Heavy Pics with Cuonthelake 7/25/2018

I don't know how a teacher could be more proud of their number one student that I was this morning with Candi. I have said on multiple occasions that she is the best crappie student that I have ever had the honor of teaching how to crappie fish. Today was no exception. She is so good at catching crappie that she was just about embarrassing me this morning. She easily caught 3 to my 1 and we had some quality fish too. We landed in the neighborhood of 25-30 crappie with most being keeper sized, but we did catch maybe 5 or 6 short fish as well. All fish released today to get bigger.

When I started with her a few years ago, she wanted to learn how to dock shoot. On her first day, she just could not get the technique of shooting a jig under a dock to save her life. She might get one jig about 10 feet on her fifth try. I told her to go home and get a chair and sit in her driveway and practice the shooting method until she could hit a bucket about 25-30 feet away. I said when you can do that, then I will take you fishing again. About 2-3 weeks later, she requested a crappie trip and we launched. On the first dock, she was shooting jigs back under those docks as good as I could and I remarked to her that I was a little bit surprised that she could shoot those jigs that good. She said, "I did what you told me to do", and therein lies the secret to teaching someone how to fish. With male students, most have a preconceived notion of what they are doing and I can't tell them anything. Most just want to know where I fish. That's okay too, because with today's electronics, our super secret holes are only known to about 1000 anglers. Grin.

Today, we fished bluffs, off shore brush piles, and deep water structure. Some fish early, were sort of shallow, 10 feet or less, but as the sun came up, the fish went deeper as expected. The final several fish that we caught were 25-30 feet deep. Bobby Garland slab slayers, Lights Out, Double silver, and Itty Bitty Black Crickets. Bass Assassin Chicken on a Chain was very productive as well. We both tried several colors. I caught some on Bluegrass, and Candi caught at least one on a Ghastly Minnow color, which is my favorite color. I don't use it much, but it is still my favorite color. Go figure? Grin.

I have several pics to post, but I won't post every single one that we took.

Attachment 311762Attachment 311772Attachment 311771Attachment 311770Attachment 311769Attachment 311768Attachment 311767Attachment 311766Attachment 311765Attachment 311764Attachment 311763Attachment 311773

3 days in a row on the Summertime Slabs! Good catch and pictures, looks like you fished out of your new boat, not HERS! That water looks very calm, easy to detect the deep bite.

Great post and nice catches!

You guys are tearing em up!

Attachment 311808
DK, Thank you for taking me out today in the new boat...it's a winner as are you! May I add to your story....
about 6 months before my dad passed, he strongly encouraged me to get back to crappie fishing. At a young age he took me An taught me how to crappie fish w minnows..." don't take your eye off that bobber" I can hear him now. He realized my career had taken over my life An wanted to depart his wisdom of enjoying the fruits of my labor an take up fishing, he knew how much I loved it as a child "Go find someone that will teach you how to fish using artificial bait. Listen to everything they tell you, an do as they say. One day you will out fish them!" He went on to tell me you might not always catch fish, but you will catch something better...I never got to asked him what wouid be better than catching fish....however over the years I've learned more about myself when I don't catch than in the days I've loaded the live well....George was a wise man, I'm thankful he departed great wisdom to me. Along came DK that I contacted on a local fishing forum, he Explained above how he took me out fishing that first time. What he didn't know was I spent countless hours practicing dock shooting into a bucket n my front yard. As I mastered that I gradually reduced the size of the bucket/target till I coukd shoot a jig into a small Campbells soup can. Dock shooting, ahhhhh, my favorite way to catch crappie. However sometimes the dog days of summer can leave you fishless if that's the only way you fish around here. So like I said I learned more about myself, not catching...that is this, never get too comfortable catching fish one way. Like life, get out of your comfort zone, push yourself to learn something new. The pay offs are such great blessings an the people you meet along the way are priceless, thank you again DK! I think I made George/ Dad proud today, I'm sure he's telling someone n heaven I out fished my mentor!

Awseome day! Thanks for sharing ! Great job ( CUonthelake) not getting hung up on only one method ! Fantastic job on teaching her well DK!

Good post, Good pix and Good day to be out. Don't forget these temps in 5 months on the 25th!!!! lolol

And we want to see that "other" new boat in the pics soon. WTG!!!!!

Great pictures and fishing report! Thanks to both of you for sharing. :)

CUdonewell !!

EXCELLENT!!!!

Well... I might have known you and Candi would be out fishing while I was at home at sleeping.... :biggrin My time is coming so watch out! I will say that DK helped clear the cob webs after my almost 25 year absence from fishing. I have since read many books on the species and read every fishing report I can to get to where I would like to be. The first thing I recalled on my first and probably most important trip with DK, watch that line... And as soon as he said that my catching improved immediately, it's funny how you forget something so basic. But I did.

So glad to read a post such as this. Many have blessed me with their knowledge along the way as I learned to catch Crappie, the way it is done in TN when I lived there. The friendships I made along the way have been outstanding, and I sometimes get a little depressed knowing that I may never fish with them again. They are mentors all, some of the best ever. You two enjoy each others company so much that it brings this all to mind. Great post and thanks for taking me along, really appreciate it......Skeet.

Dk you are lucky to have such a good fishing partner in CU. Great stories both of you.