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Going shallow for master angler crappie
Jeff and I took a trip down to Delton today to fish Crooked Lake. We both had to work in the morning so we didn't get there until close to 11:00. We were the only trailer in the lot.
Our first stop was a small cut that had flooded brush along one side. We worked the brush with Bobby Garland Baby Shad on 1/16 oz jigs set 12"-18" under a bobber. We saw a few and had a couple of hits but the wind made it difficult to stay out of the brush. We managed to land a few by easing through the brush and dipping jigs around cover using a 12' Bn'M BGJP.
Next we tried around flooded docks in the same area we got them last year. We got a couple but the water was full of nasty, snotty algae and it made it almost impossible to fish.
Next up was a small bay that had flooded trees along one side, trees that lined the cottages driveway, which is now flooded. I had switched to red worms and was getting a few sunfish. Jeff stuck with plastics and within minutes he had a hit that had crappie written all over it. First words out of his mouth were "big fish, get the net". I hot dogged it a little, talking trash and taking my time to get the net for what I figured would be a maybe 12" crappie. Man was I wrong. This big girl measured out at 15 3/4". MASTER ANGLER! We sat on that spot for an hour or so and put about a dozen crappie in the box including another master angler qualifying 15 1/2" monster for Jeff and some in the 12"-13" range. We were also catching big sunfish on the plastics. Many had the jig down their throats. Bluegrass and Monkey Milk were the hot colors.
A couple more stops produced more of the same, nice crappie holding tight to the brush in a couple feet of water and big sunfish out from the brush. We ended up keeping 28 fish total which will be cleaned and frozen for spring camp. Water temp was 60 degrees and the crappie were mostly spawned out. The male sunfish were squirting so it won't be long for them to start bedding. Here's a few pictures, enjoy.Attachment 343027Attachment 343028Attachment 343029Attachment 343030Attachment 343031Attachment 343032Attachment 343032Attachment 343033Attachment 343034
