First skunk of the year.

Had my first skunk of the year today. Was on the lake four hours. Started fishing favorite brushpiles, loaded with fish but no bites. The lake was choppy from the wind so I thought maybe I just wasn't feeling the bites. So I moved to a bridge where the waves were not so bad. Shared the area with six other boats with the same idea. Again, pilliars and brush piles under bridge had plenty of fish. But did not get a single bite. Only saw one fish caught the two hours I was fishing there.

Yes, SK. I threw my jig box at them, and as you know, I have a lot of jigs. Not as many as you but still a lot. Didn't matter, they would swim up to the jig, suspend for a minute or two, then swim away. Don't know what they were looking for as the minnow fishermen were not having any more luck than I was having. Finally got tired on tying on jigs and called it a morning.

Gonna be back out there tonight with a green light, to see if I can take the smell off from this morning. :Rofl

Sounds to me like you forgot the Slab Sauce [emoji846].
Sorry that you experienced one of my usual fishing trips.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

No, I had Slab Sauce and Crappie Nibbles. But I only had the brand of crappie nibbles sold by Wal-Mart instead of the good ones. That might have been the problem. :)

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Originally Posted by ezgoing

No, I had Slab Sauce and Crappie Nibbles. But I only had the brand of crappie nibbles sold by Wal-Mart instead of the good ones. That might have been the problem. :)

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I think I just read what the issue was......LOL
Those otherns just don't dissolve like crappie nibbles.... They work sometimes but not like most of the time on the real deal.....

These were given to me, tried them, didn't like them so stuck them in my tackle box for emergency use.

I have four more bottles of the good ones on order from Amazon, waiting for them to arrive. Somebody took the last bottle of real nibbles I had on my boat so I pulled these out of the tackle box since they were all I had. Looks as if I need to start locking up everything instead of just my electronics. My fishing net was missing tonight when I went to use it on the lake. Thought maybe had left it on the slip but it wasn't there when I returned to the slip.

Didn't catch many under the green light tonight but at least I got the smell of skunk off from this morning. :Rofl

Sorry to hear about your skunk! That usually happens to us at the start and end of each season, so it's coming for us yet! :) From your post, I'm gathering that you were vertical jigging? Or were you casting? When the wind kicks up, for us anyway, it usually improves the bite. Maybe they wanted the bait moving? Just a thought.

Berkley gulp brand is mighty hard to beat on a tough bite .
and going down to microsize jigs helps to .
sorry you got a racing stripe my friend .
the good news is this ......
lots of them left to ketch ...right? :Rofl

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Originally Posted by Crestliner08

Sorry to hear about your skunk! That usually happens to us at the start and end of each season, so it's coming for us yet! :) From your post, I'm gathering that you were vertical jigging? Or were you casting? When the wind kicks up, for us anyway, it usually improves the bite. Maybe they wanted the bait moving? Just a thought.

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The answer to your question is "yes". While I prefer vertical jigging when the bite gets tough I also cast and retrieve back through the area. I will also cast out, holding my rod tip high and let the lure slowly drop back into the fish holding area. I vary my presentation from dead still to moving fast through the area, from swimming the jig around the fish to hitting them with the jig when they refuse to take notice of it. I will allow the jig to slowly drop through them, slowly move up through them, move in circles around them, just about anything I can make the jig do when trying to get them to bite.

I certainly hope this did not signal the end of my fishing season, as my normal fishing season lasts 12 months a year. :) A slight wind helps. But when the wind is enough to produce waves that rock the boat it is difficult to feel the bite on the size jigs I prefer. However I went all the way up to 1/8 oz without any results. The crappie were simply in a negative mood and nothing I did would entice them to bite. If I hit them with the jig or pulled it through them they would simply move out of the way or scatter.

I tried again last night under the green light and caught a few. I went to the brush and bridge pillars that were loaded with fish yesterday morning, to find them awol last night. The green light pulled in plenty of bait fish but very few larger fish. I called it a night after three hours of very slow action.

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

Berkley gulp brand is mighty hard to beat on a tough bite .
and going down to microsize jigs helps to .
sorry you got a racing stripe my friend .
the good news is this ......
lots of them left to ketch ...right? :Rofl

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I always show you plenty of fish to catch. But the catching can be the problem, and as always, the catching or not catching part is up to you to handle. :Rofl

sometimes ketchn crappie is quite the challenge , rather finicky creatures , i know all to often a certain something you do is the ONLY way to get bit and if you vary it by a frog hair its over with . :cheers2

And here I was thinking that I had angered the crappie gods on the days I could not buy a bite. :Rofl

I don't remember my last skunk but it's came close a few times this summer..... This summer has been the absolute worst for catchn good crappie for me and I usually call summer my best season.....
I've gotta make up for lost limits now as they're finally settling down on a few of my piles....