02-05-2012, 10:00 AM
The rain wasn't coming down so had to get out for a fix. Put in at the dam at 11 and ran upriver, stopped at one of the marinas to see if I could catch a couple of crappie. Nothing happening except a small bluegill and big golden shiner. Decided to throw a shaky head on the way out and second cast, thunk, fish on. These fish think it's spring, 4ft of water and the thing came out of the water at least 6 times. Solid 5.7 lbr, had to put it on the scales twice to make sure, thing was a healthy football. Headed upriver to try some deeper water stuff as it is winter. My main river fish aren't there… last year at this time I could catch 20 good ones a day, this year the water is too warm and they are scattered everywhere but not on the main river breaks. Followed the gulls and the bait but can't figure out how to make them bite. The shad are there by the billions, the big arches are there underneath them, but I'm not smart enough to get them to bite. Got fed up with that and headed to a couple surefire crappie docks to catch a couple for dinner… well the crappie weren't there but the golden shiners were… I caught at least a dozen of them on 1/32 BG jigs before giving up. Headed back down river and went back to throwing the shaky in backwater areas and got 2 more bass, one pushing 3 lbs and another little keeper. Stopped at a buddy's marina as the rain started to bs and have a beer, we caught 7 or 8 little crappie walking around his docks, none of them were keepers and all but one were white crappie.