3,705 crappie later.

[TapOut64]

2012 turned out to be my best year fishing for crappie by far. 3,705 crappie were pulled into my boat on 68 trips. (Not too bad for a working man who can only fish on weekends and holiday/vacation days.) Of those, 133 were at 1lb or better, (normally 12.5" or so) with 4 of those being citations. (2 by length, 2 by weight) I also had 7 days catching over 100 crappie with my best day for numbers on March 25, when I caught 206 small ones at Burnt Mills. (I always use a clicker and count every crappie)

I fished on 9 different bodies of water, Burnt Mills, Western Branch, Lake Prince, Cahoon, Meade, Buggs, Northwest River, Northlanding River, and Chick Lake.

2012 crushed my previous best when I caught 2,120 crappie in 2011. The big change I made was no longer using minnows. (I last used minnows on Feb. 18) I hang two poles over the side with wasshoppah's tipped with crappie nibbles and focus on casting one rod. I find it a much easier decision to pull in my poles and make a move to hopefully more productive water. When I was spider rigging I found it a hassle to make a move so I would stay in an unproductive area longer than I should have. I also feel that casting a jig produces better results as you are covering a larger area. (only limited by how far you can cast) Also, when the crappie are not hitting minnows, putting a different minnow on your hook will not make a difference whereas you can always try a different jig color as your choices are just about endless.

I also had great luck with Kalin's Money jig. I caught the largest percentage of the crappie with this jig.

[CoopTheCrappieKiller]

That's awesome that you kept track! what your biggest crappie & what best catch far as # of keepers?

[wasabi]

Very interesting post. Glad you had such a great year.

[Flatwater]

WOW! That is a great year! I hope you get that 3# Crappie in 2013!!

[Ranger690]

Sweet! I can only imagine how many you could have caught if you had the reel handles on the correct side

[TapOut64]

That's awesome that you kept track! what your biggest crappie & what best catch far as # of keepers?

I only keep track of crappie that are 1lb or more, I have no idea how many were "keeper" size (9"? 10"?) or more. I will not bring a crappie home unless it is at least 1lb. I do not like to fillet crappie less than that. My biggest crappie is 2lb 9oz. I got two of them on successive years, one was 16" and the other 16.25". Both were caught long lining a Bobby Garland Baby Shad tipped with a minnow. (one was Cajun Cricket, the other black/pink)

[Percidae_Papermouth]

Very Respectable Stats George!

[TapOut64]

Sweet! I can only imagine how many you could have caught if you had the reel handles on the correct side

Dayton, you're a funny guy. Good to have you frequenting the forums again.

[Barnacle Bill]

That was some year. I always have liked using a minnow on my jig.

[ekim22]

Those are stats that I'd bet someone at the DNR would appreciate seeing. They post pdf's of their shock surveys on the website. Those stats look similar to what they post and your sampling frequency was much higher!