Got on some spawining slabs.. new PB crappie, too

There's a little county water reservoir near me, electric-only, no development, 380 acres, beautiful, even has bald eagles hanging about. I've caught a few crappie in there, even though the guys working there say they were never stocked, the crappie in there are from when they dammed the creek. There are a ton of bass, and a lot of pressure for those. I pleasantly discovered it had big shellcrackers and some huge crappie, but until this week I've never caught more than one or two scattered slabs at a time.
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I went in my Nucanoe kayak Wed morning to try out a new JDM rod and see if the shellcrackers were on bed yet. I took only the UL gear. On the way to a spot where a creek flows into the lake and I was planning to fish for bream, I stopped to throw a trout magnet on a small Daiwa JDM (1.5g) jig and see If I could catch a small bass to put my new rod thru the paces. What bit the jig was a large slab crappie.
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2 hours later I was still cramming slabs into an overstuffed Playmate cooler, and taking out the ice to make room for more fish.
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When the bite slowed on the trout magnet, I tied on a 1/32 hand tied jig by Perry Pippinger at Moonshine Jigs, a gray color with tinsel called "Elmo" named for Richard Gene. I caught a new personal best crappie, 15.5" long, and weighed later 2 lb 4 oz.
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I kept 17 including he big one, and had no more room in the cooler, so I caught & released about 10 more, and called it a day.
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This morning I went back, and the crappie were still there, so I caught a few more.. again on the trout magnet with JDM jig. Later I went looking for bream and caught this:
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It was tricky getting him released, he was angry and striking at my kayak, but I managed to get the hook out of his foot with my pliers without getting chomped. He was about 2' dia, and it was lucky getting him to the boat on 4 lb mr crappie.

I went looking for more spawning crappie and found 'em right before I went home. I marked a waypoint, yes sir I did, you betcha. I will be back there ASAP. I ended up with another fine mess of SLABS.
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I had a long cleaning session today and ended up re-stocking on crappie filets for a while, I took some of the odd pieces and fried em' up for a sammich. I'm getting better with the new Bubba electric filet knife, but I botched a couple getting the hang of it.
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Good days there.

Small water fishing is awesome at times.

Great catch!

These county reservoirs are a treasure - clean water, steady levels, no pleasure boats or water lice, much less pressure than the bigger lakes. This one is 20 minutes from my house - about the same as to the nearest Lanier ramp. Guess which one I fish the most?

Great job!

I know it's not Lanier but you will figure it out. Nice catch!!!

Nice catches! Were the shellcracker bedded up? There are some nice bass in there too, real nice.

Not yet. I think they are moving shallow in preparation for spawn. Today I caught a bunch and kept 12; the females had eggs, the males were dark but not peeing yet. One of those nice bass broke my JDM rod today. :Doh:

Tuff break on the rod, hate to have that happen without a fish in hand. thanks for the update on the bream

Use to catch a mess of crappie at Cedar Creek but got to lazy to paddle the boat

Great day for you, sorry about the JDM.

Ah, live and learn. I knew what I was getting into, but I caught so many fish on that rod I became complacent, and asking it to drag a bass of several pound to the net was a bit much, I reckon. I hope I can buy a replacement tip, but no response from the vendor yet.

I need to get my electric boat ready to hit them waters. We have a few of those reservoirs around us.

My Nucanoe F12 gets around on these reservoirs very well with a cheapo Newport 46 lb motor. My elbows are too old and creaky for all that paddling. I rigged it with a long tiller handle, and straight-wired the head for external speed control with a little DIY box I put by the seat. I'm using a 35AH Duracell Ultimate AGM Deep cycle wheelchair battery, 25 lbs, and after 9 months it isn't cutting the mustard anymore. I will be pursuing the warranty and hopefully I get a new one out of it, but they don't last long in heavy use, and 35AH isn't really enough, 50AH would be better, especially in wind. Weight is the issue. I could get a Lithium 50AH that only weighs 15 lbs - that would be killer - but they are $600-$700. On the other hand they would last 5-6 yrs with little to no degradation in capacity. The math really doesn't work on these yet for me...

Nice catch


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