It's a long story that I will shorten the best I can. To start, I got one of the famed and difficult to obtain kitchen passes and decided to make good use of it. I made a few calls and connected with Crappieday to go and chase the gills I found Thursday. My partner is no stranger to light tackle for gill's and Crappie, so all I had to do was find some fish. Like usual, I started with apologies because what I left Thursday was not what we found today. An approaching front would change things this day, the question was when. So we plugged away, tried different colors and techniques and different types of cover, or lack of. Persistence overcomes resistance and it wasn't too long and we started to figure out what they wanted. The temps today started at 60* and ended up colder as the day progressed to drop to 53 with the sun disappearing completely. Thursday they were somewhere close to some vegetation or wood or cover in general. Today was the other side of the coin as we were hard pressed to find a fish on cover anywhere. And the wind really became an issue making boat control tough.
Now to the good part. We did find fish and once we figured things out,we stayed busy and knew what kind of shoreline to look for. It seemed the muddy banks were warmed by the sun that was seen earlier in the day and the fish gathered to them. One bank we came up on, Andy had a fish on every cast for 5 and 3 fish went in the box. This spot was good for a flurry of activity for a good little while, and even gave up a few more when we hit it a second time a while later on the way out.
I could go on about this day, it was truly special for Andy and I. All totaled I am sure with no doubt that we caught 75 or more Gills and redbreast. The bag was mixed with Gill, red breast, a couple of small red ear, 5 or 6 crappie, 1 LMB, and some more extra large Golden Shiners. Neither of us could believe how busy we were. We dropped the boat in at about 0830 and fished til just after 1600, and only wanted for fish in the last 30 to 45 minutes. The front had done it's thing and they had all but quit biting. With the colder temps, I was wishing for my bibs and something to eat and we were just ready to go. A way above average day that we both commented on our luck and the size of some of the fish. I can only hope to repeat this one day soon. 20 fish were kept with 2 Crappie in the mix, and they went to 2 families. I kept 9 largest for myself that filleted and the other 11 went to a friends Grandma who has been asking for some to cook whole as she grew up cooking for her family. I don't use this term often, but it was truly a Stellar day for the two of us. I can only hope that some of you get out and get a smile from a day like this one day soon. Thanks for taking the time to visit with Andy and I and share the boat with us, and til next time.........Skeet
