Took A While To Find "Em...But I Did!

Got another early start and made it to the boat ramp this morning in the dark. After fumbling around in Barry's way a little while I finally got launched, said your heys and goodbyes, and made my way to the first spot I wanted to fish.Nadda! Nothing there....graphed the whole area and it looked like to me there werent any oxygen in that part of the lake. The whole graph was nothing but clutter. Headed on down river stopping on this flat and that flat looking at the graph. Once I got out of that dead water where the screen cleared up I wasnt seeing enough to put lines out. I headed into a creek and started idling around in 16'-20' of water and started seeing bait and fish.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...7-07-12002.jpg

They were deep, but what the heck! Had to fish somewhere.:rolleyes: By the time I got my lines out it was 6:30AM. Seen a bite...and in a minute or two I caught one....a pretty nice 'un.Thumbs Up

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...7-07-12001.jpg

Wasnt logn before the sun came up an it was already warm at 8AM.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...7-07-12003.jpg

Well, I spend an hour and a half in this area trolling the deeper water and after boating 18 fish with a few in the livewell it was time to leave to look for something a little more faster. I picked lines up and headed to shallower water and this time the smaller fish were few and far in-between with ALOT of keepers biting. I wasnt planning on keeping alot of fish cause there's a mess in the fridge from the 4th at home now so unless sthey had some size to them they went back swimming.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...7-07-12004.jpg

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...7-07-12005.jpg

And then came the big fish of the day...a 15 & 1/2" white crappie.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...7-07-12007.jpg

Not a good picture due to the way the sun was shining into the livewell but here's what I brought home...

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...7-07-12008.jpg

I had several fish between 12" and 15.5" today. Everything less than 12" went back other than a couple suicides that went 10.5" and 11" that I kept. Final tally on the day was 62 crappie. I fished from 6:30AM-9:45AM. Water temp started at 87* and air temp started at 71*. Time I got loaded and ready for the trip home the truck read 88*. I(t was HOT!

Here's one last pic of the biggest fish along with another decent keeper.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...7-07-12010.jpg

congrats on a nice mess of fish!!!!!got ate up by yellow jackets cutting grass today so i guess i will me nice!!!!White Flag IconThumbs Up

Thanks Joe. Sorry to hear about those yellow jackets though. I got a nest pretty closeby too cause they sure are everywhere when outside cleaning fish. I set up a fan to blow across the cutting board and that keeps 'em away, but still, they gotta be closeby in the woods somewhere. As long as they aint in the yard I aint looking for 'em.

them things hurt me bad if i don't get the MEDS in time it can kill me!!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by strmwalker

them things hurt me bad if i don't get the MEDS in time it can kill me!!!!

---

Joe take care of yourself. Those jackets can be trouble.

Nice catch Bowman. It was hot early for sure. Hope this forecast comes true for next week. The old boat thinks I have abandoned her . May try some of that longlining next week.

Looks like a fine day when you found where the fish were holding. Those are some nice crappie and the white crappie is a slab! Congrats on another good day on the Hill.

Another fine outing Butch, Congrats on getting out and sticking a nice batch of fish. Your searched paid off for ya. For you newbies out there a good lesson can be learned here. As Butch noted, if your not seeing any fish or bait on the finder or if the fish are not big enough or biting fast enough for you. Reel those lines in and make attempts to find'em. The knowledge gained will be beneficial to you when like conditions occur in the future.

another nice day, congrats

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by STUMP HUNTER

Joe take care of yourself. Those jackets can be trouble.

---

ronnie,
i took care of them suckers at 2100hrs last night i gave them a GOOD OLD DOSE of 87octane:biggrinand it might have had 10%ethanol guess they didn't careThumbs Up

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by strmwalker

ronnie,
i took care of them suckers at 2100hrs last night i gave them a GOOD OLD DOSE of 87octane:biggrinand it might have had 10%ethanol guess they didn't careThumbs Up

---

As long as you didnt hear any of 'em complaining I guess it was alright!:biggrin:biggrinRoflRoflRofl

good story and great job on finding them

I have one of those 522, its a great little ff

Hey Butch great report there. The pictures sure add to it. I do not do much in the way of long lining. When you see those fish between15 feet and 10 like in pic, do you try to keep the jigs about 10 feet or run them through them? I guess you can control lets say 1/16 ounce jig with speed, how much line to let out, or do you ever use slipshot to get jigs down?
I have tried thar and not have much luck. using jigs in that method Iguess you can cover a lot of area.
Thanks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CrappieKidd

Hey Butch great report there. The pictures sure add to it. I do not do much in the way of long lining. When you see those fish between15 feet and 10 like in pic, do you try to keep the jigs about 10 feet or run them through them? I guess you can control lets say 1/16 ounce jig with speed, how much line to let out, or do you ever use slipshot to get jigs down?
I have tried thar and not have much luck. using jigs in that method Iguess you can cover a lot of area.
Thanks

---

CK, after doing some experimenting learning how deep your jigs are running you'll generally know what it takes to keep your jigs in the 10' range, 13' range, etc. The picture of the graph is only showing a hugh bait ball but seeing the bait down to around 12'-15' and from watching the graph a bit more I found the fish to be under most of the bait which was near the bottom. I had my lines set up with mostly 1/16th jigs and an added splitshot. I casted as far as I could throw them and still pulled more line off each reel. I slowed my speed to .7 mph. I figured doing all these things would get the jigs to thier deepest and that was about all I could do. Besides, I'm always fishing for the aggressive fish and they could come up a few feet to get the jig if they wanted it. The ones that dont want to get it...well, you cannot make them bite. And youre right....longlining allows you to cover alot more water in a day's fishing and your jigs get to see alot more of those aggressive fish.Thumbs Up

That's a nice mess of fish Butch. Thanks for sharing the report and pics.

Butch, nice report, I really don't know how you take this heat, I sure can't handle it like some of you guy do. But it seems to being paying off for you. I'm a November thru May fisherman myself. In my younger years I could handle it but not now.
Keep the reports coming.

Gerald, as I get older each year I have to MAKE myself go fishing sometimes. I've been getting up pretty darned early and getting to the boat ramp before day breaks, getting everything ready with the boat and getting unloaded and underway by daylight. I try getting to my fishing spot as soon as I can because I know I aint fishing much past 9AM. (My problem is I dont quit while it's cool, thinking I can get an extra 30-45 minutes in before I hafta quit.:() Quitting at 9AM gives ya about 3 hours of fishing before loading back up again so if you get on some fish you can easily catch a good mess or three.;) I also carry along a 52" umbrella that helps alot since on these hotter days it's already warm at 8AM. I'd say the worst part is getting the boat loaded, organized, and ready for the road...especially if youre fishing by yourself. I work up a pretty good sweat doing that but it gets old sitting in the cabin all summer long and I just gotta go fishing cause I love it so much. Gotta admit though...this heat does take alot of the fun out of it. Go early and leave early (according to plan...before it gets hot:rolleyes:) and it aint bad at all though.

Thanks for the great report, and useful info. That was a great catch!!