Fishing Forum

On a windy afternoon like we had today, it is best to fish alone. That way your partner won't feel front ended by me having to point the nose of the boat directly into the wind in order to stay on a spot that has crappie on it. I dropped a reference buoy and fanned cast until I found where the fish were in relationship to the marker. Then all I had to do was keep the nose into the wind and slowly work back and forth over the structure.<br /><br />I kept the boat in 20 to 23 feet of water and shot my jigs up into 8 feet of water and slowly worked the jig back down the slope. Most fish were deep and the bite was subtle most of the time, but I did have a few just hammer the jig. Water temps were 73.6 were I was, but I did find some water about 76 in one starting slough. No fish for me in that slough, so on to old faithful.<br /><br />The wind was so strong, that when I would stop to net the fish and then take the jig out and put it in the livewell, that I would be 50 yards off target and have to put my trollling motor into rabbit gear just to get back to the marker buoy. I hung the buoy a couple of times and that isn't good. emoBang <br /><br />I caught fish on every color that I tried today, and again, the Ghastly Minnow slab slayer was tops before I hung it up and broke it off. Whenever I would lost a jig, I would just change colors. Yellburt sort of inspired me the other day by changing colors so much. I caught something on every color that I tried. Ghastly Minnow, Outlaw Special, Albino, Green Hornet, Screamer, Roly Poly Minnow Minder, Silverfish Minnow Minder and I think that that is all that I tried. If I tried something else, I caught a fish on it.<br /><br />I landed 17 crappie of which 14 were keepers. My 3rd TARP came into the boat about 20 minutes after I started fishing. Almost got more as these fish were quality. I like catching numbers of little crappie, but nothing beats those 13.75" beasts that I was catching today. I only brought home 1 fish that was under 12 and it was over 11". I had 3 throwback crappie along with one small spotted bass and 1 bluegill. Super day. I may go again tomorrow afternoon if T-storms don't come through. emoBig emoGeezer