UL Angling For Crappie

Seventy-five fish brought to the net in 2.5 hours. All but 5 fish were keeper crappie. I went hoping to find shell cracker on bed..but they are not. After a quick side scan of prime spawning areas showed me no bedding activity is occurring I got very lucky. I found crappie stacked as thick as thieves in an area no bigger than 12 by 12 feet. I spot locked and caught crappie after crappie until the front end of a front blew in with winds of over 35 MPH. Not only could I not fish in that wind, water was coming over the bow of the boat as white capping swells got to about 3 feet. There were only about 3 bass boats that had put in at the ramp I was using. They were hopping waves as they blew by me headed back to the ramp. I soon followed…but in a stick steer boat you are sitting up front. I was quickly soaked with the spray coming off the waves as I plowed into them. Made it in OK but was wet and cold. As I got the boat on the trailer…wiped the boat down…everything loaded….the wind quit…LOL. It was a great day of action…used the Diplomat Extreme 6’ 2” UL Area Trout rod….Varivas ES2 Ester Line at 2.3# test….a 2 foot section of Phantom FC leader…and a Sow Bug colored Trout Magnet on a 1 gram Daiwa Gekkabijin jig head with a #8 hook. The crappie are in their tuxedos…..black spawning colors. Most crappie in the 11.5-12.5 inch range. Sooner or later the shell cracker will go on bed…and I’ll be there. Life is good and getting better!

Regards

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Sent from my iPad using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Great looking fish!

Pretty colors on those . Nice catch !

Thanks for the comments. These crappie were fighting really hard. Just last week there was a post someone had mentioned about crappie jumping after being hooked. I’ve seen that several times myself….I got one headed for a dead tree then launches into the air….got it all on video.

Regards


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

Fun times for sure!

those fish are so aggressive when they up like that !

Sounds like a great trip even if the ride back was a wet one. Good looking fish

Great time catching. The water looks so calm in the pics, sure changed quickly for the ride back to the ramp.

Wonderful trip!! Those redear are around the bend!

That was a great ride along, Randy. Thanks for the trip and those were some absolutely beautiful fish. You certainly lucked out finding such a tight grouping.
Bob

Fine trip! Thanks for taking me along