Cotaco Creek, 7 Nov 2016 (A blessing)

God is good! Days like this don't happen often. Had the opportunity to enjoy some quite time this beautiful morning. Arrived at Triana to launch at sunrise. Water temp stayed a consistent 69 degrees. No current the entire morning. Winter drawdown is definitely here. The water is low. I used 1/24 oz plain jigs.

Fished a few minutes in Indian Creek. Landed 4 Black Crappie in less than 10 minutes. Bait was BG Monkey Milk.

Moved to Cotaco Creek. Fished a few laydowns. The Crappie were not holding tight to structure. They were scattered around the laydowns, but the bite was consistent about 6-8 feet down. Bait was BG Monkey Milk and Crystal.

I tried a Cotaco Creek side tributary for a while. Moved as far back in the tributary I could until I could not cross one of the laydowns. I was able to cast to the next laydown...about 20-25 feet away. The bite was on! The black Crappie were holding tight and were bunched together on this laydown. Water depth was 3-4 feet. Bait was BG Monkey Milk. I switched to BG Pink Pearl...the crappie weren't interested in this color. But the bluegill nibbled the heck out of the Pink Pearl with no hook ups. I switched to BG Glacier, and the bluegill devoured it. Switched back to BG Monkey Milk...no more Crappie bites. My guess is the bluegill activity with the BG Glacier shut down the crappie.

Moved back to the Cotaco Creek main channel around 0900, which coincided with the wind showing up, and fished one of my favorite underwater structures in about 10 feet of water. The bite was consistent. And, the size increased from 8-11 inches early in the morning to 12-13 inches. I tried BG Monkey Milk, Crystal, Blue Ice, Pink Pearl, Glacier, and Hologram Ghost. Today I did not use one of my other go-to baits...Blue Thunder. By far, Monkey Milk was the Crappie bait of the day.

Summary: Fished from sunrise to 1030. Total Crappie = 45...last one of the day was another 8 inch fish. Big fish was 13 inches and weighed 1lb, 3oz. Intended to keep 10 Crappie for dinner. Found another pleasant boater with three fishing. They had one Crappie. I gave them the 10 I kept. Probably caught 15-20 bluegill and one white stripe. Other than the 10 Crappie I gave away, all others were released.

What a great day. Sorry for the sideways pictures.

Well done!!!!!! Thanks for the report!

Awesome, that's for the report and I bet they are gonna ha e a good dinner off those fish!


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Great job and thanks for sharing!! I wished I could take a week off work.

Great report. Sounds like an awesome morning!

Good report and good day fishing.

Great report! Nice fish! glad you got to enjoy the morning!

DB: I don't limit Cotaco often...a really good day is normally 20-25. The last few trips were work. Today was unusual. No real pattern. Some shallow. Some deep. I think the lack of current kept them from holding on the laydowns. I also, think they are confused with the unusual weather this fall. Oh, with the low water, I also caught lots of old fishing line in the trolling motor...had to take the prop off to clear a ton of different mono and braid. You don't have that problem with the kayak:-)

Nice job Spaceman. Sounds like a good morning on the water.

I usually limit myself to 15 right now. I filled my dad's freezer last month and half a limit of 10 inch Crappie makes a meal for my family (plus leftovers the next day for me). I just really enjoy single pole on laydowns this time of year.

Great report. God is good!

Awesome Spaceman!

Do you vertical jig your baits up next to the laydowns or do you float them under a cork? Or something else?

Scout-j-m,

First, I do not use a cork. I use a variety of techniques depending on the situation (wind, current, etc) and the structure itself. I do vertical jig. I flip. I cast and retrieve.

I generally have found the best secret is "slow" movement. Once you think you are moving the bait slow, slow it down more.

Also, bites can be undetectable. Watch the line. I have experienced situations where I have watched my line slowly moving against the current...crappie swimming away with your bait.

For deeper/submerged structure, I sometimes will use a two jig set up (18-30 inches apart), using loop knots. Maybe just my preference, but I exclusively use loop knots. This allows me to explore using two different baits at one time to see if one is more favored.

My opinion. The most important thing I can suggest...Have fun! Fishing is just that. Some days will be better than others. Fishing does not guarantee catching.

Thanks for the reply!

Congrats sounds like a great day.

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Nice report! I enjoy fishing Cotaco this time of year. It brings joy donating crappie to folks who are learning or having a slow day especially when you have plenty to share:santa

Awesome morning you had there!

God is good - more than that - HE is in charge and we should all find comfort in that.

Great job Spaceman!!! That's an awesome morning on Cotaco for sure, some nice sized fish.