11-25-2009, 10:00 AM
I have to apologize to Labman for getting with him late. I called him at a few minutes before 10am and his wife got him out of the shower to talk with me. I picked him up at around 10:30 at Chester Frost and we had a great day from there. We had been talking about fishing offshore structure and had planned to find some new spots to fish. The first thing we did was get out the map and decide the area to check. We started in the Chester Frost area and it took a while to find the sweet spot on the structure but when we did we were onto some really good fish. Almost every fish at that spot went over 13 inches. We had used a system using the GPS and buoys and were really surprised. We had such good success on that spot we decided to look at the map to find something similar in another creek. We decided on a spot and ran up the lake. We found the spot and threw out a buoy and the second cast Labman had a 13.5 incher. We stayed there and caught a few more good fish including a 15 incher. We also had a 15.5 inch bass off that spot. The fish weren't as plentiful on that spot but there were some good ones. When the fish stopped biting there we went to some vertical cover next to the channel and caught quite a few at a 12 to 24 count. Labman knew some spots that had held some fish close by and we fished that area for a few minutes and he picked up 3 or 4 but I couldn't catch one there. The fish stopped there and we ran back down the river to a spot that Labman had fished and caught a few more nice ones. We then fished a nearby bluff and I hooked a nice spot over 15 inches. The light was getting low and we decided to run back to Chester Frost and see if we could reproduce the catches at the offshore area there. We ran there, threw out a buoy and I will let Labman tell yo what happened next. It got dark and the fish quit biting but I learned a great deal today. We fished all new water to me and ended up with 31 good keepers in the livewell, including a couple of TARPs, all released after I let Labman off on the dock. We had somewhere between 15 and 20 others that we didn't put in the livewell. Yes, we did break the law in that we had more than our limits in the livewell but all were let go to fight again. One offshore spot was 16 feet on top and it took about a 36 count with a 1/16 ozer to hit bottom. The other offshore spot was about 12 feet deep and took about a 24 count to hit bottom. That of course is with 6lb test Mr. crappie. My count is a bit faster than a second per count. The fish on brush and docks were at about an 8 count with a 1/32 ozer and a 6 count with a 1/16ozer. It was a fantastic day of finding new offshore fish! Thanks Labman for the great time and fellowship. God really blessed us today!