02-13-2004, 07:35 PM
This is the story of how I caught my first Crappie.
Being from Utah I was raised on catching trout, In fact, it wasn't until a few years ago that I even tried to catch anything else. So one fine spring day last year I was sent by my employer to a training seminar held at a local hotel. Well, during the morning break I followed some people outside for some fresh air and discovered a fairly large pond behind the building. Naturally I was attracted to the water and started looking around. The water was very off color so I couldn't tell if there were any fish but as I walked past a small boat dock I noticed a small dead fish floating under it but I couldn't tell what kind it was. So I thought that if there was one dead one there must be more right? Well as luck would have it I didn't have any fishing rods in my car but as I was about to leave after the class was over I remembered I had my fly fishing chest pack in the trunk. So after everyone else left I got my gear, walked out on the boat dock, tied on a beadhead woolly bugger onto a spool of tippet and started jigging it next to the dock. I didn't get any bites at first but as I moved to the end of the dock I started catching fish on every "cast". I was having a blast catching these small but hard fighting Crappie until something the size of a dinner plate came up and grabbed my fly just under the surface and broke off my 5# line! I wasn't expecting that! So I got out a spool of 10# line, tied on a new fly and kept fishing. After a few more small fish I had given up hope of the big fish coming back and was about to leave when I got another hard hit and pulled up a Crappie that was 13" long and just about as wide. It still wasn't nearly as big as the first one but it was the biggest pan fish I've ever caught. All in all it was the most fun I've ever had while doing anything that had to do with work.
FM
[signature]
Being from Utah I was raised on catching trout, In fact, it wasn't until a few years ago that I even tried to catch anything else. So one fine spring day last year I was sent by my employer to a training seminar held at a local hotel. Well, during the morning break I followed some people outside for some fresh air and discovered a fairly large pond behind the building. Naturally I was attracted to the water and started looking around. The water was very off color so I couldn't tell if there were any fish but as I walked past a small boat dock I noticed a small dead fish floating under it but I couldn't tell what kind it was. So I thought that if there was one dead one there must be more right? Well as luck would have it I didn't have any fishing rods in my car but as I was about to leave after the class was over I remembered I had my fly fishing chest pack in the trunk. So after everyone else left I got my gear, walked out on the boat dock, tied on a beadhead woolly bugger onto a spool of tippet and started jigging it next to the dock. I didn't get any bites at first but as I moved to the end of the dock I started catching fish on every "cast". I was having a blast catching these small but hard fighting Crappie until something the size of a dinner plate came up and grabbed my fly just under the surface and broke off my 5# line! I wasn't expecting that! So I got out a spool of 10# line, tied on a new fly and kept fishing. After a few more small fish I had given up hope of the big fish coming back and was about to leave when I got another hard hit and pulled up a Crappie that was 13" long and just about as wide. It still wasn't nearly as big as the first one but it was the biggest pan fish I've ever caught. All in all it was the most fun I've ever had while doing anything that had to do with work.
FM
[signature]
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