Quackrstakr and I took a few hours Sunday afternoon to try out some different spots for longlining, hoping to find some spawning crappie in shallow water. We trolled several spots that the east wind was really bad for and after a few hours, only had a couple of keepers in the livewell.
We had tried both shallow flats and deeper drops that had been producing recently. I was at my wits end and about to pee on the fire and call the dogs when we came across a shallow bar that had some grass on it. I think we each caught a keeper off the 1st pass then buffalo13 called. Just as I was hanging up from his call, I hooked into another and qs hooked one on each of his 4 rods. It was on like Donkey Kong now!!
We made another pass or 2 and looked up to see a man and woman in a jon boat headed straight at us with ill intent on their minds. The man cut in front of us, no more than 30-40 yards away, and threw out his bait, effectively cutting us off. When he dropped his trolling motor and headed toward us, I told him "You better not even think about running in on us". I threw out an anchor and we cast the area for several minutes while the man tried to figure out a way to wiggle in closer. He finally decided better of his intentions and left. The casting bite had slowed so we cranked up the longline again and proceeded to wear them out for an hour.
On that one small area we ended up catching a green carp keeper, bluegill, yellow bass, yellow perch and black and white crappie. It was getting pretty late and we had battled the east wind till I was ready to leave. We had a couple of clicker counters with us but neither of us had thought about using them when things were so hot. We agreed that we had around 25 keepers so we headed to the trailer.
Once I got back to the shop and we counted our catch, we had 38 keeper crappie! I won't be forgetting the clickers in the future if we are lucky enough to find them like that again.
It was amazing to see so many crappie in such a small area. Most we caught were males and some of them were in 5 feet of water. We also proved that it is possible to catch crappie longlining in skinny water. Every fish we caught was in an area no bigger than 20 yards square. All in all it was an awesome afternoon.
