Fishing Forum

I've been a busy little beaver this February. I can't believe I haven't made a pre-spawn crappie foray... until today!<br /><br />Hit the water with friends Ed McCoy (CFF's enmreal) and Nathan Beard. We were flying blind on our first day out but we headed directly to the spot where we left 'em biting last year. emoSmile <br /><br />Yep... they were still there. emoApplause <br /><br />It wasn't an "OMG" scenario, but the bite was much better than we honestly expected it to be. We used our standard, "go to" pre-spawn methodology. Long-line trolling 1/16th oz. tube jigs (or Road Runners) on 4 lb. test line at 0.8 mph (give or take). We found most of our fish around bait balls, suspended 10 - 15 feet deep in 20 feet of water. We did try one shallow water area... 8 - 10 feet. It didn't produce numbers but it did produce our biggest fish.<br /><br />We fished 5.5 hours. We had 28 keepers and guesstimated that we caught 40-50 throwbacks. We had much camaraderie and got home safely (with crappie filets); which of course means "Life is good and gettin' better every day!"<br />