pretty steady (12/14/?) but I ended putting all of them back. They were either too small or good sized and full of eggs.
Couldn't really ask for a better crappie day, a lot of hits and a lot of fish. Ended up tossing 2x+ as many crappie back then what I kept. I kept the crappie that were 10" or larger. I did toss the crappie back that were 10"+ but skinny. Took a break at 11 coming in to stretch my legs and eat a sandwich/bottle of water. Ended up quitting at 1:00, the bite slowed down and the chop picked up pretty good. I ended up with 2 perch and 13 crappie to take home.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/EcxIFGQ.jpg[/IMG]
Fillet 7 crappie and the 2 perch and froze them The fillet's filled a 8" wide by 4" deep bowl.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/RVN4iJu.jpg[/IMG]
I fillet the other 6 crappie and there sitting in salt water in the fridge for dinner tomorrow.
All in all It was a good day. Took a 10ft kayak in +/- 6" chop with a 5 1/2ft rod and used a couple pieces of plastic for bait to catch 50+ fish.:biggrin
