First Crappies 4-25-23

We had a lot of heavy rain day before yesterday, then rain and drizzle yesterday, and finally this morning clear skies, but cold. Temp when I got up was 32F and there was frost on the porch steps. I had errands in town until 10:30, but driving back home I thought I'd test the waters of a small pond on the way back and see it the crappies had arrived along the roadside shore. I had my boat on the roof racks, but I just had time to do about 20 minutes of spot checking, so fishing from shore was the plan.

I tied a crappie magnet onto my 4# test line, with a narrow Thill bobber set at a little less than 2 feet above. The pond here was shallow and fairly full of submerged sticks from a beaver den and masses of last years dead vegetation. I had to cast to the small channels between old cabbage growth. Well, I didn't expect much on a clear day at 11 AM after a cold front. But surprise, first cast, the bobber just hit the water and sat maybe half a minute before down it went.

I hit back good in my excitement, as if it was a tuna. Probably could have shown a little more finesse. But the crappie was solidly hooked in the upper jaw, so stayed on for a nice little cold water struggle.

When beached on the new grass, I laid it along my rod markings, and it was a decent 10" Vermont crappie -- good for this small pond, which until about 5 years ago did not have crappie at all. Anyway they clearly were biting here now and it made the start of the season for me.

After releasing the first fish, I didn't get a second for about 10 more minutes of casting -- the second was a 9", and it took just as long a wait to get a third crappie, its twin in size. Finally I cast further from shore than I had been and picked up a large golden shiner again -- just like I did yesterday -- about 8". Kind of surprising even a large shiner can fit a #4 crappie jig in its small mouth.

Well I'd missed a number of un-crappie like tapping bites just before I hooked this one, so there was probably a school of them working on it. Maybe the biggest dog managed to gulp it!

It was though, a beautiful fish, bright shining gold, large dark forked tail and orange red fins. And it sure fought like a dinky bass. If they got a lot bigger golden shiner's would probably be a prized game fish.

By then it was time to go, all fish released. Below is my first crappie this season:

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That's a beauty for sure, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for your report. Beautifully colored fish.

Very nice

Good report and pic.

Good early season trip! Thanks for posting it.

Great start to the season.