We pulled into Long Hunter state park about 5:45 AM Saturday morning and saw several deer feeding alongside the road. That usually gives me a good feeling about the bite, and Saturday was no exception. I brought my friend, Dean, and we had a great time long line trolling 4 jigs and 2 crank baits. The jigs caught more fish, even accounting for the 2 -1 ration of jigs to crank baits. We found willing crappie participants in 11 to 17 FOW anywhere from 5 to 10 feet down. It didn't take long to have 2 nice crappie in the boat, and they just wouldn't stop for the first couple of hours. In addition to the crappie, we also caught 2 really nice hybrids - a 24 inch 6.5 lb fish and a 25.5 inch 8 lb fish. We caught a couple of catfish too. As luck would have it, right after Dean caught one of those catfish (and the catfish tangled up my net with the crank bait), the 8lb hybrid hit on a jig. I knew it was a big fish and poor Dean was doing his best to get that catfish out of the net. The net finally freed about about the time I had the big hybrid up to the boat. I was sweating that one for a bit, because I knew that jig hook wasn't all that strong, and sure enough that hybrid had begun to straighten out that hook some. On the next pass, the 6.5 lb hybrid hit and Dean reeled in that one. I also caught a TARP crappie to top it all off! It was a great half day of fishing - the water lice showed about 11AM, so we headed back to the ramp about then.
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