Thanksgiving Reports 2017 - "Back in the Saddle Again"

[Crappie Buster]

It had been too long since I'd gone fishing. The boat had been sitting on the trailer for nearly 3 months!!! That's probably the longest I've gone without wetting a hook in a decade. With deer sightings getting less frequent and the weather turning off cold I made the decision it was time to rig the boat for spider rigging and hit the water.

Day 1: 11/17/17 - Lake Wateree
My Dad joined me the Friday before Thanksgiving for a Lake Wateree adventure. Conditions were perfect, a little cold to start off with light winds and it warmed up nicely by lunch time. We dropped my oldest daughter off at daycare on the way and started fishing about 8:30 AM (Man, how things are different having young kids). We were met with the usual Wateree Fog at the ramp. We started out close to the ramp in a hole we've had success in years past, but found the fishing to be tough. We marked a few fish, but couldn't get many takers. After boating a couple foreign species (catfish, perch, ect.) and a lone crappie, we pulled lines and made a run. Spot #2 was a little better, but still not many takers. Plenty of fish were showing up on the graph, but the bites were light and infrequent. We made one more run before calling it quits at 2 PM with only 6 crappie to show for our efforts. It was still a fun trip and it was nice to get back on the water with my Dad. Although numbers were down, what we caught were good fish. Fish were caught near the bottom in 18 FOW on minnows.





Day 2: 11/22/17 - Lake Wateree
On Thanksgiving Eve I went back to Wateree. This time an old college buddy met me at the ramp. Wateree is about the half way point for us so we typically try to meet up and fish over there a couple times a year. It'd been a while since we'd seen each other and each of us had plenty to talk about. The fishing was slow again, but we hammered on the pattern I figured out Friday and wound up with a pretty good catch. Once again, fish were related to the bottom in 17-20 FOW and minnows were the key. We fished from 7:30 AM - 2 PM and brought home 16 nice crappie. The bite was still light, but when we stuck one it was a good un'. Our top 7 weighed 10.5 lbs and our big fish was 1.66lb. My oldest daughter joined in the fun when I got home and helped me clean them. We didn't wear them out, but the fellowship and cutting up with my old friend filled the voids between catches!







Day 3: 11/26/17 - Lake Murray
With the recent action on Wateree, I jumped at the opportunity yesterday morning to take a solo trip to Murray. In years past, November on Murray has been very hit or miss so I wasn't sure what to expect. Normally the fish are in transition from brush to open water forage so I decided to stick to spider rigging as my pattern. I got a late start and started fishing about 9 AM. I found the fishing to be outstanding in the numbers department, but quality fish were no where to be found. I went through the better part of 1/2 lb of minnows and I know I caught at least 80 crappie. I fished a couple different areas and each resulted in the same size fish. Fish were caught in 8-23 FOW fishing 6-16 foot down. I caught a few fish in open water, but the majority of fish were relating to brush and cover. It was still a lot of fun to go catching after the slower trips to Wateree. I weeded through my catch to find 12 crappie and a couple perch to bring home for the dinner table. The crappie that were kept were between 9-10". We have a running joke about our fishing cleaning conversations....when we catch big ones we go on and on about what nice fish they are.....when we catch little ones we go on and on about how the little ones are the best eating hahah. I will say this, I fried them hand-sized fish up last night with some taters and that was some of the best eating I've had in some time.



That pretty much wraps up my week of fishing. It was a very enjoyable week with family and friends with lots of good food on the table. I enjoyed my time away from work and I'm looking forward to Christmas. We have so much to be thankful for around my house these days. Our two little girls are growing faster than I would have ever imagined and the Good Lord keeps providing us with plenty of deer and fish for the table. It won't be long, before I'll have a permanent side-kick in the boat with my oldest daughter. She loves her some fish!!! And I almost forgot.... GO TIGERS!!!!!!!! Not quite the game I expected, but I'll take them like that every day. It was pretty obvious at my house who the big man upstairs was pulling for....he gave us a beautiful sunset Saturday night and my little girls were decked out for the game.