A "Black" Sunny Day

[eyepatrol]

Holy smokes! You can't ask for any better weather to be out on the water! What a day!

My wife, 3.5yr old son and I hit an area lake for some mid-day panfish action and were able to tie into some black crappies. We started fishing around 11:00am and were on the water until ~2:30pm. All in all we caught ~30 black crappies from 6" - 10" in shallow water. Had the boat out in 4' and cast into 1'-2' of very murky water. Used a black/chart. combo stub grub paddletail on a 1/32oz chart./white collarless jighead. No meat on the hook today.

Fish were very agressive pulling the bobber down or smacking it upwards causing the bobber to lay down. I did all the casting and hook-setting while my son did all the reeling. He sure did have a good time out there. And he's so polite about catching fish too. Everytime we caught one and put it in it's rightful place (back in the lake or livewell) he'd say "More Please!". Dad did his best to get more.

Water surface temps were generally around 56 - 57 degrees, but we found a spot where it was 64 and that's where the action was at.

Nothing huge of course, but great fun nonetheless to see my son do battle with the fish. He caught on to lipping the fish pretty quickly too and was holding'em like a pro after a few.

Went to my folks' house afterwards and caught some bullheads hand over fist with my son and 1.5yr old daughter. Had a bonfire with hotdogs & smores and topped the day off in style!

Simply an awesome day!

[hawkeye43]

Life has been very good to you lately, basscatcher. enjoy your time with the kids, it payes big rewards

[Team Otter]

I bet those first few hook sets were "extra aggressive".

Congrats. It sure was a nice day. Personally, I got the yard work out of the way because there won't be alot of time for that from now until mid-November.

[harvey lee]

A slow day for sure. DTRO and myself hit the lake at approx. 9am and picked up some crappies and from then on it was really slow. We caught a variety of fish from crappies, sunnies, bass and sheephead. All our fish came on plastics from 10.5 to 11.4 fow.

The water temps were from 59.4 to 60.3. I would guess that my favorite haunts will be on fire with an increase of 5 degrees in water temps.

Eric, where did you pick up those bullies and how what size were they as far as lenght? I need some flathead bait.

All they bites were next to nothing and not many were very aggressive at all.

[eyepatrol]

It sure does Ken. My boy and I tried it again today on another lake, but no such luck on the crappies. I concentrated on water from 1' - 6' deep. Did run into a few sporadic 8" 'gills, but sporadic is the key word.

It won't be long now. I didn't see much weed growth anywhere yet. Last year that was key to my success on the crappies.

[eyepatrol]

The "natural instincts" took over and the hook sets weren't too much like a pro bassman!

Next week's get-together should be interesting.

[eyepatrol]

Tom,

Those bullies came right out of my parent's backyard on Titloe. They ranged from 4" up to nearly 12". Most were in the 6" - 8" range though.

Let me know if you need some. We were getting fish every 20-30 seconds.

By the way....I don't know what it was like when you & DTRO left, but man was that launch crazy!

[DTro]

Yep, that launch reminded me why I stay on the river

I'll take some of those bullies. When can I come?

[Muddog]

If you want Bullheads, fish behind Geldners saw Mill. From 9-10am the Crappies bite. Gills too. I am sure you can get the right size Catfish bait.

[eyepatrol]

DTRO - you and Tom just let me know when you'd like to come and we'll head down there. You or Tom can e-mail me at [email protected] if you want.

[Team Otter]

I was thinking more of a "sturgeon set".