Lake Greenwood Report 1/31/15

Man, the fishing has been tough as of late! We had a tournament with SC Crappie Association this past weekend on Greenwood and the weigh-in was solid proof of just how tough it was. Out of an 11 boat field (I think?) only 3 boats brought 7 fish to the scales. I believe all teams either spiderrigged or trolled, but neither seemed to provide much action from the fish.

My partner and I chose to troll and the action was less than desirable. We got a late start when we noticed the water pump on the motor was not pumping water. Neither the tell-tell or the water pressure gauge gave us any indication that the pump was working. After about 20 minutes of cranking up and shutting down it seemed that things started to thaw out a bit and we started seeing some water at the motor. That was a good sight! Off to find the fish we went.

Upon arrival at our destination, the trolling motor wouldn't deploy. Turns out it was also froze up. Temps in the low 20s is sure hard on your equipment. Between minnow buckets froze shut and ice freezing in the rod tips we finally got baited up with lines in the water. After about an hour and half we got our first fish aboard. After another 30 minutes #2 was boated. Thankfully, it was a big girl. She turned out to be big fish of the tourney tipping the scales at 2.29 lb. She was also my new personal best and it was 9 years ago this spring that I caught my previous personal best of 2.25 lb. With that being said, I'm debating about putting her on the wall. A personal best in nearly of decade of fishing all over SC and caught on tournament day as big fish kind of makes me thing she is worthy.

We fished long and hard and by 1:00 PM we only had 3 fish in the livewell. We decided to make a move and it proved to be a good one. From 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM we boated 3 more fish, but never could find #7. We headed back to the weigh-in one fish short of our creel and little dejected/aggravated, but by some miracle our 6 fish proved to be enough. We were able to pick up the win with 8.42 lbs. Never in a million years would I have thought you could win a tournament this time of year with that weight, but as luck would have it, we did.

It was a slow day on the water, but it was still a lot of fun. And the fishing stories and fellowship at weigh-in was a blast as usual too. And I'm already looking forward to my next chance to get on the water. It shouldn't be long before the bite picks up everywhere. The big girls are starting to look like they could bust!

A few pictures:

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Congrats on the win, and the new PB! :ThumbsUp

Congrats on your new PB and the tourney win. That looks like a REAL HARD day of fishing but I've done alot worse than 6 fish to show for it and I'd bet many fishermen have too. Thanks for sharing the story and pictures. A few warm days put together and it should be ON!:)

Congrats on pulling out the win with 6 fish!! :cheers2
The last two trips to Greenwood have been hard on me also. The fish don't seem to know where they should be :Rofl No kidding, it has been hard to find the good size fish.
Thanks for the report and pics :ThumbsUp

Two things you can count on regarding mounting your PB crappie. If you do mount it, you will catch a bigger one within a short time. If you do not mount it, you will never get a bigger one. Just the way Murphy's Law works.
Congratulations on toughing it out and winning the tourney. Those were hard conditions to fish in.

Way to go and congratulations on big fish and the win under rough conditions !
Looking forward to getting on the water at Lake Murray in the next few weeks to try for some Crappie. Maybe we will see you there.

Congrats Derrick and partner, seems the tougher the fishing the conditions the better a few solid fish look. On mounting the fish...... I would say not. I know you fish fairly often and find it hard to believe you've never landed a fish bigger than 2.29 pounds. I feel certain if you keep presenting your bait, a bigger more deserving slab will come along in short order. On the other hand, I've caught hundreds of fish over two pounds, but have only landed one legitimate 3 lber. I fish a lake where many 3 pound fish get caught annually, and I crappie fish probably 150 times a year. You would think the law of averages would be more on my side. With that said... like a deer, a trophy depends on whom and where the harvesting of the animal takes place. A 125 deer in SC puts you in the record book. A 125 up north is just another okay deer. So, if that fish is something you are proud of, something years down the road will help you tell a story to your children and friends, by all means GO FOR IT!

congrats on your win and pb c/b

Congrats on the win. I heard it was tough fishing.

Congratulations to you both Crappie Buster, congratulations to you again for big fish and your PB!! Thanks for the report and pics.

Thanks for the replies!

I am very leary about mounting a fish barely over 2.25, but I've fished nearly year-round for the last 10 years and i'd guess catch some where around a 1000 crappie a year on average and haven't been able to best that weight :yikes I had in my mind that I'd mount my first 2.5 or better, but that has been a difficult feat to accomplish. I've caught a lot of 2-2.25, but nothing any better. I'm going to put her in the freezer till the end of the spring and make a call then. Really want some decorations for the house LOL

CB I mounted a 2-6 after many many years of catching crappie. The next year I caught a 2-8 and had it mounted. It took another 4 years before getting my first 3-1 crappie, mounted it and the next year caught a 2-13, mounted. All of these crappie to me look just as good as the others :) I also mounted 3, 1-4 crappie that I had plans to mount on a cedar tree for maybe a corner of my game room but just never did but all the crappie look good on the wall together.
A mount is never wasted and I can tell you where each one was caught as each one has a story. Never feel bad about catching a bigger fish after having one mounted, we only go around once and big slab crappie are not caught every day. Like Tim said, I have caught many fish over two pounds and most times I don't stop to weigh them but you know when you are holding a real slab crappie :ThumbsUp

Congrats CB you and Ray did good. Wish we could have fished this one but couldn't. We were wondering if you all trolled or tightlined... O well things will pick up in a couple weeks. You still got Santee and Clarks hill to fish, so you'll get a better one I'd almost bet.

See you on Murray.

Good job man. Y'all have been burning it down lately. Wish I could get off more to fish with y'all. Hope to see y'all at Greenwood in March.