Finally....

[ctom]

I finally got the boat down to my local crappie lake this morning in search of something that wanted to come out and play. The crappies were definitely on that list. Post cold-front, cold water and WIND made the bite tough. The water was still pretty cool, between 46 and 48 degrees. I had one nice black crappie follow a bait all the way to the boat and it made a couple passes when I stopped the retrieve to tease it. It just would not hit. I slipped a waxie on with the plastic and got a couple casts right back in the pocket where I first saw the fish but that didn't do any good either.

I was ready to give in to the wind after about 2 hours when I noticed my float acting like the bait was on bottom....where it should not have been on bottom...and found a really nice largemouth hanging onto the small fry. Purple/chartreuse tail of course. 17-1/2". Not bad for a bass this early. I had the camera...in the van...just in case I got some silver sides that wanted to pose at dock-side, but the bass wasn't in season so no pictures. 

It was nice to hit this lake and relax a little while fishing. The big river has pushed its limits with me this spring and now I'll wait until the crappies start spawning and I'll do the big river backwaters with top-water baits for the buckets. Frogs too.

[DF]

 Got out in my canoe for the first time last week. I didn't catch anything, but I wasn't trying to hard. It was nice just to hear the slap of the water on the sides of the boat again.

[ctom]

With the 30+ mph wind we have today there would be some serious slap. lol

[DF]

 I hear ya.  its blowing like crazy here. The wind keeps me from fishing more than any other weather.

[ctom]

I had a window this morning that let me hit the lake for a couple nice hours. No wind to start off but at 8:30 it was like someone flipped a switch. Our recent rains have put a choke-hold on water temps coming up. Today 55 degrees was tops, but the weather says rain is not likely and we should approach 80 today so the water temps are certainly going to move uphill.

Purple/chartreuse tail anything got fish today. I ran thru a bunch of other colors and they were pretty inert. Switch back to the purp and bang. No doubt or question about the hits.

I kept 5 nice crappies for supper tonight. These were 12.25" average. Nice fish and a nice meal in the offing. They were still fairly deep today with those nicer fish coming at about 5 feet down. Smaller fish were caught higher up but not many dink fish this morning. A pair of 13s went back in the water, both males and taking on some color already.

[ctom]

A friend and I hit the lake today and were not disappointed with the crappie action. Not lots, not huge, but fun none the less.

In spite of the 64 degree water the fish could not be found shallow at all. We needed to focus on at least 12 feet or water and at least 4 feet deep to get a crappie. Purple/chartreuse, bluegill/chartreuse....the two king-pin colors.

I'll stay home for the holiday and let the nuts have at the water. When we headed off the lake there were already a couple boat-loads of jerks that needed some enforcement attention. The weekend will be a zoo.