A crappie outing

[Fishermanbt]

I played hooky from work and buck season last Wednesday. With temperatures forecasted to be in the upper 50’s and light NE breeze I had to go look for some walleye and mainly some panfish. After repairing the broke kayak seat pin that holds the back rest on I was at the lake by 7:00am and 28°. The next hurdle was the lake had dropped a few feet more since my last outing. I’m guessing 17-20’ below summer pool now. I walk the kayak about 15’ dwn tebank and waded ankle deep mud for about 5’ and got the kayak in the water. Pushed off, dropped the rudder and pedal drive and off I went. Only to realize I broke my rudder cable so I had no steering. Now that me and the yak are covered in mud I used half a paddle to drag steer while I was pedaling 3/4 mile to my honey hole.

After a half hour of a sold 5mph east wind it died down. With my favorite hand made/painted lure I started picking up a few 8”crappie. Followed by random small perch and bluegill.  It seemed the fish were spread out over a small area on a brush flat holding at 14’ in 17’ of water. I could not find anything where it dropped off to 20+ feet. Then I started hammering the 12” crappie consistently. Probably my best day ever on 12” numbers.

Now, rest of the story. Off the water I had to drag the yak and myself back through the mud. I ended up going to the car wash before going home. Thanksgiving morning I awoke to severe back pain. Saturday I over did it changing oil in the vehicles and suffered all day Sunday with spasms in my back. Went to the doctor as soon as they opened this morning (yep, missed work again) got two shots in the buttocks and a muscle relaxer scrip. I’m ready to do it again as soon as the weather breaks.

[senkosam]

Nice report!
 Sometimes sh** happens and ya gotta take the good with the bad. example:
One day last week was one to remember:
After I launched the boat, the rope that secured the boat to the trailer came loose and there goes the boat drifting into open water. In this case the wind blew the boat back toward the dock and I was able to grab it. I hadn't even got into the boat and this happened!

The weather forecast said it was supposed to be a partly sunny day with only a 5-10 mph wind. When I got to the lake, a 15 mph wind blew from the north gusting to 20 mph. At first fish locations were not easy to locate especially in weeds spread over 80% of the lake. (Those weeds will be gone in 2 weeks.) I Caught a few in them but figured to give deep water a try before giving up. Good choice: fish were schooled or grouped in 9-12' and mostly quality size crappie with a few sunfish were caught. The weeds where 5' high according to the sonar leaving a clean water gap to the surface. Over 50 fish were caught.

But then it clouded up and I heard thunder in the distance. Sure enough it started to rain but not heavy and fortunately I brought the raincoat. Once it stopped, the sun came out and the wind died.

More bad: The camera shutter wouldn't open unless I used a finger to slide it open after I powered it on.  After that, I dropped the camera on the boat floor and the power on-button came off. I had a b**** of a time getting it back on. I figured, what else could go wrong?:

The handle on my spinning reel (the cross handle) came loose and I heard it drop into the bottom of my aluminum boat.  Couldn't find it but I still caught fish on it. 
Because of the wind, wind tangles kept happening at the end guide of the rod, which is one disadvantage of using braid and light lures and casting into the wind. So, what else could happen?!!

On the way home, I looked into my rear view and noticed the raincoat, which should have been secured, fly out of the back of the boat. Pulled the truck to the side and walked up the hill 50 yds to get it. At least the cars that ran over it didn't damage it.

At least the fishing was good!