Went to the Rez for 3 days of Crappie fishing and to fish the Varivas Double Cross PE in 10# test casting. The Crappie just didn't want a moving, retrieved, grub. I vertical jig fished very productive structure but with little success. When a Crappie hit a jig it was with authority but those Thumps were few and far between at best. I did see a few other Crappie Anglers out, most were using Livescope, sitting on the bow of their boats with very long jig poles in their hands. Their jigs well in the air too. All were on the move. A pair of guys circled the entire Horseshoe without dipping a jig that I could see. How you catch fish with your jig in the air I still have to learn. The Livescope crowd were fishing open water, backwater, along the bank, and along the ledges but I didn't see the first fish caught in 3 days. Maybe they were catching but I don't think so. From where I fish I can see a large area and watch the boats around me. I may when running from one recruitment spot to the other observe boats but after 4 hours or so I see most just play musical chairs with the same spots. I didn't play that game. I bought myself one of the large Engel 30qt Bait Coolers and loaded it with about a 100 of the large shiners I had as well as a Insulated Live Bait Bucket with about 50 more. You can't count on Tommy's Trading Post to have shiners during the week so I rigged up a way to bring some from home. Well Shiners paid the bills so to speak. All were fished only 4ft down using the Mosquito hook rigs. You had to fish a very large, heavy cover area and wait for the bite but I had action all 3 days. While watching the corks I fished jigs for little production - the shiners were all the bigger fish wanted. They took their sweet time committing to the bite too.
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Using #4 hooks I had to keep a few smaller fish as they were toast from very deep hooksets. I caught 65-66 fish in the 3 days to keep 30. After the second day I drove to Bass Pro and bought larger #2 Mosquito hooks, opened the gaps a bit and the last day didn't kill a single short due to deep hooking. If you're going Livescope fishing on Ross Barnett bring shiners for backup. Keeping them well iced down till I get home to clean too.
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This is the oldest boat I own. I've had it for over 15 years and much North of 50,000 fish has been swung over it's gunnels. The other Blazer I built was identical before I turned it into a center console. We affectionally call this boat "The Lizzard". I keep it stored near the Rez, the E-Tec always starts, the stringers as well as the rest of the wood used in it's construction is all rotten, I cut the transom out and replaced with Coosa 26 years ago. At some point I will need to Punt on this hull thinking the Skeeter or Champion will replace it someday but it fishes the upper part of The Rez so well. Good Times.
