Sundays trip to HAWGtown....................

[The Mountain Man]

2013 is starting out with a bang ! Got out Saturday and Sunday both with my friend Vernon. Bites were scarce on Saturday, picked up a mixed bag of small crappies, bass and pickerel and not many of either. No perch, not a one. I’m having some fun with that silver buddy, see fish on the screen and drop it right on their heads, jig it a little and bang, fish on. Some big, some not so big, see crappie picture below. Saturday was a beautiful day to be on the water, even saw a deer swimming across the lake. Since bites were so few at our favorite lake, we were unsure where to go on Sunday but we sure picked the right place. We’ll call it HAWGtown. In no time Vernon hooks an 8 pounder. We saw huge balls of shad in deep water with big fish marks all around them so we switched gears and gave them a try. Spinnerbaits, crankbaits and swimbaits did the job. For a couple of hours we had a blast. We caught just 7 of em but Vernon gets his personal best, a huge fish that pegged the scale right at 10 pounds. Who don’t like one like that ? He started with an 8, then got a 7 and then the big 10, then I got an 8, he gets a 6 and finished with a 4. It ended with three citations for him and one for me. Any day with four citations ain’t bad. They ain’t crappie but man o man they pull good. And I’m fishing so I can feel that tug. I had one that pulled off, had to be bigger than the 8+ I caught. Like hooking into a freight train. And yes we did too crappie fish, I caught about a dozen small crappie vertical jigging that silver buddy, I’m getting better with it and its fun too. Here is a picture so this is about crappie and if the others offend you, then don’t look past picture # 1. A couple crappie bit my minners but with all that shad in the water they hit the silver buddy better than the minners. Water temp was 42-44 and all the fish came from 25-30 feet deep, that big un had mud on her fins. And a shad tail about 3 inches wide sticking out its gullet. A day to remember, seven fish, about 48 pounds worth. We released them all, how many can say they threw back a 10 pounder. I’ve thrown two back in my life and now Vernon has once. We’ll be headed back to HAWGtown Wednesday.
Good luck if you get to go.

well heres a crappie



First fish of the day


solid 8 pounds


I get lucky too


bigger belly than mine.........

10 pounds of meat here