Meade Tuesday

After the drizzle and clouds left, I headed for Suffolk. Decided to try Meade as I haven't been there for a couple of weeks. The crappie were nowhere to be found (by me anyway). I went to every deep hole and couldn't get a sniff. Tried casting, tightlining near the bottom, jigs on floats at shallow, mid and deep. Moved to creek mouths, went up several creeks and even tried the backs. Wound up with 5 crappie (fair-sized at about 11-12 1/2"), some nice raccoon perch (biggest I've caught in awhile), couple pickerel, and a 7 1/2 lb bass. The bass was a blast on a 5 1/2' ultra-light with 4 lb test. She pretty much had her way with me for about 10 minutes.

Only thing I can think is the crappie have abandoned their winter hangouts and are in transitional waters preparing to spawn. I found one pretty big school of crappie, and only managed to entice one to bite. I tried for over an hour and could see them on the sonar, but they had lockjaw. Saw temperatures as high as 58 degrees and average was about 53 degrees.

Attachment 119501Attachment 119502Attachment 119503

Mike

Nice fish.

Hmmm, crappie on the move. Thanks for the report.

Where oh where did the crappie go. I spent 6 hours looking for them in the shallows last sunday with NO success! Last year at this time I was slaying the dink crappie at the back of b/m. I plan on finding them in the next couple of weeks. when I find them i'll let others know. I was suprised at your report. I thought you had them cornered. Still beats working. I do like the d/f pictures. Tight Lines JIM.B

Good report, Mike. Thanks.

Id

Good report and great SI pic,weather man said that this March is 10 degrees behind last years March ,so I guess that you will need to go by WT as time rather than day of month, don,t know because I still think they will move near this time even if water is cold. They had started to move in back of Rudds creek 3 weeks ago and been sick so don,t know now

Great report. Thanks for the update on WT. Oh yeah, nice bass.

Sounds like a decent day did your bass make citation?
Nice job anyway 4lb test yehaw :highfive

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by papermouth scaler

Sounds like a decent day did your bass make citation?
Nice job anyway 4lb test yehaw :highfive

---

No. It actually weighed 7 lbs, 7 oz. on digital scale. I stopped applying for "citations" several years ago. I'd rather turn them loose than to take a chance on killing them by dragging them around (or keeping them in a livewell) all day and then putting them to the trauma of the weighing and measuring. Talked to a biologist about it years ago and the mortality in that case is high anyway. Not saying I'm a do-gooder, but unless I'm gonna' eat it anyway, I always let them go after taking a picture or two.
Along those lines, the people at the bait store (Cahoon/Meade) told me when I launched Tuesday that somebody over the weekend weighed a citation bass (over 9 lbs) and then tried to release it. DOA! Had those guys at the bait store all spooled up. Said the guy drug it around on a stringer all day, had no notion of eating it, just wanted the piece of paper.

Mike

Citation by witness or photo by length is the route for catch and release, nothing wrong with eating big fish though... To each his own.

Nice pics and a good report

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Percidae_Papermouth

Citation by witness or photo by length is the route for catch and release, nothing wrong with eating big fish though... To each his own.

---

You're right Bennet. And I'm not putting down anybody else who wants a citation for catching a nice fish. I've collected my share in my life, but I will say that I have taken them home to eat (except those I caught in a tournament where they had to be released at the ramp in most cases).

Mike

Texas Pete, it can't be by chance that you mention the 9 lb. bass caught there last week. There may have been two very large fish caught, but we had a tourney Saturday and the big fish was 9.75 lbs. That fish was kept in an aerated livewell all day. It was not on a stringer. I know there hasn't been any mention of the stringer, but I did want to let all know what really happened. As noted earlier though, maybe there was more than one caught. I wish it would have been me who caught that monster. It was huge.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kevin M

Texas Pete, it can't be by chance that you mention the 9 lb. bass caught there last week. There may have been two very large fish caught, but we had a tourney Saturday and the big fish was 9.75 lbs. That fish was kept in an aerated livewell all day. It was not on a stringer. I know there hasn't been any mention of the stringer, but I did want to let all know what really happened. As noted earlier though, maybe there was more than one caught. I wish it would have been me who caught that monster. It was huge.

---

Kevin, Don't know any more than was told to me by the guys in the baitshop. They were pretty emphatic that the 9 lbr. was all but dead. He also mentioned "drug around on a stringer all day". All I know. Could be somebody over stating the facts, don't know.

Mike

Dang, that means two over 9 lbs. were caught there last weekend. Those two lakes have been kicking out fish this year.

I've seen some nice bass caught in the past at Cohoon.... I realize 9 lb bass are not very common in VA but I'm not suprised in that lake