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2014 Spring/Summer Crappie Camp
As opposed to one giant write-up on Michigan's Crappie camp, I thought it might be better if each person post their pictures and experiences within one forum. That way you are not getting an overall outline of events from one person but the bigger picture from everyone in attendance.
Below is our experience:
My daughter and I left Friday morning with sunny skies and light wind. I didn't even feel bad about calling the school to tell them that Abby would not be attending today.
We arrived at Brower Park a little after 1pm. Skillet007 had already arrived and was busy setting up camp. Yankee doodler and his wife CakeLady were no where to be found so we could only assume they were fishing.
My helper aided me in setting up camp and getting things ready. Eventually, Yankee doodler showed up. In our conversations it became apparent that the crappies were not on their beds yet. Don told us that he had some pretty good luck the night before fishing some downed treetops. He also said that it appeared as though the gills were not on their beds either.
Being a fisherman, I wanted to get out fishing, but being a father takes precedence. The little one wanted to ride her bike, take a tour, find the play ground and the beach. That trip turned in to being talked into going swimming. Eventually, having done everything she wanted, we were able to hit the water.
I scanned the shores and looked for erosion that would indicate some downed trees. I found a few but the most promising one had a family fishing about 20 yards from it on their pontoon boat. Not wanting to encroach on their fishing territory, I moved to a small cut. I dipped a minnow into a downed treetop. Before I could think, a fish slammed it hard. No reason to set the hook. I handed the rod to my daughter and we managed to boat a nice Large Mouth. Not bad, but not a crappie either.
Moving on I found an area that appeared promising. I anchored and began to throw some bobbers with minnows and worms. Although I found no crappies, I was able to summize that the big bull bluegills were staging in 5 foot of water. All of this happened while my first mate took a nap!
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The sun had settled and it was time to see if I could find the crappies. On my way to a downed tree, I met a group of people fishing on a pontoon in deep water. I spoke with them a little bit, gave them some information on where to fish, and offered my blue gills up to them. They were more than gracious. As I rounded the corner, I saw them moving into the spot I reccomended. I hope they found fish.
Moving in to the treetops, I turned on my side scan and was rewarded with a group of crappies on the screen. Dipping tree-tops is not something we get to do that often in Michigan. It was a blast.
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I worked in and out of this tree and found the best bait seemed to be some custom baits that "perch" made. The crappies loved the tiny little frogs!
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We released our fish knowing that we had a spot to come back to in the morning.
Arriving back at camp we were greated with the standard "Liars Club" meeting. After being reminded that we needed to set some rules for a "weight in" it was decided that we would take the biggest crappie and the biggest non-species.
Saturday morning brought cool weather, sunny skies, and was a welcome site for many of the veterans that typically brave rain, sleet, and snow at our crappie outings. Abby and I waited a little while to launch so that would could try and run into as many people as possible. We packed our breakfast and headed out.
We ran into Slab along with his brother and father in-law.
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They said they would follow us to the fish!
Abby and I hit the same treetop and it was still holding fish. Ed came over and they fished it for a little while but didn't manage to pull anything. They did however get to watch us catch several nice fish.
After 8 fish, we moved on. It was hot and Abby wanted to go for a boat ride.
Meeting up with Skillet007.
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At this point in time it would be important to note that charging your phone/camera is important. I did take a whole bunch more photes however, I noticed this morning that it appears they have dissapeared into cybernothing. I will have to rely on others at this point for some better pictures.
The weigh in brought a tie between Abby and Cakelady. Abby chose a pink visor (that she is still wearing as I type this).
We had a good turn out, with tons of great food brought by all. We had prizes to go around and had a ton of newcomers on this trip.
Thanks to Ed and Sharron for the T-shirts, cook books and other swag. Thanks to Don and Carol for saving some goodies and for making the fish counters! Thanks to Kevin for supplying and cooking the fish and for the Leslie guys for the campfire.
It takes alot of different things to make these camps great. Everyone does there part and that is what makes them special. We are always learning how to do things better, more efficient, and so on.
We look forward to seeing as many people as possible at the next camp. They truely are a great time. We meet new people, make new friends and connections and learn better or different ways on how to do things.
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Please post your stories and photos below!
